Judicial Activism is destroying Canadian society

Judicial Activism: A Threat to Democracy and Religion.
Edited by Fr. Alphonse de Valk, Life Ethics Information Centre, $19.95 165 pages
Reviewed by Paul Tuns, editor of The Interim

It has become increasingly apparent in recent years, and impossible to ignore in recent months, that Canada is not a democracy. We are ruled by nine robed dictators on the Supreme Court and numerous miniature versions of them across the country.

In Canada, the courts have become the primary social policy-making branch of government, taking it upon themselves to make, instead of merely interpret, law. So, the question is: why have the courts usurped Parliament’s role? The answer to that question – and many others – is found in the new book, Judicial Activism: A Threat to Democracy and Religion.

Judicial Activism is a collection of 17 essays, columns and speeches that have appeared in Catholic Insight magazine over the past four years. Edward McBride, a professor emeritus of political science at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, contributes two essays. The first begins the book and explains how we came to the point of judge-made law. In short, he says, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms opened the pandora’s box of judicial activism by creating a political, social and legal environment in which the courts would ultimately decide social policy through the re-interpretation and creation of law.  (more...)

Judicial Activism is destroying Canadian society