Rex Murphy: Row leaks wouldn’t matter to us if Canada had its own legal system

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It was a terrible idea to combine our laws with the laws of the United States.

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An even worse idea of ​​merging our two national court systems, so that whatever messes up the larger American system would automatically and irreversibly shake the foundations of our laws and conventions.

Oh, we had kept the two systems separate. How much calmer and more orderly Canadian law will be today.

It turns out that many of our great thinkers and public figures who, from the birth of our Confederation, have argued that Canada would be a better place if our country struggled against imitation or juxtaposition of the American model, were right.

We should have fought more seriously to become a fully independent nation, and never allow one of the key institutions of our democracy to imitate the “addition” of the American system.

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We should have fought more seriously to be completely free

We are witnessing a vivid, completely unknown example of this that caused uproar in several newsrooms across the country and in Canada’s parliament on Tuesday in the wake of news of the “leak” of a draft opinion from the US Supreme Court. topic of abortion.

I don’t think I need to argue that if our laws and courts really would have been different, if they weren’t by history and precedent, with the people of the United States so deeply and irrevocably entangled, That leak of the US draft opinion would be of no consequence to a Supreme Court judge in Canada here.

It just won’t matter. We will be like the courts of other countries, where there is no storm in their legislatures or their media.

Take Norway for example. The prime minister of that nation felt no need to stand in his parliament and issue a dire warning about “a woman’s right to choose”, because, of course, Norwegian courts are bound by the decisions or practices of American courts. are not. Norway has a separate, separate legal system.

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The same was true in a host of other countries. Britain and most European countries had a normal day. They have no concern about what is happening in the US Supreme Court because their courts and legal systems are in no way bound by what happens in the US High Court – either as leaks or outright decisions.

Canada – as we saw from the response of Justin Trudeau, his fellow in the regime, Jagmeet Singh, and a host of television and newspapers – is different. Clearly our laws have to withstand a strong wind when a pulsation – eg, a leak – from the US also happens.

It was all very dramatic, statements from cabinet ministers, vows to “uphold women’s rights”, serious discussions on afternoon news programs on “what this means” for Canadian women. Very serious and disturbing thing.

The headlines gave a voice of distress. Liberals are looking to the Canada Health Act to properly protect abortion: Trudeau. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland issued a scathing warning: “All Canadians – especially all Canadian women who care about a woman’s right to choose – need to be proactive, alert and speaking out.”

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Could it be that this crisis for the sake of crisis, as it appears from these statements and so many others, will provide another opportunity for the Declaration of Emergency Act? To use that radical law with its unlimited powers to build some kind of temporary wall or shield against the Americanization of Canadian jurisprudence?

Or is it too late? Have the horses left the barn? Have the hounds slipped their leash? Is “the cake (which takes so long to bake) left out in the rain?” I feel so scared.

If only Canada had, from the very beginning, completely separated our system of law, our courts, our legal practices, and precedents from the American system, this crisis would never have come upon us.

If the Canadian legal system didn’t owe anything to the American legal system, we wouldn’t even talk about it.

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It is too late? Have the horses left the barn?

Our leaders would have been saved from their panic, Canadian women would have been spared their immediate warnings.

Because if Canada had its own legal system, what happened in the states recently, still leaked without investigation, would have no relevance to Canadian politics.

none whatsoever. And we can tackle our problems instead. Our broken health care system. The deplorable lack of potable drinking water on the First Nations. Crazy debts and losses. Inflation and cost of living.

What a good thing the Canadian government would be dealing with Canada’s issues. But, under current understanding, it is certainly a “dream of foolishness and expectation”.

What a shame!

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