Stephen Harper's Excruciatingly Embarrassing Supreme Court Fiasco

Gawd. I bet I know how Stephen Harper is spending the May Two-Four weekend eh?

Trying to build up his courage to say sorry to the Chief Justice for smearing her so viciously, like a thug or a maniac.

And hoping that nobody noticed how he jinxed the Montreal Canadien's first game against the New York Rangers...



Thanks Steve. 

But of course getting people to forget that embarrassing moment, will be a cinch compared to getting them to forget the scandalous way he treated the Chief Justice...



Because it was a monstrous eruption, it is a Supreme spat.

Political leaders have often come into conflict with the judicial branch of the government, but they don't usually break out in the open. Stephen Harper's veiled suggestion that Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada, did something unseemly in placing a call to his Minister of Justice, is without modern precedent.

He did behave like a ghastly bully. 

Or an ANIMAL...



Defecating shamelessly on our laws and our values.

The chorus of condemnation has been DEAFENING. 

The BC Trial Lawyers' Association calls the prime minister's criticism "baseless and smacks of political bullying." Eleven former presidents of the Canadian Bar Association and the Council of Canadian Law Deans, have demanded Mr. Harper withdraw his suggestion that the Chief acted improperly. This past week more than 650 lawyers, in an open letter, criticized Mr. Harper and called upon him to withdraw his comments.

If he doesn't withdraw his baseless smear, the situation can only fester.

Because of her position, the Chief Justice is constrained from saying too much about the controversy. Because of his personality, the Prime Minister is not planning to say very much either. Which means this important issue, this open sore, between the judiciary and the executive will continue to fester.

And so shocking is his behaviour, some are even questioning whether he's still fit to remain in office...



Theo Moudakis/Toronto Star

Or whether he's finally lost his marbles.

Because just admitting that he lied about that foul fiasco isn't enough. 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has revised his version of events around what he and his office first characterized as an “inappropriate” and “inadvisable” phone call by the country’s top judge over a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

He must also say he's sorry.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems to be edging back from his reckless and indefensible attack on the chief justice of Canada’s Supreme Court, Beverley McLachlin. As the Star’s Tonda McCharles reported this past week, he now says he simply didn’t need to speak to McLachlin about a court appointment, rather than rejecting such a conversation as “inappropriate” and “inadvisable.” 

What Harper has not yet done – and what he must do without delay – is definitively clear the air of any suggestion that McLachlin acted wrongly by offering her input to the government on issues that might arise in a potential appointment.

Because only by admitting he was wrong, and doing some SERIOUS grovelling, can this sordid scandal be resolved.

The lingering accusation of impropriety has cast a shadow over the court and raised troubling questions about the relationship between the government and the judiciary. It was Harper who created this completely unnecessary squabble. Only he can end it – by once and for all withdrawing his insinuations about Canada’s top judge.

But of course that won't be easy for a man like Stephen Harper who doesn't like to admit he's wrong about ANYTHING.

And the good news is the longer he delays doing the right thing the worse he will look.

Probably even worse than he'll look at the end of the Two-Four weekend...




Because this scandal is all about Harper, the man and his vices.

That's why it's so devastating.

And it's just what I'm always saying eh?

Give the tyrant enough rope, or enough booze, AND a dynamite issue.

And he'll destroy himself...



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