Justice Russell Brown is off the bench and Prime Minister Trudeau is surely glad..The BC-born conservative judge was the only one on the bench both born and raised west of Ontario. Harper was brilliant to appoint the former Alberta Court of Appeal judge to the Supreme Court of Canada on August 25, 2015. Brown was not quite 50 at the time, set to make a quarter-century of thoughtful, conservative-leaning, constitution-respecting decisions. On June 12 this year, he resigned..Brown’s unraveling began January 28 at a high-end resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. Former Canadian SCC judge Louse Arbour was being given the annual Sandra Day O’Connor prize and Brown gave a speech on her behalf. Afterwards, many attendees made their way to the lounge bar. Before the night was done, Brown got fists to the face from ex-Marine Jon Crump..Crump and his friends came to the bar at 11 pm after a baby shower. Crump left his table and while he was gone, a woman there invited Brown to join them. Crump, a 31-year-old mortgage adviser from Philadelphia, claimed that Brown walked back with the entourage as they were returning to their room..“I told him: ‘You’re clearly intoxicated and the girls are creeped out by you.’ He shoved me,” Crump told police. “I pushed him back, then punched him in the face twice and he fell to the ground.” Crump’s girlfriend called the police. She said Brown was creepy and another friend said the same thing..Crump later said, “When we looked him up and we saw pictures of him, we were like, he is actually a Supreme Court justice… How did that happen?”.Yes, how did that happen? How did a group of Americans pick out Canada’s most conservative judge, twice their age, to sit at their table, if he was supposedly a “drunk, creepy, unwanted male”?.A woman told police it was because Brown was wearing a tux..“I thought he was part of a wedding,” she said. “That's why I invited him over because I thought he was just like, yeah, we're all hanging out, you know?”.That makes no sense, but this is America, where right leaning-judges like Brett Kavanaugh have to endure dubious misconduct allegations worthy of countersuits. And if dead men told tales, the late conservative US SCC justice Antonin Scalia could explain why his body was found with a pillow over his face on a Texas ranch..Brown said he didn’t talk to Crump at the table, but after they left, “Crump objected to me rejoining the group and suddenly, without warning or provocation, punched me several times in the head. Taken by surprise, I was unable to defend myself.”.Brown, a former board chair of the Salvation Army in Edmonton, claimed Crump “falsely described me as the instigator” and contacted police an hour after the assault “in an apparent attempt to avoid facing the consequences of assaulting me.”.The officer, who arrived at 1:30 am to investigate, said Crump was “argumentative, hostile, antagonistic.” The officer was trying to find out why the man throwing the punches was the one calling police..Crump said, “Shut up dude. Just shut your mouth,” to which the officer replied, “You're about two seconds away from getting arrested for disorderly conduct.”.The police ruled no crime had occurred, so Crump complained to the Canadian Judicial Council. Brown’s lawyers, Brian Glover and Alexandra Heine later said the ”intoxicated and belligerent” instigator “weaponized Canada’s judicial discipline process.” They said surveillance video, evidence from the bartender, a recording of the 911 call, and reports by a private investigator demonstrated the allegations were “fraught with glaring contradictions, inaccuracies and embellishments.”.The lawyers also claimed the legal opinion of a former Arizona Supreme Court chief justice even said there was no basis for a complaint against Brown under state law and no justification for him being punched..Strangely, the Liberals had already introduced Bill C-9 on November 22 to clarify how to deal with complaints against judges. It is currently before the Senate..Brown, who has been suspended from the bench since February 1, said the ordeal had been hard on his family and his resignation would allow a full bench for important pending cases..Geoffrey Sigalet, director of the UBC Centre for Constitutional Law and Legal Studies, told The Hub that “Justice Russell Brown’s retirement constitutes an honourable act by an honourable man in a dishonourable process. Sigalet said Brown was ““one of the finest jurists on the Supreme Court” and no authority existed to place him on leave. The circumstance “sets a terrible precedent for how to handle future complaints and threatens judicial independence.”.Regrettably, this is not the first time allegations have sorted out a Trudeau opponent, as Edmonton-area lawyer Catherine Christensen told the National Citizens Inquiry in April..“General Vance was chief of defence staff when vaccines first emerged. He didn't bring in a mandate, and as you recall, he was removed under the cloud of a sexual misconduct allegation. Admiral McDonald then took his place. Within a few weeks, he was under a cloud of suspicion for sexual misconduct, because I've seen his briefing note, and it clearly states that he could not bring in a mandate….“General Fortin was in charge of vaccine rollout in Canada. I suspect he also said you couldn't bring out a mandate…So then we get General Fortin accused of sexual misconduct..“We then have General Eyre come in as acting CDS at the time. He's given a briefing note from General Cadieux that you can't do this basically. And General Cadieux is then accused of sexual misconduct. There's a real pattern there.”.Eyre implemented the vaccine mandate and was later granted permanent status as chief of defense staff. Rest assured, whoever takes Brown’s empty bench seat will be to Trudeau’s liking. That’s too bad because the prime minister is the one who really needs to be replaced.
