Lawyer and chartered accountant Jason Stephan is the United Conservative Party MLA for Red Deer South(This is part three of a multi-part series focused on increasing freedom and prosperity for Albertans)My duty is to seek freedom and prosperity for Alberta families and individuals, their businesses, and workers.At his first press conference in 2018 as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Richard Wagner reportedly boasted that his court was "the most progressive in the world" with a leadership role to play in promoting "moral values."He sounds like Justin Trudeau.Many are losing faith in a progressive justice system. Why is this so?.MCMILLAN: To hell with the east, we want to be released.Is it because we see a "revolving door," with individuals arrested only to be released on bail so they can re-offend? Or because some committing crimes are getting off without consequences, while those defending themselves or their families or properties from criminals are themselves charged with crimes for doing so?During COVID, this Wagner called the Freedom Convoy "forced blows against the state, justice, and democratic institutions," which should be "denounced with force by all figures of power."Did he talk to Trudeau — who abused his power using the Emergencies Act as a political tool on a fake national emergency without consequences for such abuses? Should we be surprised to see leaders of this convoy persecuted and attacked, jailed and oppressed for years, which is still ongoing, with grinding lawfare from the state?Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms is supposed to be a bulwark against abuses of power by government.Restrictions on Charter freedoms by governments must be "demonstrably justified," and informed by legal tests of minimal impairment, rational connection and proportionality. The legal burden is on government to demonstrate such restrictions are so justified..When I went to law school, I read Charter cases where these legal tests were applied by courts with rigour, resulting in individuals charged with crimes going free.But where was this robust Charter scrutiny during COVID? Why did our courts fail to scrutinize across-the-board government actions — such as shutting down schools, closing and bankrupting businesses, vaccine passports, lockdowns, restrictions on family gatherings, funerals and weddings, some of which were obvious overreach, not minimal, proportionate or rational — with the same rigor and zeal as was applied in those criminal cases?The silence seemed as if some were self-isolating the whole time, just like Trudeau who holed up in his mansion.Too little is changing — where is an injunction under the Charter stopping the government of Nova Scotia from banning the public from walking, biking or picking berries in forests due to risk of wildfires?.MCCRAE: Every child matters, or perhaps not.Bans on activities that can actually cause wildfires, such as campfires in forests, are rationally connected to wildfires, but in absence of such of such activities, taking walks, riding bikes, or picking berries are not.Bad laws like this make good people law breakers and destroys trust in government. It is disappointing to see silence from a justice system in the face in such obvious government overreach.But where we see courts not silent, but loud, are in areas of public policy, which is the legislatures', not courts', constitutional lanes.But the court decided to interpret the Charter as a "living tree," allowing them to "read in" that which is not written in the Charter, too often giving cover to impose progressive, activist biases.So now we see some judges use the Charter to justify stopping public policy decisions to shut down bike lanes resulting in big traffic jams, or closing drug consumption sites destructive to communities, or dismantling sleeper camps wrecking public parks and spaces, and so on..We also see some judges reading in and expanding treaty rights with ivory tower interpretations that do not work in the real world, killing jobs and suffocating economic competitiveness.If the treaty burdens which some courts are imposing now, existed back when the treaties were signed, Great Britain would never have agreed to them because it would have made Canada a third world nation back then, instead of a first world nation moving towards a third world nation as is the case now.The national railroad would have never been built.In the specific case of Alberta, we also saw the court uphold Trudeau’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, imposing federal carbon taxes — which disproportionately target Alberta businesses and families — was constitutional, overruling the Alberta Court of Appeal decision who said it was not, that it was a "constitutional trojan horse," that it improperly empowered Ottawa to do indirectly what it could not constitutionally do directly — interfere with and undermine Alberta's authority over its natural resources..THOMAS: Calgary's birthday celebrations an exercise in wokeness.Alberta’s Court of Appeal was right. Ottawa has done the very thing they warned about.The court is undertaking a nation-wide public relations tour and effort to educate the public, even including a child’s book featuring the chief justice, see accompanying excerpt.The focus of this public relations effort should be less on educating the public on why the court is so good and more on learning from the public on how to build and restore trust in the court and the justice system as a whole.Alberta is a land of freedom and prosperity. Alberta does not need a progressive justice system. We need a justice system that is just.Lawyer and chartered accountant Jason Stephan is the United Conservative Party MLA for Red Deer South(This is part three of a multi-part series focused on increasing freedom and prosperity for Albertans) Read parts one and two.
