By John-Henry Westen
OTTAWA, February 12, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canada’s national Globe and Mail newspaper featured a leading article yesterday that appeared intended as an attack on the Conservative Government for stacking judicial appointment committees with “partisans”. The article entitled, “Partisans filling judge nomination committees,” is accompanied by another hit piece by the paper’s political columnist John Ibbitson entitled, “Setting the stage for a judicial battleground.”
The story has been repeated by the Toronto Star, the CBC and other left leaning media in Canada.
However it has been ridiculed as nothing more than biased journalism by legal expert Bob Tarantino. A Toronto lawyer and author who regularly publishes academic articles, and frequently appears on television as a commentator on legal issues, Tarantino has condemned the reports on his popular blog. He notes that the Globe “story” is not a story at all since the Conservatives have merely appointed highly qualified persons to those positions which were assigned to be ‘partisan’ and for the Government to appoint, with other positions on the committees filled by among others, the provincial chief justice, the law society, and the Canadian Bar Association.
Tarantino notes that the leftist media have failed to point out that the previous Liberal government was caught in real bias. “In 2005, CanWest News Service found that more than 60% of judges appointed by the Liberals between 2000 and 2005 had donated to the Liberal party,” Tarantino says.
Tarantino concludes: “Remember the m.o.: when the Liberals actually abuse the process, it’s not a problem; when Conservatives are wrongly accused of attempting to abuse the process, it’s time to man the barricades. Here’s the challenge for Canada’s worst newspaper (referring to the Globe): (1) identify unqualified appointees to the bench who have been appointed by this government; (2) make even a semblance of an argument as to why the political predilections of an appointee should disqualify them from appointment – an argument which does not include ‘because I disagree with their views’. Then, and only then, would there actually be a news story here.”