OTTAWA, Jan 12 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The new chief justice of Canada’s Supreme Court, Beverley McLachlin, in an interview yesterday, extolled the importance of pragmatism in court rulings. In a comment that some court observers had in mind about the recent ruling that led to social havoc in the East Coast lobster fishery, she said: “I think it is increasingly acknowledged that judges have to be aware of how their decisions are going to play out in the real world.”
A few weeks ago, newly appointed Supreme Court justice, Louis LeBel said that the high court needed to improve its image through “better communications.” Justice McLaughlin, however, said yesterday: “My view as a judge is you speak through your judgments and thereafter you remain silent on the issues those judgments touch.”“It’s an interesting debate,” was her non-committal response to a question about “the court’s increasingly political role and the closed process by which judges are appointed to it.” She added, however, that she would respect any changes made to the appointment process.