chris_farley

Allow me to provide some “context” for this clip.

Conservative MP “Diane Ablonczy” was responding to a suggested amendment to the section of the “anti-terror” bill that allows judges to issue warrants in secret to CSIS that violate the “Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” 

So just to clarify for Ms. Ablonczy, the traditional role of a “judge” in a “civilized society” is to uphold the “rule of law.” This ensures that people don’t “steal” things from other people just because they “feel like it” or “murder” each other with “impunity,” and that the government doesn’t “torture” its opponents and throw them out of “helicopters.”

It’s all based on these things called “principles of fundamental justice.” Principles like people “shouldn’t” steal or murder or torture. Principles that are “innately understood” as “basic morality” by anyone who isn’t a “sociopath.”

And if the “rule of law” is going to be “legitimate” and not “pointless” it needs to be followed by everyone, including CSIS, no matter how much they want to “keep us safe.” And those laws shouldn’t be enforced “in secret,” because “secret law enforcement” has a poor track record and tends to lead to things like rampant abuse, corruption and “the Statsi.”

So the reason it’s important that a judge only issues warrants that are consistent with the “rule of law” and “principles of fundamental justice” is because Canadians value those things and don’t want to sacrifice them based on cheap fear mongering over “terrorist” threats that are less likely to kill us than “lightning” or a “vending machine.”

And if Diane Ablonczy wants to “keep” that power she wields so cavalierly, she should consider acting like a “representative of citizens” rather than a “mindless party hack.”

Scott Vrooman

Scott has written and performed comedy for TV (Conan, Picnicface, This Hour Has 22 Minutes), radio (This is That), and the web (Vice, Funny or Die, College Humor, The Toronto Star, The Huffington Post,...