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| Subject: Mr. Kenney misrepresents the facts! |
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To All
Here is another example of the Minister of Immigration misrepresenting the facts. Everyday he seems to becoming out and attempting to change things that are not based on facts. Is he Immigrant bashing to focus on his parties chances of getting more votes?
Federal Court Judges are now under attack! Shame on him!
Globe and Mail
When cabinet ministers attack judges, they attack democracy
AUDREY MACKLIN and LORNE WALDMAN
18 February 2011
In a speech to the University of Western Ontario´s law faculty last
week, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney launched an attack on Federal
Court judges for rendering decisions he didn´t agree with. He suggested the judges were preventing him from properly administering the immigration program.
What´s wrong with that? After all, lawyers, academics and the media
freely comment on judicial decisions, so why not government ministers?
Well, what makes it wrong is that judges are supposed to be independent of government, and government is supposed to respect that independence. The executive appoints our judges. But once they´re appointed, our democracy requires that they render their decisions free from government influence or pressure.
When a government minister criticizes judges for how they´ve decided
past cases, they´re sending a message to judges about how they want
future cases to be decided. Indeed, Mr. Kenney was quite explicit about this.
After presenting highly selective, incomplete and misleading
accounts of a few cases, he complained that judges were deciding these cases "seemingly on a whim," and declared his belief that "most
Canadians share my despair at such decisions." Whether Canadians would share his despair is an interesting question, but, in any event, his remarks seemed directed at undermining public confidence in the judiciary.
The judges do not work, and should not be seen to work, for Prime
Minister Stephen Harper or his immigration minister. And because of
their special role in society, they aren´t expected to participate
openly in the political process. Indeed, you haven´t heard the Federal Court respond to Mr. Kenney, despite his misrepresentation of cases, jurisprudence and statistical evidence. Judges don´t reply because they understand the importance of not becoming politicized.
When Mr. Kenney publicly criticizes judges for interpreting the law in a manner that diverges from his own preferred outcome, he shows contempt for judicial independence. That´s not to say the minister can´t take action when he disagrees with a court´s decision. As a member of cabinet, he has the power to introduce into Parliament amendments to any federal law. The cabinet may also pass regulations implementing existing law. The government possesses the unique jurisdiction to change the law to conform to his views. But using an address to a law school - of all places - to take potshots at judicial decisions the government doesn´t like is an inappropriate exploitation of political office.
To add further discredit, some of the anecdotes cited by Mr. Kenney were just plain wrong. He mentioned the case of Parminder Singh Saini as an example of a person allowed to remain in Canada for years as a result of judicial interference. What he fails to note is that Mr. Saini was found by a Citizenship and Immigration Canada official in 2003 to be at risk of torture. A ministerial review of his case then took more than six years. Meantime, Mr. Saini, a convicted hijacker, had respected Canada´s laws and received two university degrees. When Mr. Kenney, who became the immigration minister in 2008, decided in 2009 that Mr. Saini should
be deported, a request for a stay was summarily dismissed. By suggesting that the delay was the fault of judicial interference, Mr. Kenney misrepresents the facts.
In the same speech in which Mr. Kenney attacked the Federal Court, he
mentioned the new cadre of bureaucratic decision makers who will decide refugee claims under the Balanced Refugee Reform Act. These decision makers will be government employees, ultimately answerable to the minister. Yet, Mr. Kenney also referred to them as "independent public servant decision makers." But those decision makers do work for the minister.
Based on this government´s practices, criticism (or even the threat of criticism) by the minister may well cause these decision makers to
reasonably fear for their livelihoods if they make decisions that the
minister finds politically unpalatable. All Canadians have reason to be concerned whether these decision makers will be genuinely independent.
Audrey Macklin is a law professor at the University of Toronto. Lorne
Waldman is an immigration lawyer.
Roy
cvimmigration.com
[20-02-2011,08:01]
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Roy |
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(in reply to: Mr. Kenney misrepresents the facts!)
you really like the G&M editorial pages, don´t you.
[20-02-2011,13:50]
[**.180.238.237]
Sharon |
(in reply to: Mr. Kenney misrepresents the facts!)
Sharon
I dread the thought of Kenney being the leader of the Conservatives when Harper finishes his hockey book. Kenney is coming in and out of all the GTA ridings spewing his garbage every week on his way to Cow Town.
Don´t forget he is looking into replacing a regulatory body and then there will be a transition period etc. but nothing happens.
Nothing but the same old, again and again.
Pick on the boat people but do not say anything bad about the leaders of Tunisia, Eygpt, Bahrain and that place where they murdered 15 attending a funeral for 35.
See he can put the fear of his legislation into a place that deserves the same. Scare the farmers and the Canadian´s living in the woods who have never seen a person of colour or unusual head dress.
Using Immigrant bashing to get votes come on!
TY Globe and Mail.
Roy
cvimmigration.com
[20-02-2011,19:39]
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Roy |
(in reply to: Mr. Kenney misrepresents the facts!)
Keeny´s comments got zero coverage in BC. We tend to roll our eyes and remember we are in silly season.
[20-02-2011,19:53]
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Sharon |
(in reply to: Mr. Kenney misrepresents the facts!)
Go ahead and criticize Mr. Kenney, it is certainly not the first time he´s said something inacurate to suit his own needs. However, characterizing farmers and rural Canadians as racist, ignorant enemies of immigration is really unfair and inacurate. The majority of the Canadian population still lives outside of the GTA, Vancouver and Montreal. In our democratic country their voices and issues still matter. If they have less interaction with newcomers that doesn´t make them racist. Many areas welcome non-white people incluing newcomers and would welcome the economic development that new citizens would bring. Many non-urban areas also have large non-white (aboriginal) populations that co-exist peacefully. Bashing everyone outside the major cities is not better than some redneck basing brown people.
[24-02-2011,02:02]
[***.116.186.98]
Anonymous |
(in reply to: Mr. Kenney misrepresents the facts!)
Ugh my keyboard is sticking and that is riddled with errors, but hopefully it is still legible.
[24-02-2011,02:04]
[***.116.186.98]
Anonymous |
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