Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, March 08, 2013

All 10 provinces plan to intervene in feds’ Senate reforms questions to Supreme Court

PARLIAMENT HILL—All 10 provincial governments have served notice at the Supreme Court of Canada they intend to intervene in the federal government’s reference asking for the court’s opinion on whether Parliament has the constitutional power to unilaterally limit Senate terms, hold elections to fill vacancies or even abolish the Senate entirely.

With Nunavut also filing a notice of intervention in the historic case and Yukon and the Northwest Territories likely to intervene as well, the Liberal opposition says the developments show Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary-Southwest, Alta.) wasted six years of potential progress by ignoring the provinces as his government tabled a series of fruitless Senate-reform bills in Parliament and eventually stacked the Senate with Conservative supporters, his own former aides, and Conservative fundraisers while all but the last bill stalled and died between prorogations and elections.

“It demonstrates the point that what Harper has been doing with half-baked measures and dekes and dodges in his various legislative proposals were all doomed from the start, because it is a constitutional question that interests every one of the jurisdictions,” said Liberal MP Ralph Goodale (Wascana, Sask.), the party’s deputy leader.

“The point that we made, Stéphane and others five and six years ago, that the only way to get a game plan here is to ask the Supreme Court,” Mr. Goodale told The Hill Times.

Mr. Goodale was referring to Liberal MP and former party leader Stéphane Dion (Saint Laurent-Cartierville, Que.), who is the lead Liberal MP on the Senate reform file and the Supreme Court reference, and has strongly argued an elected Senate would lead to gridlock in Parliament as the elected senators started flexing their muscle.

“Finally they’ve done it [gone to the Supreme Court], but they’ve squandered five or six years,” Mr. Goodale said. “They could have had more certainty and more clarity about this a long time ago.”

The federal government dismissed Mr. Goodale’s position, saying instead the interventions “demonstrate an interest in Senate reform from coast-to-coast-to-coast.”

“These comments are laughable coming from a Liberal member who in his years as a senior Liberal Cabinet minister did nothing to make the Senate more democratic, accountable, and representative,” Kate Davis, communications director for Minister of State for Democratic Reform Tim Uppal (Sherwood Park, Alta.), said in an email.

“In fact, when the previous Liberal government was presented the opportunity to appoint elected Senators, the Liberals refused, not once, but on three occasions,” Ms. Davis said, in reference to Alberta Senate nominee elections that took place while previous federal Liberal governments were in power.

Mr. Goodale challenged Ms. Davis’s version, saying when the Liberals were in power they knew Canadians had no appetite for more constitutional turmoil after the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accord battles of the 1990s, and with the Reform Party on the scene then stirring the pot, focused on job creation and social and economic problems. He said “half-baked pseudo-elections” with an unequal distribution of Senate seats would have made things worse and would lead to “mandate gridlock.”

Mr. Goodale, a senior Cabinet minister in those years, said though Mr. Harper once promised never to appoint Senators, “the most recent problem, the one that has pushed the Senate issue into the current limelight, is the poor quality of some of Mr. Harper's choices.”

Mr. Harper has filled three Senate vacancies in Alberta since 2007 with contestants who won the province’s nominee elections.

Ontario filed its intervention notice with the Supreme Court on Thursday, after a day of heated debate in the Commons earlier in the week over a motion from NDP MP Craig Scott (Toronto-Danforth, Ont.) calling on the government to begin consulting with the provinces over eventual abolition of the Senate, a longstanding NDP position.

After Mr. Scott told the Commons it is time to “roll up the red carpet,” Conservative MPs argued the NDP and other opposition parties should have supported the federal Senate bills all along, with Manitoba Conservative MP Steven Fletcher, minister of state for transport, arguing the NDP was “essentially saying that Atlantic Canada would lose 30 Parliamentary positions”—a reference to the number of Senate seats in the region.

New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador were the first provinces to serve intervenor notices, on Feb. 25, followed on March 1 by the Quebec government, which launched its own court challenge last year of the latest Conservative bill proposing to limit Senate terms and have nominee elections for Senate appointments.

Quebec’s Parti Québécois government was furious at a federal request to the Quebec Court of Appeal last month to halt its case and defer to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court of Appeal turned down the request, made through a motion Ottawa filed in the Quebec Superior Court, whose judges are appointed by the federal Cabinet.

The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing on the federal reference for Nov. 12, 13, and 14, with final arguments to be submitted by late August. Against federal government wishes, the Supreme Court is allowing evidence from constitutional experts and historians, along with time for cross-examinations over affidavits, and has appointed two constitutional experts as “friends of the court” to advise the judges as they weigh the arguments.

Even Conservatives have acknowledged any Quebec government, defending the province’s 24 Senate seats, would oppose abolition and Quebec has demonstrated through its court case, launched by the previous Liberal government, that it also believes provinces must approve any reforms or changes to Senate terms and powers.

A Conservative senator told The Hill Times this week even a Parti Québécois government would oppose abolition, despite Bloc Quebecois calls for an end to the unelected chamber.

University of Prince Edward Island political scientist Peter McKenna said the interventions point toward a pitched legal battle in the Supreme Court, with at least three of the Atlantic provinces at the front, particularly over the question of Parliament’s power to unilaterally abolish the Senate.

“It’s a non-starter,” Prof. McKenna said.

“Some people would probably argue that if you tamper with how the process of selecting Senators works, then they would also say that may require unanimity too,” Prof. McKenna said. “Whatever it is, it’s definitely going to require some sort of consultation with the provinces and agreement from Atlantic Canada’s standpoint.”

Prof. McKenna passed on an anecdote from P.E.I. Liberal Premier Robert Ghiz, who recently told Prof. McKenna on a visit to the university that Mr. Harper discussed P.E.I. support for Senate reform with him, but turned down an offer of co-operation on condition the federal government pay the costs for any provincially-held nominee elections.

“He told me that in a conversation with the Prime Minister he said he would consider electing Senators if you pay for it, and the Prime Minister said ‘No,’” Prof. McKenna said. “So, even when Ghiz was at least open to entertaining the idea as long as you’re going to cover the costs, the Prime Minister said no, he would not cover the cost of a Senate election. It would add up [if Ottawa funded all provincial nominee elections], but hey, if you’re the one pushing for it.”

Several provinces contacted by The Hill Times on Thursday either simply confirmed the intervention notices, or said their legal arguments and preparations were in the early stages.

“We’re intervening, but we’re still developing our position,” said Michelle Davio, media relations assistant for Alberta Justice Minister and Solicitor General Jonathan Denis.

A spokesperson for Nova Scotia Attorney General and Justice Minister Ross Landry confirmed the provincial NDP government favours abolition, despite opposition to the idea in the other Atlantic provinces, and also believes the constitution gives the provinces a role in major changes.

“We can say that Nova Scotia’s position is that the Senate should be abolished, and that the provinces have a constitutional role in decisions that change the nature or function of the Senate,” Nicole Watkins Campbell, Mr. Landry’s communications advisor, said in an email.

“However, in these proceedings the first step is for Canada to define its position on the questions that have been referred,” Ms. Watkins Campbell said.

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador, while supporting the goal of Senate reform, told The Hill Times it must be comprehensive and equitable, and the federal government should pay for any provincial elections.

“The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador does support the idea of Senate reform provided it is done in a comprehensive manner; that it is equal, effective and elected; and that it works in the best interest of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is also our position that elections to a federal legislature, such as the Senate, should be a federal expense,” Intergovermental and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Felix Collins said through an email from his office.

Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: TIM NAUMETZ 

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