The survey—conducted only two days before a controversy erupted last week over published claims from unnamed Conservatives that the government is “incensed” at the Supreme Court because of recent losses in key judgments—found 52 per cent of voting-age Canadians agreed that major changes to the Senate can only take place if seven provinces, including half of the country’s population, agree.
As well, the Supreme Court ruled in the same decision on April 25 that agreement from all 10 provincial legislative assemblies would be required to abolish the Senate, a position Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) began to raise last year as provincial resistance to his plan for Parliament to change appointment methods and to impose Senate term limits began to grow.
The survey also found that only 23 per cent of voting-age Canadians took the same suggestion as Mr. Harper, following his loss in court, that it might not be possible to reform the Senate because, as Mr. Harper put it, “only the provinces” could reform the Senate because of the judgment.
Nearly the same percentage of the Forum Research poll respondents, 25 per cent, disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling.
A few days after the court released its Senate ruling on April 25, in response to a series of constitutional questions the federal government referred to it in 2013, National Post columnist John Ivison quoted Conservative sources describing the government’s “frustration” with the Supreme Court.
His column also contained anonymous Conservative allegations that Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin had attempted last year to influence the government as Justice Minister Peter MacKay (Central Nova, N.S,) and Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) were set to begin considering candidates to fill a Supreme Court of Canada vacancy reserved for one of the court’s three judges from Quebec.
Justice McLachlin issued a statement denying the allegations, saying that although she contacted Mr. MacKay, and Mr. Harper’s office to “flag” a potential issue about the eligibility of a judge to fill a Quebec seat on the Supreme Court, she at “no time” expressed any opinion about the merits of the eligibility issue, and did not discuss any case before the courts.
Mr. Harper eventually nominated Federal Court of Appeal Justice Marc Nadon, who had stepped back from full-time work on the bench in advance of retirement, and had not been a member of the Quebec bar for 10 years at the time the government named him to the post.
In the controversy that surrounded the nomination, including a legal challenge, the government submitted another reference to the Supreme Court for a constitutional opinion.
To the consternation of the government, the Supreme Court ruled on March 21 that the Supreme Court of Canada Act, part of the Canadian Constitution, stipulates that the only judges in Quebec whose status on the bench qualifies them for appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada, as one of the province’s guaranteed three seats for the province, are sitting judges on the Quebec Superior Court or the Quebec Court of Appeal, or current members of the Quebec bar.
In the standoff with the court over the Senate decision, the highest level of opposition to the Supreme Court decision came from respondents who identified themselves as Conservative Party supporters—29 per cent.
Even in Alberta, which has been holding consultative elections to submit Senate nominee names to the federal government since the 1980s, 50 per cent of the respondents sided with the Supreme Court ruling.
Opposition MPs said the Forum Research findings suggests Canadians are not likely to support Mr. Harper in his fight with Chief Justice McLachlin, who released a statement on May 2 disputing the allegations from the Conservatives over the decision to nominate Justice Nadon.
“It’s been interesting when I see the response of people talking to me and talking on Facebook their Prime Minister Harper handles the file and handles the Senate, so I think people have sided with the Supreme Court on this, not over the issue of the Senate, just their fundamental disgust with the ham-fisted way that Stephen Harper handles his files,” said NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) in an interview with The Hill Times.
“I think Canadians do not trust this Prime Minister and they see the Supreme Court as having an important role to play,” Mr. Angus said, shortly before the controversy over the government’s allegations about Justice McLachlin were raised in Commons Question Period on Monday afternoon.
“I also think Canadians find it unacceptable that you can’t reform an unelected and unelected body, and the Prime Minister’s response, to say, ‘Well, I’m done, let the provinces come forward,’ is a complete abdication of leadership,” Mr. Angus said. “There is something fundamentally rotten in the Senate, it needs to be addressed, so perhaps Mr. Harper needs to step back and say, ‘Okay, I can’t do it unilaterally, but we need to reform it, we can’t just put if off for another century.’ ”
Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North, Man.) said the poll findings suggest a majority of voters side with the Supreme Court and that Mr. Harper has to “calm down” and realize he cannot act unilaterally on a range of issues.
The government was forced to back down in key areas and amend its unilateral attempt at amending the Canada Elections Act, Bill C-23, after a groundswell of opposition from ordinary Canadians as well as academics and experts to several measures in the legislation.
“People are frustrated about the Senate, there is no doubt about that, that they want to see something happen in regards to it,” Mr. Lamoureux said, noting Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s (Papineau, Que.) promise to establish a blue-ribbon panel of citizens to recommend Senate nominations if he becomes Prime Minister.
“In regard to the controversy around what the chief justice of the Supreme Court has to say, and the Prime Minister, I will take my side with the Supreme Court justice,” said Mr. Lamoureux.
“This is a Prime Minister who really needs to calm down, take a few breaths and realize that he is not the man in charge, in all ways, of the Canadian fiefdom. He has to take some responsibility and realize that there are others that have influential roles to play in our society, such as our Supreme Court chief justice and people like our chief electoral officer,” Mr. Lamoureux said.
The Forum Research poll on the Senate ruling was conducted April 28 and 29 and was an interactive voice response telephone survey of 1,572 Canadians 18 years of age and older, with a margin of error of plus or minus two per cent 19 times out of 20.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com/
Author: Tim Naumetz
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