It was the title the Ottawa Citizen put over Janice Tibbetts' interview. She had no control over the title. I gave her an interview. They said that I was objecting to the Prime Minister wanting to “muzzle” the judges. I never said that, and Janice Tibbetts never wrote that.
I don't think he has been trying to muzzle judges. He has told us very candidly that he wants to have judges who are going to implement the government's policy. I should like to elaborate on that point, if I may, Chair.
In our country, we—laypersons, not people like you—often confuse government and Parliament. The reason is that when you have a majority government that has a policy, the majority government sees to it that the proper legislation is enacted to implement that policy. People then confuse that.
Now, a judge takes an oath of office. The judge's oath of office is to apply the law, not the policy. When the judge applies the law that has been enacted by the majority government—by Parliament—he or she is indirectly implementing the policy behind the law. But the role of the judge is not to implement a policy, unless it has been spelled out in the law.
So when Mr. Harper says that he want judges “who will implement our policy of getting tough on crime”—I don't have the exact words; I did read Hansard.—I say, whoa, judges are not there to implement a government's policies; those policies have to go through Parliament. I understand his problem is that part of his policies are not getting through legislation, and so he's turning to the judges to implement them. He was very candid about it. He said “to implement the government's policies”. But that's not the role of a judge.