Madam Speaker, I am pleased to address this motion today by my colleague from the Bloc, the hon. member for Charlesbourg—Jacques-Cartier. As we have heard, the motion asks the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights to study the process by which judges are appointed to courts of appeal and to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The parliamentary secretary outlined the process. As impressive as it sounds, it is remarkable that in the vast majority of cases the decisive criteria is the fact that the candidate has very close connections to the governing party. It has been the Liberal Party for some time. I dare say if we took a list of all the candidates who have been appointed, those Liberal connections would come very clearly.
I do not know whether that is simply coincidence but it reminds me a lot of the story about the emperor not having any clothes. We have gone through this charade of saying that this is the careful process we follow in selecting our nominees. We get all these nominees together in one big pile and then out of that pile, we magically pick the ones with the Liberal connections. We all know they are all well qualified but the overriding qualification is either the Liberal membership or the connection with the Liberal Party. I would challenge members opposite to take a look at these credentials. That is the truth of the matter. Let us not pretend that the emperor has clothes when he has no clothes.
I am pleased to support this motion. The Canadian Alliance has long held that since non-elected judges exercise so much influence on the laws passed by elected officials, the process of appointing them requires more openness.
Indeed in the past 20 years since the event of the charter, the responsibility for making moral, cultural and indeed political decisions has fallen out of the hands of Parliament and into the hands of the non-elected judiciary. As a result, the judiciary currently exercises substantial political power. At the same time, politicians have become increasingly more reluctant to advance legitimate political initiatives, putting increasingly more power into the hands of a selected few.
I would invite my colleagues to read the editorial today in the Ottawa Citizen dealing with the entire issue of marriage. The Ottawa editorial has come out very clearly in saying that this is not an issue for judges to determine. This is a matter, a social policy issue for Parliament to determine, yet we see courts unilaterally usurping the power of Parliament.
We see often the defenders of the judiciary say that they are only exercising the power we have given them. That is nonsense. It is like hiring a contractor to build a two or three bedroom bungalow, then coming back and finding a house that does not meet the standards or is completely different. Yet the contractor says that he has been hired to do this and that it is time to pay, with no one else to correct the mistake that has been made.
Once empowered, judges are virtually unaccountable in our democratic system. We need to ensure that those who are appointed are people who reflect the values and the cultures of all Canadians.
Look at the Charter of Rights. When the charter first came in, we heard the courts say that the powers and freedoms in the Charter of Rights could not be examined in a vacuum. We had to look at the cultural background and the historical political context. Yet we see the courts drifting away from that context.
Judges in Canada have taken on a greater role in shaping government policy, an area, as I have said, that had been reserved for elected officials.
In some cases this role has had a positive effect, such as the protection of minority and equality rights. In other cases, such as the Sharpe decision, the child pornography case, the effect has had detrimental effects on our society and our ability to protect the most vulnerable in our society, our children.
One case that has resulted in numerous problems in our immigration system is the 1985 court decision called Singh. In this case the Supreme Court of Canada extended the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to anyone setting foot on Canadian soil.
While most Canadians would agree that non-citizens and refugees must be entitled to certain legal rights, such as the right to a fair trial, I would say the indisputable right to enter into and remain in Canada should be reserved for citizens and landed immigrants. This is certainly the approach that has been adopted by western civilized democracy. Extending that right to everyone has opened the door to abuse, to dangerous terrorists and other violent criminals looking to find a safe haven in Canada. Unfortunately, this kind of unilateral approach by the courts jeopardizes the safety and security of all law-abiding Canadians, be they citizens, landed immigrants or potential refugees.
Other examples include the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada giving the right to prisoners to vote. Convicted murderers now enjoy the same rights that veterans who fought for this country enjoy in terms of the right to vote.
By the court substituting its own political opinion for that of elected parliamentarians, Canadians will lose faith in the democratic process, in the legitimacy of democratic government and the rule of law.
All these examples illustrate that because of the important decisions our judges are called upon to make many people in Canada believe that the closed door process, the real process for choosing judges, controlled by the Prime Minister, should be changed. In fact Canadian Alliance policy specifically calls for Supreme Court of Canada judges being chosen by a multi-party committee of the House of Commons after open hearings.
Others would like to go further. In fact recent surveys by Environics indicate that two-thirds of Canadians believe that Supreme Court of Canada judges should be elected.
Regardless, I strongly believe that the closed door process for choosing Supreme Court of Canada judges and appeal court judges is in need of review. Although the Prime Minister does consult with interest groups such as law societies, bar associations and individual members of the legal community, as well as other judges, when it comes to making these appointments, given the significance of court decisions since the advent of the charter, it is increasingly necessary for those appointments to come before Parliament in some fashion so that a broader spectrum of Canadians is involved in that decision by reference to parliamentarians' input.
I am not fixed on any particular way but this is a wonderful opportunity for the justice committee to examine the process. My colleague, the parliamentary secretary, has indicated it is a wonderful process. Let us look at the process. Let the parliamentary committee look at the process and see what is happening. If it is a good process, the process will stand the light of day and it will stand scrutiny.
I see no problem in supporting this very thoughtful and well written motion.