Time for the Conservatives’ constitutional throwdown to stop

In a major speech today at the 2014 Constitutional and Human Rights Conference, past president of the Canadian Bar Association Simon Potter blasted the Harper Conservatives for failing to uphold the Charter of Rights.

This latest salvo at the government for mishandling justice issues comes on the heels of the Conservatives spending much of the spring session of parliament picking fights with the Supreme Court and having laws struck down because they didn’t respect the constitution.

Let’s go through a run down on some of recent Conservative troubles.

• Failed to respect the law with appointment of Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court
• Smeared the reputation Chief Justice Beverly McLaughlin
• Lost a Supreme Court reference on the Senate
• Bizarre declaration from Peter MacKay claiming he “won” after the Supreme Court ruled against Conservatives’ attempts to allow warrantless wiretapping.
• Immigration minister Chris Alexander’s mind-numbing defence of a bill that allows likely infringes on the Charter and allows citizenship to be taken away from Canadians
• Losing their attempt to limit the title of the Tsilhqot’in Nation at the Supreme Court

Today’s conference will close with the Canadian Bar Association demanding reforms to the Supreme Court appointment process.

All this from a party with a long history of politicizing crime, undermining the Charter and treating the judiciary like it’s the enemy.

Canadians deserve better.