The horns are silent. The trucks dispersed. The Chief Justice of Canada, Richard Wagner, however, is not about to forget the smell of anarchy that invaded the federal capital during the occupation of the Freedom Convoy last January and February.
“What we have seen recently on Wellington Street here is the beginning of anarchy where some people have decided to take other citizens hostage, to take the law into their own hands, not to respect the mechanism. […] That, I find that worrying, ”he says in an exchange with the To have to approaching 40and anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Forced blows against the state, justice and democratic institutions like the one delivered by protesters to the doors of the Prime Minister’s office and the Privy Council, Parliament, the Supreme Court of Canada and the Press Gallery parliamentary between January 28 and February 21 must be denounced with force, and this, by all the figures of power in the country, believes Mr. Wagner.
He therefore disapproves of the political actors who stuck to the Freedom Convoy (Freedom Convoy), which was made up of people of “good faith”, but also of “remotely guided” people seeking to bypass the political “system”. “It doesn’t inspire good feelings in me. I find that disturbing,” he drops into the judges’ reading room in the Supreme Court building.
Conservative MPs, including interim leader Candice Bergen, former leader and former Speaker of the House of Commons, Andrew Scheer, as well as leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre had supported, sometimes physically, sometimes virtually, the protesters who made the weather rain or shine in the federal capital before being chased there by police officers from all over the country.
Clearing up the “confusion”
The occupation of downtown Ottawa has fueled not only diesel fuel, but also a “misunderstanding” and, “it must be said”, “a certain ignorance” of the basics of the rule of law Canadian, laments Mr. Wagner.
In January and February, demonstrators used laminated reproductions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as shields to first push back against the health measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic — proof of vaccination, mask and company —, then the dispersal orders issued by Ottawa police.
Wrongly, they reproached the police officers for not having recited their “Miranda rights” to them (“ Miranda rights “), in addition to trampling on the “first amendment of the Constitution”… of the United States, during their arrest. Wrongly, they urged the Governor General of Canada, Mary Simon, to set in motion the procedure for impeachment of the Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, by “vote of confidence”.
Others blocked access routes to the Supreme Court building. “We had difficulty accessing it,” says Mr. Wagner, who has headed the country’s highest court since the end of 2017. “It’s still a significant obstacle when we talk about democracy and the rule of law,” adds he.
Nearly two months after the end of the disruptions, the Chief Justice is strengthened in his belief that legal literacy needs to be developed in Canada. In his view, it is about access to justice. “How can you access justice if you don’t know your rights? asks the former president of Montreal.
What we have seen recently on Wellington Street, here, is the beginnings of anarchy where certain people have decided to take other citizens hostage, to take the law into their own hands, not to respect the mechanism. […] That, I find disturbing.
To counter the “anything” that passes “often” for information on social networks, the 65-year-old man, wearing the title of 18and Chief Justice of Canada, focuses on “transparency”, clarity and accessibility. As proof, he points to the summaries of the decisions of the Supreme Court, “in clear and accessible language, to allow citizens to know what it means for them, their families, their friends…”, published for nearly four years. “And, once the information is known, we must ensure that these citizens can exercise their rights,” continues Mr. Wagner.
The legal community as well as the media have “a responsibility” to protect the country’s institutions, or at the very least to “make them known”, maintains the magistrate, according to whom new “efforts” must be made to preserve “the state of our democracy, the state of our well-being, the state of our freedom”. What about politicians? request The duty. “Absolutely,” he replies tit for tat. “It is the elected officials who are the representatives of the citizens. It is elected officials who have given the Court, the courts, the responsibility of interpreting the Charter of Rights. So they have a responsibility,” he says.
“In the world around us, we see situations that undermine democracy and judicial independence. The worst mistake we can make is to say: “We are exempt from that. It didn’t happen with us.” It is a mistake. You have to be on the lookout. We must denounce any circumstance that could undermine our principles such as judicial independence, the rule of law, institutions. I like to say that Canada is not a military power, is not an economic power. But, I think it is a power at the level of judicial and legal values. And that is our strength in Canada because we have succeeded, over the years, in maintaining respect for institutions, in maintaining the rule of law. But it does not live on its own, ”insists the chief judge.
With Marie Vastel