Canada: Juridics: Rothstein nominated to Canadian Supreme Court

For the first time, the Canadian public was notified in advance of the names on a shortlist of three nominees to the Supreme Court of Canada (it was not by design but by leak that the public was informed of the trio, altho the design and leak are not necessarily logical opposites). And, then, Prime Minister Stephen Harper added that his own preselection was settled (I think it would have been better to put all three of those on the shortlist thru the new process of televised public review by parliamentarians, at least, before the final determination was announced officially). That would have given the Prime Minister elbowroom to change his mind regarding his first choice. But no such luck for the great mass of those to be affected by the selectee and his/her philosophy of law.

Nevertheless, Judge Marshall Rothstein of the Federal Court of Appeals will undergo a televised 3-hour conversation with Members of Parliament asking him questions. How closely and how guisedly will they inquire as to his view of reading into the Constitution outrageous new "rights" suddenly "discoverd" to be "emanating" from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms with no Responsiblities? Would Rothstein be willing, some will wonder, to allow the unborn to be hacked apart in the womb no matter how late in the pregnancy? or even allow them to be left on the operating table whole and alive just to be ignored to death by the medicos? We'll never know his respect or lack thereof for humans at this stage of life.

Will the new Justice of the Supreme Court uphold the penalization of a printing company which demurs from a client's request for a printjob advocating an ideology inimical to the business-owner's beliefs, when the would-be client has recourse to thousands of other competing printers in the city? Will the new hi-court judge obtrude on the internal rules of a Catholic hi-school that prefers not to have male-male dates at its prom? Will he support muzzling the citation of Scripture or sermonizing that is one shade or another anti-homosex, obtruding on the internal rules of religious entitities or newspaper ads or editorials, for that matter? We can't say. We can't know really nothin', I'm guessin'.

But, golly gee, fellas, take a little tip from me, fellas, we've moved out of the dismal swamp of Liberal-Party-dominated jurisprudence - at least one inch. And, in Canada, that's somethin'! So, subsequent to three hours of introduction of the designee to the Canadian public on Monday, chaired by a former student of the learned jurist, the new Government's Justice Minister Vic Toews, I'm celebrating the coming appointment of Mr Rothstein to the Supreme Court of Canada. My congratulations to the Honourable Marshall Rothstein, Judge-designate of the Supreme Court of Canada. Sir, do I inquire of you as "Your Excellency?" "Your Worship?" "Your Jurisprudentia?" - or simply "Your Honour?" - or how? The CBC webpage for these matters of official address just doesn't quite say. - Owlb