CHP
Commentary

Freedom of thought, opinion and expression are hallmarks of Western civilization, for which we are all indebted to historic Jewish and Christian biblical values. The line of demarcation between those values and bigotry is the use or advocacy of violence to suppress such freedoms for others.

On the day before Good Friday, I pause to reflect on the events that we will remember over this weekend: the last supper and communion of our Lord with His disciples, the betrayal by His faithless friend, the rejection by spiritual leaders, the abandonment by his disciples, the agony of His separation from the Father as He took our judgment on Himself and finally, His death, burial and glorious resurrection...

​In Grade 10, I wrote an essay on a newspaper article I had read which was entitled “A Storm in a Teacup”. The article was about Pierre Trudeau who was one of the first national leaders to recognize The People’s Republic of China as a nation. No other nation had recognized the Communist government as being the legitimate government.

​Our nation has crossed into the twilight zone of unreality. Where once we based our judgments on truth and scientific facts as well as on biblical morality, we now criticize and vilify people who refuse to adjust their speech to conform to current deceptive phraseology.

​How often do Canadians stop to consider the rule of law and how important is it to our world-view? How often do we consider the importance of the “upper class” being required to follow the same law as the “middle and lower classes”? Is ‘being equal under the law’ important anymore?

Woe unto them that call evil “good”, and good “evil” . . .Isaiah 5:20 The Alberta provincial election is underway and the dirty tricks have begun.

Today’s Federal Budget is not simply about dollars, in fact it is much more about the politics of re-election than economics. This is the last “budget” before the next election, and as such, it is the government’s last opportunity to make promises about spending — big spending — on projects and programs of many kinds (but, of course . . . they will need to be re-elected to implement them.)

​On January 22, New York state legislators passed a law allowing abortion throughout the full term of pregnancy, right up to the moment of birth. This shocking display of political correctness has disturbed multitudes of ordinary, common sense Americans and the attention it has gotten in the US has also generated additional comment in Canada.

After the testimony of former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould last week, the Leader of the Official Opposition, Andrew Scheer called on Prime Minister Trudeau to resign. It seemed like the logical and right thing to do. Respect for the rule of law is at stake, and no one should presume to be above that.

​Along with most Canadians who have been following the SNC-Lavalin story, we await the testimony of former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould. We want to know whether she will testify that she felt pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office to “go easy” on the Montreal-based engineering and construction giant for fraud and corruption charges connected with their business in Libya.

​The news has been full of people pondering whether The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould came under pressure by the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister’s Office to go easy on SNC-Lavalin.

The rule of law spoken of in the Charter Preamble indicates that all Canadian citizens—great or small—are to be treated equally by Canada’s justice system. Recent revelations about a possible kid-gloves treatment for SNC-Lavalin, and possible interference with the former Justice Minister’s work, indicate that the noble goals of the Charter are not being upheld by our Prime Minister, who should be using his position to protect the integrity of our justice system and the rule of law.