Juno News - The erosion of the rule of law

00:00:00.000 So today I want to talk about something that is a pillar of Western civilization,

00:00:11.400 one that is slowly being eroded if not outright under attack from certain sectors. Now you may

00:00:17.640 not know the name of this concept but I can assure you that you feel both its effects and its absence

00:00:23.100 and this is something called the rule of law. So what exactly is the rule of law? Now many people

00:00:29.680 think that the rule of law means that everyone is equal under the law and sort of that's it but it's

00:00:34.420 a bit broader than that and I want to go through what it is and why it is so critically important

00:00:38.980 to our society. So thanks to my friends here at LexisNexis there is a very nice chart that sort of

00:00:45.040 outlines the four parts of the rule of law. So the first as we said is all are equal under the law

00:00:50.260 and that means it doesn't matter who you are or where you're from and I kind of sound like a

00:00:54.100 Backstreet Boys song but it doesn't matter who you are or where you're from you are equal under the

00:00:57.660 law. So everybody is treated equally doesn't matter if you're the king, the prime minister,

00:01:01.320 you know, just a regular employee, some, you know, middle class worker somewhere. It doesn't

00:01:05.520 matter. You're all equal under the law. The next is transparency. So the law has to be transparent.

00:01:11.280 You have to be able to read it, to understand it, to see where it is. Now I know there's often some

00:01:15.660 legal mumbo-jumbo and this is what lawyers are there for to try and help us decode some of that jargon

00:01:20.220 that you might find when you're reading a legal text but it still has to be transparent. If you want to

00:01:25.020 access the law, you have to be able to find a, you know, go on Google and search up the criminal code

00:01:30.300 and see what exactly it says there. And you actually might be shocked. There's a lot of things that you

00:01:34.440 may want to look at about people, for example, returning from fighting for ISIS or people breaking

00:01:40.380 law, people crossing the border illegally. So there's a lot of interesting stuff in there

00:01:44.200 and it has to be transparent. That's something that I think we should all take a look at if we have

00:01:48.440 questions about what is illegal or what is not. The third is an independent judiciary and people are

00:01:53.520 familiar with this but they don't necessarily talk about this. And this is that judges and courts need to be

00:01:58.420 independent. So there needs to be mechanisms in place that stop or prevent or reduce bribery or political

00:02:04.600 influence. So the prime minister can't just phone up someone and say, you know, this, this person is my

00:02:08.400 friend, don't charge them or drop the charges, these kinds of things. The last one that is important and

00:02:13.360 seems to be getting eroded all the time is accessible legal remedies. Now that means that you have to be able to

00:02:20.300 access a legal remedy. In essence, if I were to buy something from your store, right, I would buy

00:02:25.840 something from your store, but you never gave me the product. So I come and I pay, but I never got

00:02:29.900 what I paid for. I have to be able to have a legal remedy. There has to be some court or some body that

00:02:35.380 I can go to, to be able to get my money back. Because if there isn't, we're left in a situation

00:02:40.280 where I'm basically forced to resort to force and now I want to, you know, break into your place of

00:02:44.820 business, bring a gun and get my money back. So the, the accessible legal remedies basically allow

00:02:51.120 people to trust that there is a system that's going to, it's going to take care when there's

00:02:55.720 a dispute or some disagreement. And this is one of the foundations of society because you cannot

00:03:01.200 have commerce. You cannot have trade without the rule of law. And, and this is sort of a, a global idea.

00:03:08.120 And this is why you may hear things about the global order or things like that. But the rule of

00:03:13.800 law is important because same thing, just like if I want to do business with someone in Canada,

00:03:18.560 I can trust that the criminal code is the same across the country. But what happens if I want

00:03:22.740 to do business with someone in the United States or someone in Europe, I have to be able to trust

00:03:26.660 that there are legal remedies to what's, what's going to be, what's going to happen. And I have a

00:03:31.460 legal recourse. If someone, you know, if we have a disagreement or there's some, you know,

00:03:35.500 some issue with, with finances or some issue with product, there has to be a legal remedy that I can access.

00:03:41.640 So where is this under attack from? Now it can be seen, the attack either direct or indirect can be

00:03:47.880 seen in places like defunding the police because the police, whatever they're there for, and we can

00:03:52.380 definitely have a conversation about the police, but one of their rules is to uphold the rule of law,

00:03:56.940 to make sure that everyone is treated equally and to enforce laws and rules and regulations that are

00:04:02.040 in place. You can also see it in Roxham Road. It's not just about immigrants or, you know, you don't like

00:04:07.160 immigrants, as the accusation often is. It's about the fact that we have a system. And when people are 0.89

00:04:13.060 sort of bypassing the line, if you're a legal immigrant, and you see people bypassing the line, that sort of

00:04:17.420 erodes your trust in this concept of the rule of law. Justin Trudeau's many ethics violations, and the whole

00:04:23.540 we scandal. Now, if he's found guilty of an ethics violation, the fine is up to $500. And that doesn't sit well

00:04:30.500 with people. And that doesn't sit well with people, not necessarily because it's illegal. What the

00:04:35.580 things that he has been accused of, and when he's been found guilty of breaking the ethics rules,

00:04:40.920 it's not necessarily illegal in the sense that we're thinking about, but it is what I would call

00:04:45.480 illegal adjacent. It's so close to being illegal, it's really debatable. Maybe it should be. And this

00:04:52.760 is, again, a point with the rule of law that it's not about morality. It's not about legislating morality,

00:04:59.120 because certain things have been legal or illegal in the past. It's been legal to discriminate. It's

00:05:05.000 been, you know, legal to sterilize people. It's not about the legality or illegality per se. It's

00:05:10.720 about the law applying equally to everyone. Now, again, obviously, as lawyers and lawmakers and

00:05:16.060 politicians, you expect that they're not going to put in place laws like this that are maybe

00:05:21.140 absolutely immoral. But morality is not the main point here. The rule of law is about all of these

00:05:26.120 four things. Equality, transparency, independence of the judiciary, and accessible legal remedies.

00:05:32.160 These are some of the foundations of the rule of law. And we do have to be careful because it does

00:05:36.860 seem like they are being eroded. When they are being eroded, or when we get that sense that they

00:05:41.000 are being eroded, we lose trust in our government, we lose trust in our state, and we lose trust in

00:05:45.440 our society. And ultimately, social cohesion is hurt. And that really does not work for such a large

00:05:51.100 and diverse country as Canada. So all told, we must ensure that we work hard to understand

00:05:56.980 and preserve the rule of law wherever we can, because the world as we know it, the world as

00:06:01.360 we understand it depends on this very small concept that has a very, very large effect and

00:06:06.820 large consequences. So for True North, I am Sam Ashkenazi. I hope you enjoyed this video.

00:06:11.600 Please don't forget to click on some of the links and see what my colleagues are saying.

00:06:14.980 There's a lot of great stuff. And have yourself a great day. Thank you so, so much.

00:06:21.100 Thank you.

Juno News - August 05, 2020

The erosion of the rule of law

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