Secure behind a pay wall is The Globe and Mail Editorial Board’s recent editorial on “Beverley McLachlin’s strange lack of judgment on Hong Kong” (December 18, 2023).
We may have an inkling of what the editorial is saying, based on other reporting about Hong Kong and Beverley McLachlin (shown above). Don’t hold us to it, but, well, maybe the editorial criticizes a former chief justice of the Canadian Supreme Court for her persistent wrongheadedness in helping China pretend that it is not in fact extirpating the last traces of Hong Kong’s freedom, democracy, and judicial justice and objectivity. Since 2018, McLachlin has been serving on Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal.
Since everything but the title of The Globe and Mail’s editorial is vaulted, let us instead consider, first, Peter Biro’s April 5, 2022 commentary for the National Post.
When McLachlin’s term came up for renewal last year, many assumed that she would decline reappointment. She did not. Instead, she defended her decision to renew her position. “The court” she said, “is perhaps the last democratic institution in Hong Kong that has not been challenged…. I do not wish to do anything that will weaken the last bastion perhaps of intact democracy in Hong Kong.”…
The principle of judicial independence is a sine qua non of any just society. But so is the principle of judicial effectiveness. In a constitutional democracy, judges must be able to strike down unjust laws. What sort of “judicial independence” is it when a judge’s ruling is bound to be rejected and rendered nugatory by the political branch of government that has ultimate authority to “interpret” the law? McLachlin will find out soon enough.
Has she found out? Discussion of this question is not entirely hidden by The Globe and Mail. According to its report of December 15, 2023:
When pro-democracy newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai goes to trial in Hong Kong on Monday facing national-security charges, he will be appearing in a court system that includes Beverley McLachlin—Canada’s longest-serving Supreme Court chief justice.
Sebastien Lai, the publisher’s son, is among those calling on Ms. McLachlin to reconsider her decision to remain a part of the legal system at a time when China is cracking down on democracy and dissent.
“The legal system’s not siloed,” he told The Globe and Mail. “It all links together, right? Do they want to be part of a court system that has 1,500 political prisoners, who are imprisoned for things that are very much legal in their home country?”…
But Ms. McLachlin, who is 80 and has resisted previous calls to step down, says she is staying because she believes the courts are still independent.
“The court is doing a terrific job of helping maintain rights for people, insofar as the law permits it, in Hong Kong. Which is as much as our courts do.”
Terrific? As of December 2023, then, McLachlin has not found out that justice and objective law are a dead letter in Hong Kong. Or she has found out (or has known for years) and is using such wording as “insofar as the law permits” very advisedly. Terrific.
