I was sitting in a University Avenue courtroom in Toronto a few years ago at a murder case. The prosecution wanted to introduce another witness. The judge glanced at a clock on the wall, saw that it was 4:00 p.m., and asked, “How long will the witness be?”
“Oh, Your Honour, I would say a good half hour.”
The judge banged his gavel and said, “Court adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow.”
I turned to a lawyer sitting next to me and complained, “Why didn’t he hear this witness? It’s only four o’clock.”
The lawyer whispered, “He wants to beat the traffic home.”
Recently, we had the strongest argument for why we should have elected judges as they do in the United States. Toronto Judge H. Porter rejected arguments that the charge of obstructing a police officer has been a deliberate shield for the past five years to preserve the outrageous “bubble zone” injunction protecting the Ontario abortion industry from public protests.
Judge Porter is the first judge to openly tell pro-lifers not to expect courts to end the injunction against picketing in a restricted area and that the problem should be addressed at “the political level.” May I remind Judge Porter that it was former Justice George Adams five years ago who established bubble zones that delineated how many metres away pro-life sidewalk counsellors would have to stay.
If Judge Adams could establish the perimeters outside which counsellors have to stand, isn’t that a legal decision that could be overturned by another judge? (If I were the judge of the merits of the injunction, by the way, the only thing that I wouldn’t allow the counsellors to do is to use the abortion mills’ washrooms without permission.)
Our crazy courts
It was sad to read that 12 of 13 Canadian judges at three levels okayed the perverted notion that a two people of the same sex can be “spouses” to each other, which totally ignores Christian morality to say nothing of biology. Only Mr. Justice Charles Gonthier of the Supreme Court of Canada got it right in judging the famous M vs. H case! (How did he ever manage to get named to the Supreme Court?) To be fair, maybe Mr. Justice Gonthier was the only judge who didn’t fail biology. The other 12 must have failed biology, having spent all their time studying gay sex literature.
I can hardly wait for the trial of that Colombian nun who shot and killed a burglar whom she confronted recently in her convent. (Burglars beware: nuns are sometimes armed.) She and another nun were arrested but released. Some judge, I’m sure, will give her 10 years for not having had a permit.
Then you have B.C.’s Madam Justice Mary Southin who said recently that society’s attitude towards pornography may prove as fleeting as its views on homosexuality in an earlier age. You see, Mary, that’s why God gave Moses the Ten Commandments!
In Ottawa, Raymond Armstrong, 40, was convicted recently of embezzling $120,000 from the grocery store where he worked. What punishment did he get? He was neither sent to jail nor forced to repay the stolen money. He was given a 15-month conditional sentence to be served at home! The judge said that Armstrong must live with the “stigma of being convicted.” Yeah, that must have hurt. He’s probably having a party every night celebrating.