Rex Murphy: Roe leak wouldn’t matter to us if Canada had its own legal system

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It was a terrible idea to intertwine our laws with those of the United States.

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An even worse idea to combine our two national judicial systems, so that any disturbance that occurs in the larger US system automatically and irrevocably shakes the foundations of our laws and conventions.

Oh, that we would have kept the two systems separate. How much calmer and more stable Canadian law would be today.

It turns out that many of our great thinkers and public figures who, since the birth of our Confederation, have argued that Canada would be a better place if our country fought against imitation or compromise with the American model, were right.

We should have fought more fervently to be a fully independent nation, and never allowed one of the key institutions of our democracy to be some kind of “added-on” duplicate of the American system.

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We should have fought more seriously to be completely independent.

We’re seeing a vivid and absolutely unmissable example of this in the furor that swept through many of the nation’s newsrooms and Canada’s Parliament on Tuesday in the wake of news of a “leak” from the US Supreme Court. .of a draft opinion on the subject of abortion.

I don’t think I need to argue that if our laws and courts were really different, if they weren’t, by history and precedent, so deeply and irrevocably enmeshed with those of the United States, that the leaking of the draft opinion of a Justice of the Supreme Court would have no consequence here in Canada.

It just wouldn’t matter. We would be like the courts of other countries, where there have been no storms in their legislatures, nor in their media.

Let’s take Norway as an example. The prime minister of that nation did not feel the need to stand up in his parliament and issue dire warnings about “a woman’s right to choose” because, of course, Norwegian courts are not bound by the rulings or practices of American courts. Norway has a different and separate legal system.

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The same thing happened in a host of other nations. The UK and most European nations had a normal day. They are not concerned with what happens in the US Supreme Court because their courts and legal systems are in no way bound by what happens, whether as leaks or full decisions, in the US superior court. .

Canada, as we saw from the reaction of Justin Trudeau, his partner in government, Jagmeet Singh, and a host of television and newspaper stories, is different. Obviously, our laws face a strong wind when there is even a flutter, such as a leak, from the US.

It was all very dramatic, statements by cabinet ministers, promises to “uphold women’s rights,” solemn debates on the evening news programs about “what this means” for Canadian women. Very serious and disturbing things.

The headlines set the tone for the crisis. “Liberals Scrutinize Canada’s Health Act to Ensure Abortion Right Protected: Trudeau.” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland issued a profound warning: “All Canadians, especially all Canadian women who care about a woman’s right to choose, must be active, vigilant and speak up.”

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Could it be that this crisis, due to the crisis that emerges from these declarations and so many others, will give another occasion for a declaration of the Emergencies Law? Use that radical legislation with its unlimited powers to build some kind of temporary wall or shield against the Americanization of Canadian jurisprudence?

Or is it too late? Have the horses come out of the stable? Have the hounds been taken off their leashes? Has the “cake (which took so long to bake) been left out in the rain?” That I seriously fear.

If only we had completely disassociated our legal system, our courts, our legal practices and precedents from the American system from the very beginning of Canada, this crisis would never have befallen us.

If the Canadian legal system owed nothing to the American legal system, we wouldn’t even be talking about this.

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It’s too late? Have the horses come out of the stable?

Our leaders would have been spared their panic, their urgent warnings to Canadian women.

Because if Canada had its own legal system, what happened so recently in the United States, this still uninvestigated leak, would have no relevance to Canadian politics.

None at all. And instead, we could be dealing with our own problems. Our broken health system. The scandalous lack of drinking water in the First Nations. Crazy debt and deficit. Inflation and the cost of living.

What a great thing that would be, a Canadian government dealing with Canadian problems. But, according to the current understanding, that of course is a “dream of madness and expectation”.

What a pity!

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