Letters: OMA bias towards Jewish doctor ‘disgusting’

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Poor Lena Diab! She had no idea what was going to hit her when she accepted the job as minister of immigration. Now she knows why her predecessors, Rachel Bendayan and Marc Miller, are smirking every time she meets them.

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Patrick Cowan, North York, Ont.

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Wagner should recuse himself

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Michael Higgins’ argument that Chief Justice Richard Wagner should recuse himself if and when the Supreme Court decides whether Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act was valid, is irrefutable. The public comments Wagner made about the truckers’ protest constituting “anarchy” are directly at the heart of the appeal. This is not just the appearance of bias, this is demonstrable actual bias, on the core issue that would be before the court.

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In 1981 Justice Thomas Berger commented publicly that Indigenous rights should be included in the Charter of Rights. According to Canadian Lawyer, “Among his public comments … were that the country’s first ministers were ‘mean-spirited and unbelievable’ in ‘abandoning’ native rights.” He was rebuked by the Canadian Judicial Council and later resigned from the court. I would argue that his comments were far less significant than Wagner’s pronouncement of “anarchy.”

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If Wagner sits on this case and the Supreme Court overrules the lower courts, the decision will forever be tainted. Justice most clearly will be seen not to have been done.

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Barry Kirkham, KC, West Vancouver

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Two views on our new governor general

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It’s very refreshing to see that on June 8, Canada will have a new governor general. As far as I can see, if Louise Arbour does absolutely nothing in her new role, she will still accomplish more than Mary Simon did.

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Simon was yet another poor choice in a sad list of bad choices appointed governor general over the years. That list includes Julie Payette, Adrienne Clarkson, and Ray Hnatyshyn.

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Welcome aboard, Your Excellency.

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Murray Edwortny, Cochrane, Alta.

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The appointment of Louise Arbour as the next governor general of Canada defies any sort of logic … unless, of course, you look at it from a purely cynical, yet obvious, perspective of her oft-stated, and very worrying, views on Zionism and the State of Israel.

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In 2012, then PM Stephen Harper brought in an admirable bill that set up a non-partisan committee to make recommendations for the position of GG. This was, of course, summarily suspended by Justin Trudeau when he was elected PM, and the appointments of governor generals returned to the sole discretion of the Prime Minister’s Office.

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Since then the “appointees” to the office, astronaut Julie Payette (who was forced to resign because of the allegedly toxic workplace she oversaw), and Mary Simon (who has generated her own controversies over language and the profligate spending of tax dollars), have been, to put it very mildly, less than stellar.

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Now Mark Carney continues the trend of Liberal PMs appointing highly unsuitable candidates to the supposedly ceremonial position. For someone who is supposed to be above politics, Arbour’s pronouncements, particularly as they pertain to Israel, Zionism and the International Court of Justice, are very troubling, to say the least.

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Arbour will, of course, be merely reflecting Carney’s own stated position on these issues. The Jewish community of Canada, however, will be extremely concerned that the negativity towards them and the State of Israel will, at least for the next several years, be entrenched in both Rideau Hall and the Cottage on its grounds. Not a good time to be a Jew in Canada!