A lot of people are arguing that Harper's stacking of the judicial advisory committees last week is what the Liberals did while in power. It is not. Under the Liberals, government appointees were a minority. The rest were from the legal profession. The committees recommend judges. The government than selects from that pool. So basic standards of quality were upheld: The pool of recommendations was a sound, unbiased one.

But Harper has added a police officer on each committee, meaning that government choices now hold the balance of power. Harper has been blunt about wanting judges that are "tough on crime."

What Prime Minister Harper has done is open the whole process to the sort of political manuevring that has soiled the U.S. justice system. (By the way, the Canadian system is used as an example by justice systems across the world. It ain't broke.) He has appointed a firefighter and failed Conservative Party candidate with no experience in the legal system, along with a number of Tory activists and people known for their right-wing social views. This means that the pool of candidates from which the government choses judges is already politically biased. (Canadian judges say their independence is "in peril.")

It also means that when another party once again takes power, it can do the same thing. It sullies our much heralded justice system in perpetuity. It is a bad policy and deserves the public uproar that its legal dullness likely precludes.

10 Years Ago This Week: February 27, 1997
Even though I drew this cartoon three years before Walkerton, it foreshadows the E. coli outbreak that Ontario Premier Mike Harris' cuts to the Environment Ministry made possible (click on date to see full cartoon). It also foreshadows Horst and Celia's current problems -- or, rather, Horst's personality makes one big foreshadow. Or maybe it was just February.

Retailers for Attack of the Same-Sex Sleeper Cells:

Toronto:
Pages, 256 Queen Street West (at John).
The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street (near Bloor and Bathurst)
Book City, three locations - 501 Bloor St. West, 348 Danforth Ave., 663 Yonge St.
Hairy Tarantula, 354 Yonge Street (near Dundas).

Guelph:
The Bookshelf, 41 Quebec Street.
Macondo Books, 18 Wilson Street

Waterloo: Words Worth Books, 100 King Street South

Kitchener: KW Bookstore, 308 King Street West

Hamilton: Bryan Prince Bookseller, 1060 King Street West