Safe Communities Depend on Safe Judges
If judges are not able to make decisions without the threat of personal consequences for themselves and their families, communities will be in serious danger and democracy will fail. This is not exaggeration. Threatening judges and their families with personal consequences has long been a key weapon used by the most dangerous elements of a society to escape accountability - it is how criminal organizations thrive and how states fail. It is how innocent people become victims of violence and chaos. Even in places like Canada, judges endure threats to their safety when, for example, they put dangerous gang leaders behind bars. What saves them, and all of us, is that the state - our political leaders - step in to stop these threats, to say that this is not acceptable and to provide the protection the judges need to do their jobs. Accountability and community safety are stated priorities of the Premier but his suggestion, whether made in jest or in earnest, that a judge and his family should bear personal consequences for decisions of the court sends a dangerous message that jeopardizes the rule of law, undermines our ability to hold criminals to account, and makes every Ontarian less safe. The OBA is not an organization that calls out political leaders for headlines, we do so when it is necessary to protect the foundations of our society. It is critical for the safety of our communities that the Premier send a clear signal to Ontarians that he was wrong to suggest a judge and his family should bear personal consequences for a judicial decision, that he condemns this kind of behaviour and that the state will not tolerate it. We appreciate the Premier started his statement by indicating his respect for the judiciary but this respect was fundamentally undermined. This Premier has many times shown the virtue of being able to admit when he has made a mistake, this needs to be one of those times.