The story below shows Bloc and NDP anger over the Conservatives appointing a judge who, as a lawyer, acted for the Hells Angels.
The Bloc and NDP are wrong.
Being a lawyer means acting for people who may been not very nice. If lawyers refuse to act because their client is, say, a rapist the system will totally collapse.
(Now, the political background is more interesting...)
Tories defend judge who worked for Hells Angels
The Canadian Press
The Conservative government is defending its nomination of a Quebec judge who used to be a lawyer for members of the Hells Angels.
The Tories named Jacques Léger, a former Conservative Party president, to the Quebec Court of Appeal in January 2009.
But media reports have revealed that Leger advised members of the biker gang on commercial rights before he became a Quebec Superior Court justice in 2006.
The NDP and Bloc Québécois blasted the government during question period Thursday over Léger's nomination.
James Morton
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6 comments:
The article you quote misses an important piece of information (from Cyberpresse, Marie Vastel, La Presse Canadienne, Ottawa)
Le juge Léger s'est fait retirer une cause impliquant quatre Hells Angels, cette semaine, par son juge en chef Michel Robert, comme le rapportait Radio-Canada mercredi soir. Me Léger n'avait pas cru bon de soulever la possibilité de conflit d'intérêts, dans cette cause de libération sous caution qu'il devait présider mardi prochain, et de se désister.
The optics of this "tough on crime" government appointing a former Hell's Angels defender are not good.
It doesn't help that he's also a former president of the Conservative Party.
I believe all but one of the supreme court apointees were members of a political party or at least major donors.
To raise concens now is political posturing.They will be ignored by the public.
The only thing worse than a lawyer defending a hell's angel is a lawyer defending a politician.
Still, he should have recused himself in the case of Hell's Angels defendants.
I agree with the conflict of interest part
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