Frontier Centre for Public Policy
How Canadians lost the rule of law

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
Universal problems are evident in the rejection of Jordan Peterson’s appeal against Ontario’s College of Psychologists (CPO) in Divisional Court. They had sought to re-educate him as a condition for retaining his license—because he openly ridiculed public figures. But as Dr. Peterson related in the National Post, October 11, they’ve failed to find a brainwasher for him.
Precedent now confirms that unaccountable tribunals may override apparent Charter rights. That may declare as unacceptable anyone’s contrary opinion or peaceful protest. Dr. Peterson’s case follows the way the courts clobbered supporters of the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest on Parliament Hill. Now members of all regulated professions are especially at risk, including doctors, lawyers and teachers. Instead of protecting citizens from overreach, the courts have become the instrument for enforcing tyranny.
As the Toronto Star reported on the first press conference by Chief Justice Richard Wagner in 2018, he said his court was “the most progressive in the world.” Today, progressive is synonymous with the absurdities that Dr. Peterson ridiculed. Wanjiru Njoya, a legal scholar at the University of Exeter has been quoted as saying that the courts automatically define as unreasonable any perspectives falling outside progressive boundaries.
A further foundational problem is that judges now routinely preside over cases where they have an obvious bias or personal connection, and then defer to those interests. Canadian judges should follow this admonition in the American Judicial Code? “Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge … shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”
Justice Paul Schabas wrote the Decision for Dr. Peterson’s appeal before Divisional Court. However, he had previously been involved, personally, on the side of the argument opposite that of Dr. Peterson. In June 2018, as head of the Law Society of Ontario (LSO), he oversaw the imposition on lawyers of their controversial Statement of Principles (SOP). As a condition of licensing, it required a commitment to Equity, Social and (Corporate) Governance (ESG). Later, the LSO withdrew it following protests like African-Canadian Elias Munshya’s in Canadian Lawyer: “Lawyers play an essential role in our society; that role, however, does not include becoming state agents that parrot state-sponsored speech.”
Chief Justice Wagner recently confirmed that courts may now freely override common law precedent. He said that: “Apart from considering [historic] decisions as part of our legal cultural heritage, no one today will refer to a decision from 1892 to support his claim.” He added that “sometimes a decision from five years ago is an old decision ….”
Accordingly, the Supreme Court had simply disregarded century-old precedents when declaring Marc Nadon ineligible to join their club. My book Justice on Trial explains that many earlier appointments did not meet their newfound qualifications.
The subjective word “reasonable” supports much of Canada’s problematic jurisprudence. Absent objective criteria, judges reward friends and crush others as they may.
Justice Schabas said several comments similar to this one were unacceptable: “Dr. Peterson posted a tweet in May 2022, in which he commented on a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover with a plus-sized model, saying: ‘Sorry. Not Beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.’”
Dr. Peterson objected that the CPO’s Code of Ethics should not constrain such “off duty opinions.” The Code says “[p]ersonal behaviour becomes a concern of the discipline only if it is of such a nature that it undermines public trust in the discipline as a whole or if it raises questions about the psychologist’s ability to carry out appropriately his/her responsibilities as a psychologist.” So which magazines’ cover pictures are not of public interest?
Justice Schabas continued, “The [CPO’s investigating] Panel also noted Dr. Peterson’s reliance on the Supreme Court’s decision in Grant v. Torstar, 2009 SCC 61, [2009] 3 SCR 640, a defamation case which held at para. 42, that “freedom of expression and respect for vigorous debate on matters of public interest have long been seen as fundamental to Canadian democracy … all Canadian laws must conform to it.” Why did Justice Schabas override this settled law?
Europe’s Charter of Fundamental Rights says, “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.” So how can a right be fundamental in other free and democratic countries but not in Canada?
And why did the court of Chief Justice Wagner decline to hear Dr. Peterson’s appeal and allow Justice Schabas’ decision to stand? No prize for your answer!
As long advocated by The Globe & Mail and The Toronto Star, Dr. Peterson’s case shows the need to end self-regulation and in-house discipline for lawyers and judges. That happened for lawyers for England and Wales in 2007. So why not in Canada?
Ottawa resident Colin Alexander’s latest books are Justice on Trial: Jordan Peterson’s case shows the need to fix a broken system; and Ballad of Sunny Ways: Popular traditional verse about living, loving and money.
Frontier Centre for Public Policy
The Kamloops Hoax Is Costing Taxpayers Billions

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
The vast scale of the waste, the damage to Canada’s international standing and the willingness of political leaders in all parties to accept a falsehood without question demand a full public inquiry. Such an inquiry should be led by someone with the stature of Preston Manning or Jean Chrétien—someone trusted across party lines to tell the truth.
No graves have been found but the spending hasn’t stopped—and no one in Parliament is asking the hard questions
The “Kamloops Hoax” is the largest misuse of taxpayer dollars in Canadian history, yet, unlike past scandals, the Official Opposition has failed to challenge it.
Critics use the term “Kamloops Hoax” because, more than three years after the 2021 announcement that 215 Indigenous children’s remains had been detected at Kamloops, no human remains have been recovered and no forensic evidence has confirmed the claim.
It’s worth recalling how past scandals have been handled when governments were caught misusing public funds.
In earlier eras, major political scandals brought down governments. The Pacific Railway Scandal toppled John A. Macdonald’s Conservatives less than a decade after Confederation, when opportunists exploited an over-generous government eager to complete a vital national railway. Public money was handed out freely, political allies were enriched and the opposition of the day seized the opportunity to expose the waste and corruption.
More than a century later, the Sponsorship Scandal forced Jean Chrétien’s Liberals from office after it became clear that party operatives had misused public funds in Quebec. Again, the opposition—then the Conservatives—did its job. The wrongdoing was debated in Parliament, reported in the press and discussed by Canadians from coast to coast. In both cases, the system worked because the opposition held government to account.
The Kamloops case is different. Whether it is a hoax, a scandal or a boondoggle—or all three—nothing in Canadian history comes close in scale to the waste it has triggered, or in the willingness of all parties to look the other way.
In May 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia announced that ground-penetrating radar had detected what they believed were the remains of 215 children on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The announcement was accepted as fact by the media and political leaders.
The claim set off a wave of similar announcements across the country, each citing radar anomalies as possible graves. Governments at every level pledged billions of dollars for searches and compensation. The narrative quickly became fixed in the public mind: atrocities, murders and secret burials had taken place at residential schools.
This single unproven claim has driven the passage of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, $70 billion in extra spending on questionable Indigenous claims and a parliamentary motion branding Canada guilty of “genocide.”
The cost is staggering and still growing. Blacklock’s Reporter and Professor Hymie Rubenstein, a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, point out that applications for a $320-million federal fund to search for alleged graves have been so numerous that the amount would have to double to meet demand. And the spending shows no sign of stopping.
The damage extends far beyond wasted dollars. Based on the assumption that graves had been discovered, the genocide motion has tarnished Canada’s reputation internationally. It has entrenched a narrative of national guilt unsupported by evidence and weakened our ability to speak credibly on human rights abroad.
The Trudeau Liberals bear full responsibility for creating this crisis. They turned an unverified allegation into a moral panic, then spent public money as if there were no limits. Whether Mark Carney’s government will continue this course remains to be seen.
Yet the most glaring failure lies with the Official Opposition. In past scandals, opposition parties seized every opportunity to expose government waste and misconduct. This time, the Conservatives have been largely silent.
Aside from a few tentative remarks from Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, no Conservative MP has challenged the core narrative of atrocities, murders and secret burials at residential schools. Worse, they reinforced it. When NDP MP Leah Gazan introduced her genocide motion—rooted in the same unsubstantiated claim—every Conservative MP voted for it. Not one dared to oppose a motion based on no credible evidence.
Think about that. A motion alleging that 215 children died under sinister circumstances and were secretly buried by priests sailed through Parliament unanimously. In my view, it was one of the most shameful moments in Parliamentary history and in the long history of the Conservative Party.
Carney appears ready to continue a boondoggle largely created by his predecessor.
Eventually, there must be a reckoning. The vast scale of the waste, the damage to Canada’s international standing and the willingness of political leaders in all parties to accept a falsehood without question demand a full public inquiry. Such an inquiry should be led by someone with the stature of Preston Manning or Jean Chrétien—someone trusted across party lines to tell the truth.
Until then, Conservatives must find the courage to speak if their leader will not. Fear of offending Indigenous sensibilities or jeopardizing “reconciliation” cannot justify the misuse of taxpayer money. Truth must not be sacrificed for political convenience.
Canadians deserve better. They deserve leaders who will question unverified claims before committing billions of their hard-earned dollars. They deserve a Parliament willing to defend both fiscal responsibility and historical accuracy. And they deserve an Official Opposition that understands its role is to hold government to account, not to nod along as the country is led into one of the costliest boondoggles in its history.
Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge and a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
Business
Trudeau’s Gone So Why Does Everything Still Feel Broken?

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Lee Harding
Lee Harding skewers Ottawa’s déjà vu politics: Trump is tariffing Canada into submission again, Carney’s Liberals are flailing, and Poilievre’s back—like none of early 2025’s drama ever happened.
The Liberals swapped leaders, but not direction, and the country is paying for it
New year, new prime minister—same failures. Mark Carney’s Ottawa looks just as weak and directionless as it did under Justin Trudeau, and Canadians are paying the price.
Despite the drama of 2025—Trudeau’s resignation, Carney’s rise to Liberal leader, an election fought on promises of competence, and Pierre Poilievre’s shock defeat—Canada has ended up right back where it started.
Poilievre is already headed back to the House after a resounding byelection win in Battle River–Crowfoot on Aug. 18, pulling nearly 80 per cent of the vote. But what’s changed? Carney’s shine has already worn off, and fewer Canadians than ever believe he can handle the country’s domestic or international challenges. Less than four months into office, the renewed Liberal government has left Canada weaker abroad and poorer at home.
The Carney honeymoon ended fast. Days after his victory, he posed alongside U.S. President Donald Trump, mimicking Trump’s signature “thumbs up.” Trump took credit for Carney’s win and revived his “51st state” rhetoric. Carney’s team scrambled to downplay the moment, but the damage was done. This was the man who promised to stand up to Trump, not stand beside him.
Worse, Canadians soon learned that Carney had quietly removed most tariffs on American goods during the campaign, a politically clever move that stripped Canada of any leverage. As a result, Trump’s administration steamrolled Ottawa with 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and copper, and 35 per cent on goods not covered by CUSMA.
While Canada floundered, global competitors moved in. The U.K., European Union, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines all inked new trade deals with Washington. Once seen as a preferred partner, Canada is now on the outside looking in.
Diplomatic humiliation followed. On the very day Poilievre won his byelection, Trump convened NATO allies to discuss a peace framework for Ukraine and Russia—Canada wasn’t invited. Once proud of our role as an honest broker and middle-power influencer, we’re now irrelevant.
Carney’s much-hyped economic expertise has also fallen flat. He appeared willing to govern without a federal budget—an act of arrogance or incompetence, take your pick. After backlash, he promised a fall budget, but there’s still no credible plan to rein in deficits or restore confidence. Even Air Canada workers ignored his calls to return to work.
A long-overdue defence spending pledge of $8 billion has been mostly swallowed by decarbonization programs, doing little for national security. Meanwhile, the government’s environmental agenda continues to punish the economy. Slashing the consumer carbon tax to zero was a headline grabber, but industrial carbon taxes and regulatory burdens continue to rise, choking off investment, productivity and competitiveness.
Western alienation is deepening. The Carney government’s shortcut for approving energy projects, fast-tracking anything “in the national interest,” politicizes resource development and creates uncertainty. Carney has even hinted that Indigenous groups may gain veto power, further muddying the investment landscape.
The economy is stagnant. Canada’s international stature is diminished. The West remains ignored. For many Canadians, Carney looks like nothing more than Trudeau 2.0.
Incredibly, we’re right back where we were when the year began. Trump is blocking our exports. The prime minister can’t stop him. And Pierre Poilievre is back in Parliament, sharpening his attacks.
The only real difference? The NDP doesn’t have a leader. But once it does, it will be eager to bring down the government and try to rebuild its own credibility. Political change is coming—but not just yet.
Lee Harding is a research fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
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