Coutts Plea Deal; Supreme Court judicial review on Freedom of Information
Two of the Coutts Four have plead guilty to lesser charges and been released for time served. The Crown dropped the conspiracy to commit murder charges against them. This raises questions as to why the Crown charged conspiracy to commit murder in the first place and whether the men would have been granted bail and avoided prison if the Crown had correctly charged the men in the first place. Unfortunately details are sparse and because of the plea deal we may never know what happened. Justice should be done publicly and plea deals should not allow the Crown to withhold their charging evidence.
Another disappointing judicial review from the Supreme Court. The CBC requested the ministerial mandate letters from the Ontario Premier to his ministers under Freedom of Information. Why Doug Ford didn’t release these letters in the first place is beyond me. How does he expect to maintain a democracy if people don’t know what their ministers are trying to achieve? The Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered the release of the letters, followed by the Ontario Divisional Court and the Ontario Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court reversed all these decisions and exempted the letters from release. All the lower courts were attempting to follow the Supreme Court’s own prior ruling in Vavilov. When three levels of courts/tribunals are unable to correctly interpret Supreme Court rulings on judicial review one begins to suspect the problem is with the Supreme Court and not the lower bodies. Unfortunately Freedom of Information in Canada is enforced through administrative law and judicial review, not regular civil or criminal law.
Rally at Markham and Lawrence this Saturday from 11:00am - 12 noon
Please bring a freedom related sign, flag, flyers etc. if you have them. I have a now autographed copy of Tamara Lich’s book “Hold the Line” to lend out.
If you can’t see us from the corner at Markham and Lawrence, then check the parking lot in front of Healthy Planet
Other rallies on Saturday:
Presumably there is a noon rally at Queen’s Park north side.
Saturday Feb 17th: Freedom Convoy second anniversary Party in Ottawa