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The “sweetness of proportion”, the 17th century English playwright and poet Ben Jonson once said, and o, how missing it is in the modern Canada.

Consider the trial of Ontario Court Judge Bernd Zabel.

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Well, alright, it wasn’t a trial exactly, but rather a hearing – the equivalent of a guilty plea — before a panel of the Ontario Judicial Council.

But no mistake: The 69-year-old judge could not have committed a more heinous crime.

I am utterly confident that had he assaulted someone in his courtroom, urinated upon the common street or appeared drunk in public, the outcry would have been far less great than it was for the crime he has admitted.

Eighty-one complaints – a record number – poured into the judicial council, most within a few weeks.

Staff at that genteel office must have fainted.

Last Nov. 9, Zabel wore a red “Make America Great Again” ball cap into his courtroom.

It was the morning after the U.S. presidential election.