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Former AG decries release of CONFIDENTIAL (her caps) discussions re. Trudeau’s refusal to support her recommendation of a homophonic, anti-abortion, anti-Charter Chief Justice. Who released CONFIDENTIAL details of her discussion with the PM 7 weeks ago? — Hon. Sheila Copps (@Sheila_Copps) March 26, 2019

Well, I say “alleging.” It’s not actually controversial: No one disputes the appointment was ultimately the PM’s to make, or that the justice minister was allowed to have her opinions. No, this is just sort of an FYI leak. People thought we should know that Wilson-Raybould supported a Supreme Court candidate whom Trudeau worried (per CTV correspondent Glen McGregor) “wasn’t committed to protecting rights that have flown out of interpretation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, particularly LGBTQ2 rights and even abortion access.”

“Well-placed sources say the former justice minister’s choice for chief justice was a moment of ‘significant disagreement’ with Trudeau, who has touted the Liberals as ‘the party of the Charter’,” Joan Bryden reported for CP. “Internal discussions about a Supreme Court appointment … are typically considered highly confidential,” Bryden added. But, you know, Anonymous Sources just thought we should know Trudeau had done his research, and had come across a speech Joyal gave to the Canadian Constitution Foundation in 2017.

In that speech, he soberly explains his entirely mainstream concerns that Canadian courts have over the years progressively asserted a policy-making dominance over the legislatures that the Charter’s framers had never intended, and with some deleterious effects to the country’s “political culture.” Perhaps Trudeau might also have come across Joyal’s 1993 Master’s thesis from the University of Manitoba, in which he makes similar arguments and analyzes R v. Morgentaler, among other cases.