They are called bills of attainder – pieces of legislation aimed at a particular person or group.

Henry VIII had at least two of his marriages annulled (and his wives executed) using bills of attainder.

But for more than two centuries now, the practice has been considered so obnoxious that, for instance, the American Founding Fathers specifically forbid attainders. And twice in the past 30 years, the speakers of the Canadian House of Commons and Senate have ruled bills out of order because they looked like attainders.

Now that one of the Liberals’ anointed inner circle is in trouble with the law, though, Prince Justin and his courtiers … um, er, Prime Minister Trudeau and his cabinet are considering a sort of modern-day bill of attainder – a law or decree aimed specifically at protecting Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef.

Last month, Monsef claims, she learned for the first time that she was born in Iran, not Afghanistan. She insists she did not know her mother had provided false information on the family’s refugee application when moving to Canada in 1996.

And, Canadians were told, Monsef “broke down” upon learning the truth just one week before the public.

Is this important? Kind of. Refugee and immigration applicants who make false statements when seeking admission to Canada can be deported even decades later. For instance, Holocaust camp guards have been deported 40 or even 50 years after the fact for failing to declare their Nazi pasts.

The integrity of our immigration system, not to mention our national security, depends on truthful applications.

Since the truth about Monsef’s birthplace was revealed last month in a news story, the Liberals (and their footmen and jesters at the CBC and Toronto Star) have closed ranks around the 31-year-old Peterborough, Ont. MP.

The official line has gone something like this: She didn’t know; it was her mother’s doing. She was too young (12) to understand in what country she had spent most of her life up to that point. Besides, she’s lived about five years in Afghanistan and we’re only talking about a few hundred kilometres difference, anyway. What’s more, people from one of these two countries who end up being born on the other side of some arbitrary, colonial-era line are automatically considered citizens of their original country anyway.

More than one Liberals has insisted Monsef’s really an Afghan, so get over it. Besides, she’s a good person.

If you agree, if you don’t think Monsef’s nation of birth should matter, let’s play a little game: What would you say if she was a Harper Conservative minister?

What if a Harper minister had learned she’d been admitted to Canada on a lie – and didn’t admit she knew until a news outlet broke the story?

What would you say if a Harper minister claimed she had only learned a week before the public even though there were rumours of her Iranian birth circulating in her riding during the campaign last year?

And what about the fact that when her family claimed to be Afghani (and not Iranian), our refugee board was far more likely to grant refugee status to Afghans than Iranians because there was far more chance of persecution in Afghanistan at the time? Would you unquestioningly accept her claim that her mother’s birthplace claim on her behalf was just a coincidence and not a fraudulent attempt to improve the family’s odds of being admitted to Canada?

Trudeau has always been steadfast in defending the anti-fraud provisions of our immigration law. But now that Monsef might have to leave cabinet (and even the country), the PM and his ministers are talking about changing the law. Just for her.