ABOVE: The Harper government continued to face tough questions Tuesday in the House of Commons over their war of words with Supreme Court Justice Beverley McLachlin
OTTAWA – Justice Minister Peter MacKay has escalated the feud between the Harper government and the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
MacKay implied in the Commons yesterday that the Supreme Court went beyond the strict wording of the law to nix the appointment of Marc Nadon to the top court’s bench.
It was the Nadon decision that triggered a tit-for-tat war of words last week between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.
Last March, the court found Nadon ineligible to sit as one of three Quebec judges on the Supreme Court because he came from the Federal Court of Appeal.
The Supreme Court Act specifies that Quebec judges must come from either the province’s Court of Appeal or Superior Court, or have at least 10 years standing at the Quebec bar.
Last week, Harper accused McLachlin of inappropriately trying to make an “inadvisable and inappropriate” phone call to warn him that there might be an eligibility problem with Nadon’s appointment.
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