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    The QP Clip: Mulcair dials rhetoric up to 11

    The exchange you can’t miss from this afternoon’s Question Period

    Nick Taylor-Vaisey
    <p>OTTAWA.JAN.05.2010</p> <p>PHOTOS EMBARGOED UNTIL 12 AM THURSDAY JANUARY 7</p> <p>Portraits of The Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C., photographed at the Supreme Court of Canada.</p> <p>From the Supreme Court of Canada webpage&#8230;</p> <p>&#8220;&#8230;McLachlin was appointed Chief Justice of Canada on January 7, 2000. She had been appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Canada in 1989. Prior to that, she was Chief Justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court from 1988 to 1989, a judge of the British Columbia Court of Appeal from 1985 to 1988, a judge of the British Columbia Supreme Court from 1981 to 1985, and a judge of the Vancouver County Court from April 1981 to September 1981.&#8221;</p> <p>PHOTO BY FRED LUM/ THE GLOBE AND MAIL</p> <p>DIGITAL IMAGE</p>

    OTTAWA.JAN.05.2010

    Tom Mulcair remains unconvinced that Prime Minister Stephen Harper won’t re-appoint Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court. Nadon was, of course, the Federal Court judge ruled ineligible for the top court. Last year, months before Nadon’s initial appointment, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Justice Minister Peter MacKay discussed potential issues posed by Nadon’s CV. Harper’s office claims that, at the time, the PM declined to talk things over with McLachlin.

    The PM’s office remembers events thusly: “After [MacKay] received [McLachlin’s] call he advised the Prime Minister that given the subject she wished to raise, taking a phone call from the Chief Justice would be inadvisable and inappropriate.”

    The opposition now focuses on that statement’s use of the word in bold. Mulcair, the NDP leader, calls it a lot of things. He phrased his question like so:

    “The Prime Minister’s personal attack against the Chief Justice is absolutely unprecedented in the history of Canada, and it forces us to ask why. Why go to all this trouble over an appointment that’s already been rejected? I’d like to give the Prime Minister one more opportunity to categorically rule out reappointing Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court. Will the Prime Minister rule that out once and for all?”

    The first words of Harper’s response:

    “We’ve been clear on that, and we’ll act according to the letter and the spirit of the Supreme Court decision.”

    Mulcair is still concerned that Harper could appoint Nadon to a judicial post that would render him eligible for the bench, and quickly make it so.

    tags:Beverley McLachlin