In a 6-3 split decision issued this week, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the Trudeau government's carbon tax constitutional. The majority decision, written by Chief Justice Richard Wagner, held that Ottawa could legally impose the tax on all provinces because of the Peace, Order and Good Government clause of Canada's constitution, which allows the federal government to legislate on matters of national concern on which provincial governments are unable to act. Justice Wagner assumes that "unable" can also mean "unwilling," and then leans heavily on the "concern." He writes,
This matter is critical to our response to an existential threat to human life in Canada and around the world.... [Climate change] is a threat of the highest order to the country, and indeed to the world... The undisputed existence of a threat to the future of humanity cannot be ignored.
Faced with this histrionic language, it is worth noting that Wagner was first appointed to the court by Conservative PM Stephen Harper, before he was made chief by Justin Trudeau. Just another example of Harper's failure to tilt the Canadian judiciary in a broadly conservative direction during his nine years in office. Trudeau's government isn't making the same mistake.
The National Post tries to put the majority's thinking in context, explaining that, for the carbon tax to achieve its declared goal of rescuing humanity from anthropogenic climate change, no province may be able to opt out, because of the danger "of carbon leakage, where an industry in a province with carbon pricing might just locate to a neighbouring province without it."
That is, if the tax is imposed only on provinces which support the Liberal government in Ottawa, then businesses hoping to avoid the tax might just move to places like Alberta and Saskatchewan, which don't. But couldn't that reasoning be extended further? Why wouldn't businesses look to relocate out of Canada altogether?
CPC leader Erin O'Toole made just this point, warning of the "same risk of leakage of jobs and investment” to the United States, the great boogie man of Canadian political discourse. But I am thinking of countries like China, which will happily accept the jobs that western virtue signalers no longer want in their own country. Of course, China doesn't have the same concerns about carbon emissions that are so common in the west, but for our environmentalists, "out of sight, out of mind" is a key principle.
In any event, it seems that the only hope that foes of the carbon tax have going forward is for the Conservatives to win an election and repeal the law. And they might soon get their shot. Hopefully they don't screw it up.
Article tags: Alberta, Canada, Carbon taxes, climate alarmism, climate change, Justin Trudeau, Supreme Court of Canada, Wexit
This is a money/power grab, nothing more. Plants need carbon to eat, they give off oxygen, levels of which have been steadily dropping for eons effecting everything including our size and health. here in canaduh they destroyed a centuries worth of climate data because it didnt jive with the narrative of this chicken little mindset. What people need to understand is the idea that created the carbon tax was to make basic item more expensive for the lower and middle classes to force them to consume less, and I dont mean plastic junk thats not taxed as much as milk eggs and especially meat. This is mathusian madness of the highest order, evil, and people rally behind it with the same rabid enthusiasm of a frantic maoist mob waving their little red books and handing their parents over to the authorities for wrong-think (starting to sound familiar?)
The idea that the same people who "run" the dmv should have more power over the wellbeing of you your loved ones and your nation is tragically naïve. The idea that the billionaires who talk openly, write endless books about and structure their entire business's around the false narrative of over population, that they have the best interests of you and your loved ones is so absurdly ridiculous it borders on complicity. The crux of it all, the lynchpin of this full spectrum tyranny is the lack and probable murder of, basic deductive reasoning and common sense. Combine that with the cynical use of these strawmen like white supremacy and patriarchy and the marxists have managed to take complete control thru divisiveness by vanity (im better than that person over there, he's a raicist!) and a soft coupe thru the take over of government, media, academia and increasingly the military and police. One of the things that really shocks me is the complete willingness of the police and military to use violence to silence anyone daring to question this madness in public. These are men and woman who very often have families who in the past were willing to travel halfway across the world and die fighting the same type of socialist tyranny that their helping install today. Whether it was national socialism in Germany or soviet and maoist socialism in Korea and SE Asia. I can not imagine the shame their ancestors must feel for their own blood.
There are three categories of “believers” in anthropogenic global warming, Marxists who wish to ride that horse to their socialistic nirvana, politicians who hope to achieve power, and the useful idiots who actually believe that humankind can somehow control the temperature of the earth. Chief Justice Richard Wagner apparently belongs to the latter group.