HARPER IS QUITE RIGHT TO WANT JUDGES WHO ARE TOUGH ON CRIME

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is being raked over the coals by members
of the opposition parties and the media for admitting that he's
looking for judges who buy into his government's law-and-order agenda.

Harper's herd of critics say that, if this happens, our court system
will lose its independence and become "ideologically
contaminated."

But we suspect that, on this issue at least, the PM has a winner on
his hands.

Many Canadians believe our courts are already suffering from
ideological contamination -- from judges who are far too soft on
criminals and way too hard on the victims of it. Indeed, the PM's
stance on law-and-order issues was clearly popular with the voters who
put him into office.

Besides, Harper's latest comments should hardly be cause for great
hand-wringing. All he said was that his government wanted judges who
believed in cracking down on crime and making our streets and
communities safer.

What right-minded judges wouldn't agree with that worthy
objective?

Only those, presumably, who don't mind seeing crime
flourish.

And do we really want those kind of judges? Of course not.

Now, some of those who favour the judicial status quo have argued that
tackling crime is a complex matter that isn't amenable to simplistic
solutions. And they may be right.

But if our justice system is now so tied up in legalistic knots that
it cannot tell right from wrong any more, it clearly needs an infusion
of new judges -- with a clear vision of why it exists and whom it is
supposed to be serving.