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"One knows … that the university and in a general way, all teaching systems, which appear simply to disseminate knowledge, are made to maintain a certain social class in power; and to exclude the instruments of power of another social class. … It seems to me that the real political task in a society such as ours is to criticise the workings of institutions, which appear to be both neutral and independent; to criticise and attack them in such a manner that the political violence which has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them." -- Foucault, debating Chomsky, 1971.

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Monday, February 3, 2014

Supreme Court of Canada now has all documents in hand to fix Rancourt's unresolved judicial bias complaint


AN EARLIER POST describes Denis Rancourt's recent filing of an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, to fix a complaint of judicial bias.

The application gave rise to responses from the respondent Joanne St. Lewis and from the responding party University of Ottawa. Rancourt filed his replies to these responses today (February 3, 2014). The file is now nominally complete for a determination by a panel of three supreme court judges.

The St. Lewis response is posted HERE, or PDF.
The University of Ottawa response is posted HERE, or PDF.
Rancourt's replies are posted HERE, or PDF.

Rancourt essentially argues that if the Supreme Court of Canada refuses to grant an appeal, then Canada will have violated its international obligations to provide an impartial court in civil matters, pursuant to two international agreements:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 10
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Article 14(1)
1. All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law. ...

Rancourt also argues that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms itself requires that the appeal on the basis of the judicial bias complaint must be heard, because, he argues, access to an impartial court is a Charter right of every individual by virtue of s. 15(1):

Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

Rancourt points out that the French text of the Charter (s. 15(1)) is unambiguous on the guarantee of access to an impartial court:

La loi ne fait acception de personne et s’applique également à tous, et tous ont droit à la même protection et au même bénéfice de la loi, indépendamment de toute discrimination, notamment des discriminations fondées sur la race, l’origine nationale ou ethnique, la couleur, la religion, le sexe, l’âge ou les déficiences mentales ou physiques.


Court documents in the overall action and its appeals are HERE.

1 comment:

Mike Lemington said...

Mr. Rancourt you are abusing the legal system and you obviously know that the Supreme Court will refuse to hear your appeal. You want to drag this thing out for as long as you can. Your arguments in your application for leave make it quite clear that you are either ignorant of or disinterested in the law and I suspect you desire nothing more than to play the victim card and demonstrate, to use your words as you post on this website: that "Canada will have violated its international obligations to provide an impartial court in civil matters, pursuant to two international agreements:" You are nothing but a shameless self promoter and once all of your appeals are finally exhausted, you will have no choice but to declare bankruptcy. I suspect you know this and have known this for quite a while but don't really care. But no one knows who you are, no one cares. You will be forgotten.