Tuesday, December 9, 2003 Lawyer
backed anti-terrorism bill: Says he'll promote
human rights 
Cotler not
afraid to speak his mind by Tonda
MacCharles OTTAWA The first thing you need
to know about the new Justice Minister Irwin
Cotler renowned human rights scholar and
advocate is he will speak his mind.The second thing
you need to know about Cotler, the law professor,
is that he loves lists. So the first thing on his list yesterday was to
meet with his new justice officials, but not before
he spoke his mind about his new job. And that's
where things got interesting.Cotler, 63, told
reporters he personally supports the marijuana
decriminalization bill, a public inquiry into the
Maher Arar case, and believes the same-sex marriage
reference to the Supreme Court of Canada should be
broadened to ask the high court to review all
options including whether "civil unions" would meet
the requirements of equality guaranteed in the
Charter." As a law professor my view was that in the
context of a reference, then the broadest possible
options should be put before the court to allow for
the broadest possible discussion and debate, and to
allow for the most comprehensive and informed
advisory opinion. "But as justice minister, he said, he could not
respond directly. "That's not a copout, that's
being a responsible minister who's about to meet
his officials today, and we'll discuss it and then
we'll then come forward with our position." The press secretary to Prime Minister Paul
Martin, sensing trouble, struggled to cut off
reporters' persistent questions to Cotler only to
give up.Then hours later, the first question that
confronted Martin at his first formal news
conference as Prime Minister was whether he would
expand the questions asked to the Supreme Court on
the issue of gay marriage a move almost certain to
delay the high court hearing now scheduled for
April. "We will be discussing this in cabinet," said
Martin, who repeated his ambiguous position that
"we've got to support the Charter of Rights." The appointment of
Yale-educated Cotler, a Jewish Montrealer and a
former head of the Canadian
Jewish Congress, as
the country's leading lawmaker is at once a
thoughtful, daring move, yet perhaps a risky
one. John Asfour, past president of the
Canadian Arab Federation, said Cotler's
pro-Israel comments could get in the way of his
job as justice minister, reported Canadian
Press. "Mr. Cotler and some of the Jewish lobby have
supported (Israel) blindly," Asfour said in an
interview. Martin called Cotler, MP for Pierre
Trudeau's old riding of Mount Royal, Thursday
with the offer of a lifetime." He mentioned to me something to the effect that
'what do you do with a guy who has all kinds of
ideas about human rights in terms of justice?'" "I said, 'Well, I always thought human rights
meant justice.' He said 'Congratulations, minister
of justice,'" Cotler related with a broad grin.
Cotler replaces Martin Cauchon who was
dropped from cabinet. "The protection and promotion of human rights,
and amongst them minority rights, will be my
guiding principle." As a backbench MP, Cotler often issued stinging
indictments of the Liberals' failure to articulate
strong opposition to groups like Hezbollah later
outlawed as a terrorist organization or to foreign
regimes that abuse human rights. He said at the time he regarded his political
career as an "extended sabbatical from my career as
an academic and human rights lawyer." Cotler's credibility as a human rights expert
was a trump card in the push to persuade a
suspicious Canadian public of the merits of the
controversial new Anti-Terrorism Act, C-36. As a widely published law professor, now on
leave from McGill, and onetime counsel to
prisoners-of-conscience like Andrei Sakharov
and Nelson Mandela, Cotler's backing gave
the bill the boost it needed.Cotler argued
anti-terrorism laws and broader police powers are
not an attack on civil liberty, but a bulwark
protection against attacks on the ultimate human
right to live in a secure society, free from
terror. 
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