Although we uppity rightists have moved on to our next legal outrage in Steyn and the BC Human Rights Tribunal, my thoughts have recently been turning to an older court-room debacle as its one-year anniversary approaches: the Conrad Black trial.
We certainly have our own problems in Canada but, as troubling as they are, I don't envy Americans their own legal headaches. As the Lord Black case eloquently demonstrated, the US justice system is absurdly weighted in favour of the prosecution. The system has forgotten what it once knew: that a man or woman charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. An atmosphere of unprincipled compromise has developed in the United States in which questions of innocence and guilt are subordinated to a process of haggling between jurors and attorneys. It has become truly ugly.
Say what you will about the Canadian Human Rights Commissions and the very serious threat they represent to freedom of speech, but at least our justice system remains true to that most fundamental tenet of civilized law: "innocent until proven guilty." For that we can be thankful and proud.
Also: Steven Skurka has a new book out called "Tilted: The Trial of Conrad Black." I'm still working my way through it but what I've read so far has been excellent. I would certainly recommend it to anybody interested in Lord Black, the Black trial, or the current witch hunt for business men and women who dare to turn a profit in the United States.
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