Justice Russell Brown has resigned. He was facing a disciplinary hearing by the Canadian Judicial Council over allegations of a late-night brawl with a Marine in Arizona.
Yeah, yeah, Canada, we get it. You have politicians that still have the ability to feel shame. Stop showing off.
This confuses me. Given the little that we know it seems unlikely to me he was at significant fault. However, there may be things not publicly known.
I’m envious of a country where politicians still fear public opinion to the extent that they will step aside rather than face its judgment or consequences.
Well done, Canada!
I wouldn’t characterize a Supreme Court of Canada judge as a politician.
That may be another difference between 
and 
. 
I don’t think of Russell Brown as any kind of a politician, since we don’t elect our judges. Prior to sitting on the SCC, Brown was a professor at the University of Alberta (heck, he was one of my professors), and prior to that, he practiced law.
As I recall, he had a better-than-average sense of professional ethics, and this is what I’d expect him to do, given the allegations.
Still sad news. I always figured that if I argued before the SCC, I could anticipate what he was going to remark upon in my argument. I well remember his lectures in class.
So sorry. I wasn’t thinking – obviously! I wouldn’t characterize them as politicians, either. Just have one particular politician on the brain and it’s clouding my posts.
IIR the news report at the time, Judge Brown got into a drunken fight in the US and was commenting about “who he is” as a defense of his actions. I would presume that is at least in part why he’s stepping down. Not trying to be sanctimonious in any way but Brown’s sins are pale in comparison to Clarence Thomas’ disgraceful conduct.
I’ve only ever met one Marine, but there is no way I would have “got into a fight” with him, not even a verbal one.
And I am not 57 years old.
Also I thought Canadians were nice and polite.
Well, we tend to be, but don’t push us too far. If you expect “nice and polite Canadians,” at all times, well, you should know that we are capable of opening a whole can of whoop-ass on you if the situation warrants. Not that Professor Brown showed any violent tendencies while he was my professor in class, but I always got the feeling that he could handle himself in any situation. If you get my drift.
From Due South:
- Benton Fraser : What’s the one thing you hear Americans say about Canadians over and over again? ‘They’re such nice, polite, people.’ So we use that against them. We let them underestimate us.
I wish that our SCOTUS members had the guts to challenge a marine to a bar fight at closing time.
I had once heard Canadians described this way…“imagine very polite Americans who play funny football…”.