Rumpole and the boon of injustice

A tale of Boone and Power and what's not in a name

The Court of Appeal building in St. John’s Photo: Court of Appeal

Louis Power may be a decent fellow.

He may be a skeet.

Doesn’t matter.

In Canada, the most serious thing the state can do to anyone is deprive them of their liberty. That’s why there are laws and rules that put limits on the reasons for locking someone up and how the state can do that. There has to be a fair trial, for one thing, and there is a right to appeal a conviction.

Power was entitled to the same rights and protections from state power as everyone else.

But in an appeal that ended in early November, the Court and the Crown lawyers kicked those rights into the gutter.