Preface to the first edition

• Author: Kent Roach
• Pages: 9-10

ix

Preface to the First Edition

The recent personalization of the judicial activism debate in

Canada and its focus on the role of the so-called Court Par ty of

law professors, law clerks to the Court, and interest groups that appear

as intervenors before the Supreme Court1 make it necessary for me to

respond to those who may attempt to discredit this book on the basis of

my previous experience. As a former clerk to Justice Bertha Wilson, I

might be thought by some to be an apologist for the work of the Court

and for its decisions that are associated with judicial activism. I am

indeed sympathetic to many of the Court’s interventions on behalf of

unpopular minorities and the accused, but not because I believe that

the Court has a monopoly on wisdom or should always have the f‌inal

word. Rather, I believe that democracy is improved when we are forced

to consider the effects of our actions on the unpopular and the dis-

advantaged and that an independent and courageous judiciary is the

best institution we have to remind us of those concerns. Any fears that

I will be too soft on the Court should be rebutted by the fact that, as a

law professor, I earn my livelihood by criticizing the Court both in the

classroom and in the law reviews. One of the reasons for writing this

book is my concern that the Court may pay too much attention to the

critics of judicial activism and may become too deferential in its work.

This restraint would deprive Canadians of the checks and balances

produced by having both a strong Court and a strong Parliament and a

more self-aware and self-critical democracy.