"We thank Colby Cosh for reclarifying comments Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin made regarding her role on the Order of Canada Advisory Council. However, notably absent in his column ("A ludicrous attack on McLachlin," Aug. 22) were several key facts.
Canada Family Action Coalition (CFAC) operated with the best evidence available to us on Aug. 13 when we filed the complaint with the Canadian Judicial Council. Some information came from news stories (one from the National Post), some from past council decisions and some from the Constitution of the Order. All attempts we made to confirm the accuracy of information were stonewalled. We were stonewalled by the Governor-General's office and the judge. Requests for information under the Access to Information Act failed. We were informed the Governor-General is exempt from requirements of the act, which allows her to operate in a code of secrecy. Additionally, a one-liner on the Governor-General's Web page states: "All deliberations of the Advisory Council for the Order of Canada, as well as for any Canadian honour, are confidential.""
... so they went ahead and filed the complaint anyway, with whatever information they had. From news stories? What, like lifesite?? DUH! (Funny that Cosh didn't seem to have any trouble getting the facts straight, but I digress.)
It's unlikely that CFAC is too concerned about the facts anyway -- if they were, they might have addressed Cosh's scoffing ridicule of the "42 groups" that signed the complaint. Nah, they don't want to go there (and who can blame them?). What probably sent them into a furious foaming spittle-flecked lather was the last sentence of Cosh's article:
"Could it be that Morgentaler's appointment was in fact perfectly in line with the "social norms" of today?"
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