Postcard from Canada

News from the 51st State ... Conservatives on law 'n' blitz ... Separation of powers ... Hot issues for the election ... The "notwithstanding clause" ... Court dumps Musk and his X ... Anti-Trump fever sweeps the nation ... From Maple Bloom 

Canada is also racing to the polls - in fact four days before the federal elections in Australia.

Opposition leader Pierre Poilièvre is the Trumpist candidate, with a law 'n' order agenda that would make Peter Dutton nervous.  

In a weird straddle, Pierre has been obliged to restate, in both official Canadian languages, his "respect" for the country's Supreme Court. 

This came about because he proposes to overrule the court using the "notwithstanding"clause" under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

By using the clause, a Poilièvre government would prevent the court invalidating proposed laws that violate fundamental freedoms and legal rights - specifically affecting parole applications by people convicted of "multiple murders". 

Pierre is a tough guy. The only way out of prison for these offenders will be in a box. Everyone now feels a lot happier because this will be an end to the "Liberal crime and drug wave".

Poilièvre's predisposition towards the Trumpian distaste for separation of powers has been put down to his close connections to Canadian Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, who has close links to US Vice President JD Vance - going back to their frat boy days at Yale. 

Poilièvre, like Dutton has lost his footing as conservative bastions, such as big business, are using social media to express their disdain for the US in general and Musk in particular. 

Anything American is publicly disowned, and Canada's courts have joined the exodus from Twitter/X as an official channel of communication. 

The Supreme Court of Canada announced in February that it would no longer post on Musk's X, migrating its announcements to other platforms.  

The announcement hardly came as a surprise. It has simply added its name to a list of institutions that started leaving X in droves from January 2025.  

This includes other Canadian courts, such as the Court of Kings Bench of Alberta - which made a similar departure announcement on March 7, 2025.  

The Canadian anti-Trump/Musk juggernaut has reached the stage where even Fox News can no longer ignore it - reporting that Celebrity Canadian Michael Bublé made a "veiled dig" at Trump, saying Canada is "not for sale". 

Bublé: hanging onto his Canadian fans

This turned out to be one of the most striking announcements of the election campaign, although other performers during the Juno music awards were slightly less restrained - e.g. "Elon Musk is a piece of garbage".

It's not often that news from Canada generates excitement beyond the border, yet we find a law journal in Scotland picked up the news about the court's de-Musking its lines of contact with the outside world.  

We wait in hope that after your election, Australian courts consider de-contaminating themselves by migrating from X to more neutral territory such as Bluesky or even Notes on Substack.