Asked about the U.S., Canada's chief justice says rule of law is 'under attack' worldwide

John Paul Tasker · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 10, 2025 10:33 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hr ago

Asked astir U.S. President Donald Trump's contentious narration with parts of the American judiciary, Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner said Tuesday "the regularisation of instrumentality and judicial independency is nether attack" astir the world.

Speaking to reporters astatine his yearly news conference connected Parliament Hill, Wagner said if a authorities attacks the media, judges, lawyers and universities — arsenic Trump and his associates person done successful caller weeks — there's a bully accidental it's "a dictatorship" and an "autocratic government."

Wagner said Canadians indispensable beryllium "prudent" and sphere their institutions, including a judicial strategy wherever rulings are respected by elected officials. "We person to beryllium careful, but beryllium optimistic arsenic well.

"In Canada we person a beardown ineligible system," helium said. "We person to support those institutions. We should not instrumentality thing for granted."

Wagner said, passim his cross-country travels, "everybody asks maine the aforesaid question" astir whether what's going connected successful the U.S. courts strategy volition bleed implicit into Canada.

What's antithetic successful Canada, Wagner said, is that the "main stakeholders" present "respect separation of powers and judicial independency and are blessed to unrecorded successful a state wherever the regularisation of instrumentality volition prevail."

"Canada is not a superpower. But it is simply a antiauthoritarian superpower. In this country, the regularisation of instrumentality is non-negotiable," helium said.

WATCH | Rule of law, judicial independency nether onslaught astir the world, Canada's main justness says:

In his 2nd word arsenic president, Trump is pushing an ambitious but constitutionally dubious docket that has been held backmost by immoderate judicial rulings.

The president has slammed immoderate judges connected societal media — complaining astir a "radicalized and incompetent tribunal system" successful 1 caller station — and threatened others with impeachment or removal from office.

When 1 federal judge ordered a impermanent halt to the deportation of alleged Venezuelan pack members, Trump said it was the actions of a "radical near lunatic of a judge, a troublemaker and agitator" who should beryllium disconnected the bench.

In hundreds of cases earlier the U.S. tribunal system, judges person delayed oregon stymied his efforts to adjacent immoderate national agencies, prosecute wide layoffs of national workers, artifact overseas aid, extremity birthright citizenship for radical calved on American soil, deport undocumented migrants and slap tariffs connected countries specified as Canada.

After the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down parts of Trump's tariffs regime, saying the president overstepped his law authorization by imposing sweeping levies connected planetary goods, 1 of his apical advisors, Stephen Miller, said, "The judicial coup is retired of control." 

Trump has had immoderate ineligible victories, particularly astatine the U.S. Supreme Court, which includes 3 justices appointed by him. 

Late past month, the apical court let Trump's medication revoke the impermanent ineligible presumption of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants surviving successful the United States, bolstering the Republican president's thrust to measurement up deportations.

A Trump authoritative said that ruling was "a triumph for the American people."