Marshall Rothstein was wonderful on the stand. Maybe it had something to do with the overall feeling of the whole Ad Hoc Committee reviewing him, but I think a lot had to do with the fact that it was Canadians questioning Canadians. I would liken us to the good cop in the infamous “good cop, bad cop” scenario.
One of the most interesting things said was not uttered by the new Marshall in town, but was instead uttered by Rob More, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice.
Rothstein had been asked about his feeling on the Ad Hoc Committee itself and referred to it bringing transparency and education to the masses. Mr. More said in his opening remarks that he would go so far as to say that Canadians already have learned more about Rothstein through the process than they likely have about any other Justice on the highest court in the land through any previous nomination process.
This was why I was excited about the vetting. I, like most Canadians, am a pretty friendly decent person. Canadians play well with others, (in general). So for those who were concerned with the degradation of the process can be happy to know it did not happen.
If you haven’t found a good breakdown of the Ad Hoc committee, OttawaCore has a bulletized version of the vetting online.