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Rambod Behboodi Profile picture
Rambod Behboodi
@GenevaTradeLaw
Lawyer and law prof, former Canadian diplomat, aspiring scénariste of Persian legendary history. I have no views about things I know nothing about.
Jun 20 • 42 tweets • 12 min read
Hear ye, hear ye!

The Ontario Superior Court is in session. We have a decision in Dong v. Global.

It's not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning in a deeply disturbing and shameful episode of Canadian journalism. 1/ This is not a ruling on the underlying allegation that Global defamed Dong. Rather, it's a threshold ruling; but an important one.

In Ontario, you can't sue to shut people up on matters of public importance. This is a critical principle, essential for the free flow of debate. 2/ Image
May 1 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
When I first saw this quote I thought it was fake.

This, of course, is dangerous populist rhetoric. Next step from this is government by plebiscite, the favourite of tinpot petty dictators the world over.

This, by the way, is not about the Notwithstanding clause. Not just. 1/
Image The Notwithstanding clause is part of a complex set of compromises that made the Charter possible. It is a safety valve, permitting Parliament and the courts to have a time-limited dialogue in respect of a limited number of constitutionally-guaranteed rights.

Like the EA, 2/
Jan 3 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
This is an excellent thread.

As General Counsel @FinancesCanada during the Financial Crisis, I was responsible for legal advice on all non-tax business lines of the Department. This list is missing trade, money laundering, and international financial institutions. 1/
Image The Globe is, of course, doing the Globe-par-excellence thing of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing. It aspires to be the Economist - a foolhardy venture at the best of times - and ends up being a only marginally higher-brow National Post. 2/
Dec 23, 2023 • 40 tweets • 12 min read
Retweeting the CPC is further evidence that the punditocracy does not want the Truth about election interference, but a full-on Gomery circus.

Government lawyers do not represent Liberal Party interests. This is a depraved attack on the professionalism of the civil service. 1/
Image I was a "government lawyer" for almost twenty years, under both Liberal and Conservative governments. In all that time, except in one glaring instance, ministers were diligent in keeping party and political matters out of policy briefings and instructions.

To be sure, 2/
Oct 11, 2023 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
I don't know if @MichaelChongMP ever served in government, or whether @acoyne (who regularly retweets the MP) remembers the Lebanon evacuation. And, especially, what an evacuation in a war zone entails. I defer to my former colleagues, @SabineNolke and @PafsoPresApase.

A 🧵. 1/ 1. We do not have enough diplomats in each potential trouble spot to help everyone who needs help. This is normal: you staff to what is needed for routine operations, and staff up if something comes up.
2. An evacuation is a "whole of diplomatic service" enterprise. 2/
May 25, 2023 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
I like priors to be challenged, which is why I read Andrew's opinion pieces.

He'd "boil down" the Old Testament to: "Guy found in a floating basket goes up a mountain, talks to a burning bush, and comes back with sixteen rules he counts as ten, half of which are about him." 1/ The key question is not, of course, whether or not a public inquiry. The punditocracy knows well that the documents that have not been aired will still not be aired. And that they will also not be shown to people who don't have clearance. (Hint hint) But, the people who do, 2/
Mar 6, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Via @Scribulatora

This is a valid point - up to a point.
1. Not ever allegation is worthy of reporting, and just calling it an "allegation" does not make it reportable.
2. Not every unnamed source should be believed or reported. We know this from Arar, but also 1/ the experience of the Trump years, where "unnamed sources" was just a byword for "I have access pay attention to what I report but not to what I hold back for my book", as well as police misconduct reportage.
3. We also know that "allegations" in the news pages 2/
Mar 5, 2023 • 18 tweets • 9 min read
An ex parte application to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice reminded me of this note about investigations. It also has other interesting points on precedents - well, interesting for me and other law geeks, and potentially of interest to WTO nerds as well.

Ex parte? 1/ It means going to court asking for something without the other side present. For example, in the middle of a criminal investigation.

In this instance, the Court issued a sealing order for all relevant materials. And that the motion at issue could proceed without notice. 2/ ImageImage
Mar 4, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Mr. Coyne is going down some deep - and dark - rabbit holes going back to ... 1997.

I'm guessing Chretien, Martin, and Harper were also enablers of Chinese influence peddling, theft of high-tech secrets, and money laundering?

Let me tell you about "controversial" reports. 1/ ImageImage Caveat: I have not seen the reports and so cannot judge what the reporter means by "watered down" and "sanitized".

I did serve as manager and senior executive in the government of Canada, and as lawyer at PCO, and I can tell you what *I* would have found "controversial". 2/
Mar 4, 2023 • 19 tweets • 5 min read
🧵

The most interesting thing about the China scandal that has Canadian media in a feeding frenzy is that we know exactly nothing about it. It's a scandal because they say it is, not because anything scandalous has been revealed.

My $0.02 about the media-driven "scandal". 1/ Image 1. What do we know?

A. There are intelligence reports that China, Russia, and Iran sought to interfere and influence Canadian elections.

B. The intelligence is not concrete enough for an RCMP criminal investigation or for Elections Canada to act.

C. Two reviews determined 2/
Mar 3, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I'll not link to this.

You don't have to be a particularly astute or seasoned media critic in Canada to see where this is all heading.

1. Leak and "report" without context
2. Senior officials give testimony that the "intelligence" is not reliable, smear them 1/ with "their officials"
3. Create a crisis
4. Demand transparency to bolster the confidence they themselves have eroded
5. Claim that whatever is reported is not enough/redacted
6. Officials say "nothing of note happened", demand a public inquiry to find out who was complicit 2/
Mar 3, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
And in his At Issue comments @acoyne suggested that officials are risking imprisonment, which means they must be really concerned about the government's handling of the issue.

Poppycock and balderdash.

1. The RCMP said, at the same table, "ain't got nothing". 1/ 2. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, sitting right there, said, "what we got is not a lot."
3. All of which should tell you - actually, nothing. This is all irrelevant.

Let me spell it out: it is not up to individual spies to like or dislike government policy. 2/
Mar 2, 2023 • 23 tweets • 9 min read
Two names are in the news these days: Robert Fife and Sy Hersh.

That they continue to get paid to write is a subversion of economics. That anyone takes them seriously is a puzzle of both journalism and logic.

Especially Robert Fife. Of the CSIS/China fame.

Why? Two words: 1/ Maher Arar.

(See the factual background in the Commission report.)

Leaks. Senior Canadian intelligence officials. See a pattern here?

Harper apologized for Arar. Did Fife? 2/

ccrjustice.org/sites/default/…
Mar 2, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
If I were to ever give advice to a well-respected journalist - and one I've known personally since I was in undergrad - it would be this: don't go full Conrad.

Never go full Conrad. 1/ It's not necessary to be a complotist to question the timing of the latest leaks and the orchestrated media circus on this. 2/

Dec 15, 2022 • 16 tweets • 9 min read
Something about a recent case in Ontario struck me - a name, or perhaps was it the subject matter? (Paging @AkivaMCohen and @questauthority) Then I read the headnotes. Ahhhh.

The case is Post v. Hillier.

What's that? Yes, you heard right. Hillier. 1/ Not Randy, but his daughter.

Apple, meet tree.

This is a tale of friendship gone sour. And yes, there was a wedding as well. 2/
Dec 14, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I'm not quite sure what this means.

Let's be clear what is at issue here.

Provinces could *always* raise their own taxes to increase revenue. They don't want to do that, of course, because they don't want to be held accountable. This is a tale as old as Confederation. 1/ Instead, they ask money from the feds. Why? Not because Parliament has a better tax base - it's the same base - but because it's a lot easier to run against Ottawa on both lack of adequate funding *and* higher taxes.

So this brings up to the conditions - "specific reforms". 2/
May 9, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
I've written in the past about the Ontario Court of Appeal - I find its decisions clear, concise, and well-reasoned.

Statutory interpretation is an important part of the work of an appellate instance. They do stellar work. Their *starting point* is similar to the VCLT. 1/ But where they end up is very different from the AB's approach. 2/
May 9, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
"More freedom for one is more freedom for another."

The singularly most vacuous political and moral statement in Canadian history - and I include the Rhinoceros Party and the execrable PPC in that.

For a leadership candidate, a most dangerous position to adopt. 1/ And "freest country on earth"? Poppycock and balderdash, with a large dollop of bullshit.

These abstractions are idiotic in any context, but for a leadership candidate of a serious political party, downright immoral. 2/

May 8, 2022 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Let me write a conservative speech for a @CPC_HQ leader that no Conservative leader will deliver because we no longer have "conservatism" in Canada, only tics and poses of US-imported populist rage.

Here is goes:

"Canadian conservatism is enshrined in our constitution: 1/ Peace, order, and good government at the federal level; strong provinces responsible for matters of local importance; and a constitutional order built on a thousand years of history that has demonstrated enormous capacity to develop and adapt to changing circumstances.
Feb 26, 2022 • 22 tweets • 5 min read
This news capped a day remarkable, even in these news-filled days, for the richness of "events". And it made me reflect on the tricks life plays on us.

For the last decade, Mr. Putin has been engaged in a global game of disruption: wikileaks, Crimea, Trump, trolls and bots. 1/ It's been highly effective - an entire political party in Russia's principal geopolitical rival and foe is essentially its captive - but that very strength, that apparent geopolitical, has masked essential underlying weaknesses in the project.

1. Russian governance. 2/
Feb 26, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
@calxandr knows a lot more about Russia than most; and it's difficult to argue that the UNSC is "fit for purpose" if the purpose were *only* peace and security.

But it's not. The SC is a modified version of the Concert of Great Powers, as I argued in my *1994* paper on Iraq. 1/ And the problem is not the veto.

Let's say you had a Security Council resolution. And Russia ignored it. And the UNSC "authorized" military intervention.

Would NATO send in active troops? There's still Russia's nuclear arsenal. And we can't even agree on deSWIFTing. 2/