A4 | NEWS Q THEGLOBEANDMAIL| WEDNESDAY,MARCH11,
Joe Biden has won three more primar-
ies, including the pivotal state of Michi-
gan, putting Bernie Sanders’s campaign
on the ropes and continuing a stunning
comeback that sets the former vice-
president on a clear path to the Demo-
cratic presidential nomination.
Pressure is certain to increase on Mr.
Sanders to quit the race for the sake of
forming a united front to take on Presi-
dent Donald Trump in November, par-
ticularly after the insurgent leftist failed
to win Michigan, a state he captured
four years ago in an upset and whose
working-class voters should be part of
his natural constituency.
Both contenders, meanwhile, can-
celled rallies in Cleveland Tuesday night
over concerns about the new coronavi-
rus, raising questions about the feasibil-
ity of mass campaign events when all
three remaining presidential conten-
ders are elderly men and therefore in
the high-risk group for COVID-19.
“Just over a week ago, many of the
pundits declared that this candidacy
was dead. Now we’re very much alive,”
Mr. Biden told supporters near his cam-
paign headquarters in Philadelphia.
“Our campaign is a comeback for the
soul of this nation ... tonight, we are a
step closer to restoring decency, dignity
and honour to the White House.”
The former vice-president also struck
a conciliatory note with Mr. Sanders,
thanking his supporters for their “tire-
less energy and their passion” and say-
ing they “share a common goal” of beat-
ing Mr. Trump.
The next scheduled Democratic pres-
idential debate, on Sunday in Phoenix,
will take place without a live audience
as a health precaution, organizer CNN
announced. And officials in Washington
State donned gloves to count ballots.
Mr. Biden, who just two weeks ago
faced tough questions about the future
of his campaign, held a solid lead of 53
per cent to 41 per cent for Mr. Sanders in
Michigan, the most populous state to
vote Tuesday. Early returns showed him
winning by margins of 30 percentage
points in Missouri and 60 percentage
points in Mississippi. He appeared to
have won with a voting coalition of Afri-
can-Americans, older voters and subur-
ban swing voters.
Results had not yet come in from
Washington State, Idaho or North Dako-
ta.
Michigan was one of the Rust Belt
swing states that tipped the 2016 elec-
tion to Mr. Trump, and winning it back
is a must for the Democrats in the fall.
These primary results are the first
since a clutch of other moderate candi-
dates dropped out of the race over the
past two weeks and rallied around Mr.
Biden. The entire party establishment
has subsequently coalesced around him
in a bid to stop the insurgent leftist Mr.
Sanders.
Taking Missouri further cemented
Mr. Biden’s ability to win the industrial
Midwest, while his blowout victory in
Mississippi continued his dominance of
the South. Taken together, they will sub-
stantially increase his lead in conven-
tion delegates over Mr. Sanders.
The race only becomes harder for Mr.
Sanders after this: Of the seven remain-
ing major states to vote, he did not win a
single one in 2016. Mr. Biden will be
looking forward to even larger victories
next week when delegate-rich Florida,
Illinois and Ohio vote.
Mr. Sanders had gone negative in a
bid to reclaim his front-runner status.
One new ad excoriated Mr. Biden for
supporting trade deals such as NAFTA,
which Mr. Sanders blames for hollowing
out the manufacturing sector in Michi-
gan and other industrial states. Another
accused Mr. Biden of wanting to cut
pension and health-care benefits for se-
nior citizens.
Mr. Sanders was one of only 10 sen-
ators to vote against the U.S.-Mexico-
Canada Agreement (USMCA), a rejigged
version of NAFTA negotiated by the
Trump administration. He has vowed if
elected to renegotiate it again to addprovisions dealing with climate change
and strengthen protections against the
moving of jobs to Mexico.
Mr. Sanders also put out an ad show-
ing stock footage of former president
Barack Obama praising Mr. Sanders, a
tacit admission that Mr. Biden’s connec-
tion to Mr. Obama had allowed him to
dominate among black voters.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders had both
planned to rally supporters in Ohio
Tuesday evening, but both cancelled af-
ter three coronavirus cases in the state
prompted thegovernor to declare a
state of emergency. Neither campaign
immediately announced any further
cancellations over similar concerns.
“We are heeding the public warnings
from Ohio state officials, who have com-
municated concern about holding large,
indoor events during the coronavirus
outbreak,” Mike Casca, Mr. Sanders’s
communications director, said in a
statement. “All future Bernie 2020
events will be evaluated on a case-by-
case basis.”
Mr. Biden’s deputy campaign manag-
er, Kate Bedingfield, said the campaign
was consulting with public-health offi-
cials and would “make announcements
about future events in the coming days.”
Washington State also raised elec-
tion-related coronavirus fears. The state
uses a vote-by-mail system, in which
people fill out ballots at home and ei-
ther mail them in or drop them off at
polling stations. Officials on Tuesday ex-
horted voters to seal their votes with
wet clothes or sponges. “Whether
healthy or sick, please don’t lick!” the
Washington secretary of state wrote on
Twitter.
Mr. Biden, Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump
are all in their 70s and therefore more
likely to have serious complications
should they contract the virus. Mr.
Sanders also suffered a heart attack last
fall. But until now, none had indicated
they would cancel campaign events as a
result.
Mr. Trump has decided not to get test-
ed for the virus, despite coming into
contact with several Republican legisla-
tors who have self-quarantined after be-
ing in close proximity to an infected
man at a conservative conference two
weeks ago.PresidentialhopefulJoeBiden,flankedbyhiswifeJill,addressestheNationalConstitutionCenterinPhiladelphiaonTuesday.He
hadplannedtoattendanOhiorally,butcancelleditbecauseofcoronaviruscasesinthatstate.MANDELNGAN/AFPVIAGETTYIMAGES
Bidencementsleadwith
winsinMichigan,Missouri
Formervice-presidentalso
handilywinsMississippi,
puttingpressureonSanders
todropoutofrace
ADRIANMORROW
U.S.CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON
Canada’s chief justices have spoken up
against a proposed federal law that
would make courses in sexual-assault
law mandatory for judges, saying judges
should not be told what to think.
Michael MacDonald, interim execu-
tive director of the Canadian Judicial
Council, told the Commons justice com-
mittee that making such courses com-
pulsory, while well intentioned, sets a
dangerous precedent for driving “con-
troversial educational initiatives down
the throats of judges.”
The proposed law requires the coun-
cil to provide education on, among oth-
er things, myths and stereotypes about
sexual-assault complainants. Candi-
dates for federally appointed courts
would need to promise to receive such
instruction if they become judges. Imag-
ine, Mr. MacDonald said, that a govern-
ment comes along in five, 10 or 20 years
to say that judges must be instructed
that residential schools for Indigenous
children, the Holocaust or climate
change are myths.
“You would want the judiciary to
stand bravely, courageously, and say,
‘you can’t tell us what we have to learn. If
you tell us what we have to learn, you tell
us what we have to think, arguably.’ ” Mr.
MacDonald is a former chief justice of
Nova Scotia. The Canadian Judicial
Council, which is chaired by Supreme
Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner, is a
body of chief and associate chief justices.
The bill, known as C-5, is a response to
a public perception that some judges
still are in the Dark Ages in sexual as-
sault cases. The law would order the ju-
dicial council to offer education in sex-
ual-assault law and social context to
members of the superior courts of prov-
inces (a federally appointed post). It
would also mandate an annual report
from the council, to be tabled in Parlia-
ment, on the sexual-assault courses giv-
en and the number of judges who at-
tended. Mr. MacDonald said the spirit of
the law was positive, but asked that nei-
ther the creation of such courses, nor
their content, nor the annual report, be
mandatory.
The law was inspired by a private
member’s bill introduced three years
ago by then-Conservative MP Rona
Ambrose, which would have required
candidates for federally appointed
courts to take a course in sexual-assault
law and social context. Ms. Ambrose
pointed to cases in which judges such as
Robin Camp, who at the time served on
a provincially appointed court in Alber-
ta, asked a rape complainant in a 2014
trial why she hadn’t simply kept her
“knees together.”
Ms. Ambrose’s bill died in the Senate
last June before the fall federal election.
Justice Minister David Lametti intro-
duced a similar bill last month applying
to sitting federal judges.
The bill’s purpose, Mr. Lametti told
the justice committee on Tuesday, is to
give all Canadians, especially victims of
sexual assault, confidence in the justice
system’s fairness. Most victims, he said,
do not report sexual assault because of a
fear they will be humiliated or criticized.
He told the committee it was prema-
ture to comment on Mr. MacDonald’s
proposed amendments to the legisla-
tion – such as changing “shall” to
“should” so the courses are not manda-
tory – because he has not seen them yet.
But he rejected Mr. MacDonald’s con-
cerns about a dangerous trend. “I will
admit I am less worried about a trend; in
fact, I’m not worried at all.” Judicial inde-
pendence is well entrenched in the legal
system, he said, adding that the pro-
posed law is a response to a couple of
high-profile cases in provincial court
that demonstrated more training was
needed.
The “knees together” comment from
Mr. Camp, which led to the end of his
tenure on the bench, was top-of-mind
for committee members. A Conservative
MP, Philip Lawrence, paraphrased the
comment for Mr. MacDonald, asking
whether the public can feel confident
that judges would not make similar
comments or refer to a complainant’s
sexual history.
“We can never give a guarantee,” Mr.
MacDonald replied. “We are doing our
darnedest on a number of fronts. That
was so upsetting to everybody. You can
rest assured that we are daily conscious
of this.”
Most sexual-assault trials (95 per cent,
according to Mr. MacDonald, and 80 per
cent, according to Mr. Lametti) are held
in provincial courts, which are not cov-
ered by the proposed federal law. Mr. La-
metti said he is encouraging his provin-
cial counterparts to introduce similar
legislation. Prince Edward Island has
done so, and other provinces are con-
templating it, he said.
Adèle Kent, executive director of the
National Judicial Institute, told the com-
mittee her group provides extensive
training in sexual-assault law and social
context to federal judges, with some
training available for provincial judges.
“In our humble opinion, we are on
top of this,” Mr. MacDonald said.Chiefjustices
voiceobjection
tomandatory
trainingin
sex-assaultlaw
SEANFINE
JUSTICEWRITERThe Justice Department must give Con-
gress secret grand jury testimony from
special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia
investigation, a federal appeals court
ruled Tuesday, giving the House a signif-
icant win in a separation-of-powers
clash with the Trump administration.
The three-judge panel said in a 2-
opinion that the House Judiciary Com-
mittee’s need for the material in its
investigations of U.S. President Donald
Trump outweighed the Justice Depart-
ment’s interests in keeping the testimo-
ny secret.
The opinion authorizes access to in-
formation that Democrats have sought
since the conclusion of Mr. Mueller’s in-
vestigation, giving lawmakers previous-
ly-undisclosed details from the two-year
Russia probe.
Writing for the majority, Justice Judi-
th Rogers said that because Mr. Mueller
himself “stopped short” of reaching
conclusions about Mr. Trump’s conduct
to avoid stepping on the House’s im-
peachment power, the committee had
established that it could not make a fi-
nal determination about Mr. Trump’s
conduct without access to the underly-
ing grand jury material.
“The Committee’s request for the
grand jury materials in the Mueller
Report is directly linked to its need to
evaluate the conclusions reached and
not reached by the Special Counsel,”
wrote Justice Rogers, a Clinton appoin-
tee.
Judge Thomas Griffith issued a sep-
arate concurring opinion. Justice Neomi
Rao, a Trump appointee, dissented, sug-
gesting that the need for the testimony
could have waned after Mr. Trump’s
acquittal at a Senate impeachment trial
last month.
“After all, the Committee sought
these materials preliminary to an im-
peachment proceeding and the Senate
impeachment trial has concluded. Why
is this controversy not moot?” Justice
Rao wrote.
It is unclear when the materials
might actually be turned over. The
Trump administration can ask the full
appeals court to rehear the case, and
can appeal to the Supreme Court.
The ruling softens the blow of a loss
the House endured two weeks ago
when judges on the same court said
they would not force former WhiteHouse counsel Don McGahn to testify
before Congress. The split decisions
leave neither the administration nor
Congress with a clear upper hand in an
continuing interbranch dispute.
The ruling is a major win for Demo-
crats who have fought the Justice De-
partment for nearly a year, but it’s un-
clear what the House will actually do
with the material. Lawyers for the Dem-
ocrats have said the grand jury material
could potentially be used for additional
articles of impeachment, although the
Senate impeachment trial over the Pres-
ident’s interactions with Ukraine ended
weeks ago in an acquittal.
The case is one of several disputes be-
tween the Trump administration and
Congress that courts have grappled with
in recent months.
The two sides had been similarly at
odds on the question of whether Mr.
McGahn could be forced to testify about
Mr. Trump’s behaviour during the Rus-
sia investigation.
The appeals court ruled in a recent
2-1 decision that judges had no role to
play in that dispute and dismissed the
case.ASSOCIATED PRESSU.S.Houseentitledtograndjurytestimony
fromMueller’sRussiaprobe,courtrules
ERICTUCKERWASHINGTON