Constitutional law
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Personality Issues
First of all, my apologies for the extended silence. At first, it was a lack of interesting topics; but then the worst enemy of blogging, the loss of habit of frequent writing. I will do my best to get back into it now. I start off by a comment on an interesting recent article by… Continue reading
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The Ghost of Patriation
If the ghost of communism is, or ever was, haunting Europe, Canadian constitutional law is haunted by what Fabien Gélinas described as the Ghost of Patriation. This ghost has been seen abroad again this week, stirred by an historian’s claims that, while the Supreme Court was considering questions about the constitutionality of the federal government’s… Continue reading
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Faith and Acts
Is it permissible for an undercover police officer to pose as a religious adviser to induce a suspect to disclose information about a crime the officer is investigating? Not always, but sometimes it is, says the Court of Appeal for Ontario in a decision released last week, R. v. Welsh, 2013 ONCA 190. In that… Continue reading
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L’Occasion de se taire
J’ai écrit, l’an dernier, que le Directeur Général des Élections du Québec envisage[ait] … de poursuivre Yves Michaud pour avoir fait publier dans le Devoir une publicité appelant les électeurs à défaire certains députés, de tous les principaux partis. Il leur en veut d’avoir voté, il y a douze ans, en faveur d’une motion de… Continue reading
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Sauter sans parachute
Les députés québécois qui quittent l’Assemblée nationale, que ce soit par une démission, suite à une défaite électorale ou en ne se représentant pas à une élection, ont droit à ce qu’on appelle, dans le monde des affaires, un parachute doré ― une « allocation de transition » équivalant à deux mois de salaire par… Continue reading
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Can’t Compel
In “Law Like Love,” W.H. Auden wrote that “we can’t compel” love. He was right of course, and not only in the sense he meant. So holds―without reference to Auden―a decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, R. v. Hall, 2013 ONSC 834. At issue the constitutionality of the exclusion of common law spouses… Continue reading
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Freedom of Corporate Religion?
A number of cases now working their way through the US court system and attracting a great deal of commentary, some of which Josh Blackman summarizes and/or links to in this post, ask an interesting question: can a corporation challenge a requirement that it provide its employees with health insurance covering, among a great many… Continue reading
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Less Than Meets the Eye?
Last week, the BC Court of Appeal issued what seems to me an important decision upholding the constitutionality of a treaty between the Nisga’a Nation, British Columbia, and Canada, and legislation implementing the treaty. The appellants in Sga’nism Sim’augit (Chief Mountain) v. Canada (Attorney General), 2013 BCCA 49, argued that the treaty and the legislation effected an… Continue reading
Double Aspect 