Constitutional law
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La primauté de la législation
La semaine dernière, la Cour supérieure du Québec a rejeté la demande visant, entre autres, à faire déclarer inconstitutionnelle la “Loi 204”, qui exempte rétroactivement l’entente sur la gestion du futur amphithéâtre de Québec, conclue entre la ville de Québec et Qubecor, de l’exigence d’un appel d’offre (dans la mesure où cette exigence s’y appliquait, ce que… Continue reading
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En Français S.V.P./In English Please
In 2008, the Township of Russel, just outside Ottawa, passed a by-law requiring any new commercial sign to be bilingual. An angry activist and a shopkeeper challenged the validity of the by-law. The Court of Appeal for Ontario has rejected their challenge, in Galganov v. Russel (Township), 2012 ONCA 409, released last Friday. Before getting… Continue reading
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The Good of Religion: Video
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about a discussion with professor Robert P. George, of Princeton, about “religious liberty and the common good.” The video of the discussion is below. Continue reading
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Can the Viceroy Do Wrong?
Radio-Canada reports that Québec’s former Lieutenant-Governor, Lise Thibault, is trying to avoid having to stand trial on charges of fraud, forgery, and breach of trust, by invoking the common law rule that the Queen can do no wrong. As her lawyer puts it, criminal proceedings oppose the sovereign and the subject, and the sovereign cannot… Continue reading
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Gun-Registry Hearing Today
Something almost as exciting as the Euro has started today in Montreal: the merits hearings in the gun-registry litigation, which I have been covering extensively. As I am not in Montreal, I am totally dependent on the media for any information about it. Things are not very encouraging so far. The reports by Radio-Canada and… Continue reading
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Federalism and Judicial Review
A paper of mine has been chosen for a presentation at the Third Annual Constitutional Law Colloquium at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. It is about the legitimacy of judicial review of legislation on federalism grounds – that is, courts striking down legislation because it infringes not individual rights, but the division of… Continue reading
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An Ancient Parliamentary Right
I learned something about constitutional and Parliamentary tradition yesterday, and decided I’d post about because I was probably not alone in my ignorance of this quirk. Apologies to those in the know already! *** Each session of the mother of parliaments, at Westminster, and her daughters throughout the Commonwealth, starts with a Speech from the… Continue reading
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Drop That Gun! (But Keep the Bullets)
The Superior Court of Ontario has recently delivered its decision in The Queen v. Montague, 2012 ONSC 2300, an interesting case at the intersection of the topics property rights, and gun rights, about which I wrote here and here. In fact, in the latter post, I had mentioned a previous decision in this case, by the… Continue reading
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Humpty Dumpty
Last week, the Globe’s Neil Reynolds blamed all the troubles, real or imaginary, of Canadian federalism on the “peace, order, and good government” (POGG) clause of s. 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867. Undeterred by his failure last time around to grasp the actual constitutional law he was bewailing, which I pointed out here, Mr.… Continue reading
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Not for Sale
On to the third (and maybe last) part of my comments about the the BC Supreme Court’s judgment striking down hearing fees the province imposed on litigants who wanted to go to trial, which I summarized here. On Thursday I wrote about the separation of powers aspect of the judgment; on Friday about its suggestion… Continue reading
Double Aspect 