The Justice System
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What Judges Do
First of all, my most abject apologies for the silence of the last couple of weeks. I was swamped (and then trying to recover from being swamped). I have a lot to catch up on, if I can, not least the Supreme Court’s hate speech decision, Saskatchewan (Human Rights Commission) v. Whatcott, 2013 SCC 11. But I want to… Continue reading
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Independence Be With You
The application of the principle of judicial independence, as the Supreme Court has developed it, to ordinary judges of provincial, federal, and superior courts is clear enough. But the extension of its protections to other judicial officials, such as deputy judges, masters, or prothonotaries still causes friction between the judiciary and the “political branches.” A… Continue reading
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In Vino Veritas
Un article publié aujourd’hui sur le site de La Presse parle d’un recours collectif intenté contre la SAQ parce que, selon l’avocat du demandeur, « les marges bénéficiaires de la SAQ sont actuellement disproportionnées, déraisonnables et exorbitantes alors qu’elle se trouve en position de monopole ». Bien que la SAQ soit en mesure d’acheter son vin… Continue reading
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In Cautious Praise of Rhetoric
Rhetoric―the art of packaging one’s arguments so as to make them more attractive―has a bad name. It is associated with deceit at worst, and meaninglessness at best. It is seen as a distraction. Why should we care about the way arguments are packaged―surely what really matters is their substance? A student put something like this… Continue reading
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Remain Nameless
I wrote in the past, here and here, about the serious problems that can result from people’s involvement in lawsuits, and details of their private lives and quarrels being exposed for all to see in court decisions available on the internet. But bad as it is if your name being associated with a lawsuit prevents you… Continue reading
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Le langage de la justice
Un article paru sur le site de Radio-Canada parle d’une étude réalisée par un avocat, Mark Power, de Heenan Blaikie, pour le compte de la Fédération des associations des juristes d’expression française de common law, portant sur la constitutionnalité de nominations de juges unilingues à la Cour suprême. Selon Me Power (ou du moins selon… Continue reading
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The Limits of Independence
I want to return to the Québec Bar’s challenge against the constitutionality of all the mandatory minimum sentences increased or created by Bill C-10, the “tough on crime” omnibus bill adopted by Parliament earlier this year, about which I blogged here earlier this week. One of the grounds of possible unconstitutionality which the Bar raises… Continue reading
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Judicial Independence, Freedom, and Duty
Judicial independence is a familiar idea, though it is also a difficult one, in more than one sense. Difficult to accept, on the one hand, because independence from political, and ultimately electoral, control seats uneasily with our notions of democracy in which political power (which judges exercise, since they make their decisions in the name… Continue reading
Double Aspect 