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St-Hilaire on Parliamentary Privilege
I have been completely snowed under, despite the coming Southern hemisphere summer ― or perhaps because of it, since coming summer means end of the semester, and end of the semester means exams to grade (or to mark, as we say around here). 243 exam papers (or scripts, in Kiwi), to be precise, in my… Continue reading
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Charitable Status and Freedom of Expression: Testing Labour Union Exceptionalism in the context of the Charter’s Fundamental Freedoms
The charitable organization Canada Without Poverty (“CWP”) has created some buzz lately with its constitutional challenge to a provision in the Income Tax Act that makes charitable tax status contingent on refraining from engaging in certain “political activities”. As a preliminary matter, there is always a risk in assessing laws impacting expression that our thinking… Continue reading
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Oliphant on Challenge to Charities’ Political Spending Limits
Just a quick announcement: my friend, co-author, and occasional guest Benjamin Oliphant will have a post soon discussing the Charter challenge to the limits the Income Tax Act imposes on the amounts charitable organizations are able to spend on political advocacy (without losing their charitable status). I am looking forward to reading it! Continue reading
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Constitutional Purposes vs. Constitutional Text: On R. v. Pino
In my previous guest post at Double Aspect, I asked an intractable question: what is it that we are doing when we are engaged in constitutional interpretation? Depending on how one answers this question, different sources of meaning will become more or less significant. However, one source must always be at least relevant: the Constitutional… Continue reading
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Oliphant on R. v. Pino
Announcing a guest-post by Benjamin Oliphant Benjamin Oliphant, who recently published a guest-post on constitutional interpretation in the context of the debate about whether Parliament can require new Supreme Court judges to be bilingual, will be back with another post later today. He will be returning to the topic of constitutional interpretation, this time to… Continue reading
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Permanent Censorship, Again
Ontario’s proposal for regulating pre-campaign political spending is wrong Earlier this week, The Globe and Mail reported that the Ontario government is proposing to introduce legislation that would limit the flow of private money into the political process (and introduce public subsidies to political parties). There is no bill yet, as the government is consulting… Continue reading
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Bilingualism, the SCA Reference, and Buffet-Line Constitutional Interpretation
Professors Grammond and Glover, as well as my gracious host Léonid Sirota, have all addressed the constitutionality of requiring judges to be bilingual in order to be qualified for appointment to the Supreme Court. In my view, all are excellent efforts to come to grip with difficult constitutional problems, and taken alone, I find each of… Continue reading
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Oliphant on Constitutional Interpretation
Announcing a guest-post by Benjamin Oliphant Just a quick note to announce that Benjamin Oliphant, my esteemed co-author on two articles on the place of originalism in Canada and of many brilliant papers of his own (as well as a busy lawyer in his spare time), will shortly by posting his take on the discussion between Sébastien Grammond,… Continue reading
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Glover on Judicial Bilingualism & the Constitution
Announcing a guest-post by Kate Glover Just a brief note to announce a forthcoming guest-post by Kate Glover, a constitutional law professor at Western, on whether Parliament could constitutionally enact legislation requiring judges appointed to the Supreme Court to be bilingual. Sébastien Grammond rekindled the discussion on this topic with a guest-post over at Administrative Law… Continue reading
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Some News
An update about my studies, work prospects, and an upcoming conference I have been very silent, of late, and will probably remain so for another week. That’s because in the space of just over five weeks, from late March to this coming Thursday, I’ll have given two talks, moderated a conference panel, defended my JSD… Continue reading
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