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Strange Property
Last week, a Conservative Member of Parliament proposed a constitutional amendment that would protect (some) property rights in Alberta. The amendment would add a section to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, providing that In Alberta, everyone has the right not to be deprived, by any Act of the Legislative Assembly, or by any…
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Just Ask?
DISCLAIMER: Judging by the amount of time it took me to write this post, it is likely to make no sense. But I’m too invested in it, at this point, to give up on it. The constitutionality of Bill C-36, the federal government’s proposed anti-prostitution legislation, is in serious doubt, and there have been calls…
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Rights, Property… and Blogging
Because one blog is obviously not enough, I will now also be blogging for the CBA National Magazine. Initially at least, I will only be writing for them once a month. In any event, my main blogging focus will remain here, at Double Aspect. However, I am excited about this new venture and the possibility…
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Misfiring
Almost exactly two years ago, I blogged about a challenge by an Ontario couple whose immense firearms collection was confiscated after they failed to convince the courts that the Criminal Code‘s firearms provisions were unconstitutional. This time, they argue that the Code‘s provision requiring the forfeiture of the guns and ammunition involved in the firearms…
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Foolish Hope
When I blogged last month about Frank v. Canada (Attorney-General), 2014 ONSC 907, the decision of Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice striking down the provisions of the Canada Elections Act disenfranchising Canadians who reside abroad for more than five years, I expressed the hope that “the government [would] save[] taxpayers money by not appealing.” Justice Penny’s ruling,…
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Constitutional Job Placement
In a post on Concurring Opinions, Gerard Magliocca asks an interesting question about what importance, if any, should attach to the fact that a constitutional provision invoked in a case has never been applied by the courts, or has not been applied in a very long time. It is, arguably, a specific instance of the broader…
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Don’t Rebuild It
I wrote yesterday about the uncertain constitutionality of the federal government’s outsourcing of the choice of potential nominees for the Supreme Court to the government of Québec (or any other province). The government’s reliance on such a process is, according to the Globe’s Sean Fine, who broke the story yesterday, not intended to create a precedent. But…
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Conventional Thinking
There is big news on the Supreme Court appointment front today, which is arguably not getting enough attention. According to the Globe’s Sean Fine, “[t]he Conservative government has turned to Quebec to create a candidate list for the Supreme Court of Canada” ― asking the provincial government to submit names of potential replacements for Justice Fish…
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Lazy Revolutionaries
The CBC’s Chris Hall already had a story along those lines a short while ago, but today the Globe and Mail contains Sean Fine’s masterful in-depth account of the back-story to the failed appointment of Justice Nadon to the Supreme Court and the government’s recent attempts to portray Chief Justice McLachlin as having acted improperly on this the matter when…
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Cui Bono?
In a post published last week, Josh Blackman points to an important question that can help us think about the permissibility of public prayer ― not only prayer at municipal council meetings (the post’s immediate context), which the U.S. Supreme Court recently considered in Town of Greece v. Galloway (a case I briefly discussed here) and which…
Double Aspect 