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You Don’t Have Two Cows
The laws of Ontario prohibit the sale or “distribution” of unpasteurized milk or products (like cheese) made from unpasteurized milk. Such milk can contain microbes and cause the people who drink it or eat products made from it to become ill. But some people are prepared to take the risk. They even claim, although without…
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Charte de la honte et fédéralisme (II)
J’ai soutenu hier, me fondant sur l’arrêt de la Cour suprême dans Saumur c. City of Québec, [1953] 2 SCR 299, que la constitution ne permet pas aux provinces d’adopter des lois dont le caractère véritable consiste à limiter la liberté de religion (même si elles peuvent adopter des lois qui ont la limitation de la liberté…
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Date fixée
Comme prévu, les élections générales provinciales auront lieu le 7 avril prochain, la Première Ministre Pauline Marois ayant ce matin demandé au lieutenant-gouverneur de dissoudre l’Assemblée nationale. Le 7 avril? Mais qu’en est-il de cette loi sur les élections à date fixe que le gouvernement de Mme. Marois avait fait adopter il n’ a pas de…
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La Charte de la honte et le fédéralisme (I)
J’ai déjà soutenu que, dans la mesure où elle serait justifiée comme une mesure de lutte à l’intégrisme religieux, la Charte de la honte du Parti québécois excède les compétences législatives du Québec. Cependant, il semble improbable que l’argument, manifestement fallacieux, de la lutte à l’intégrisme soit en fait invoqué devant les tribunaux pour justifier…
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Nurturing Conventions?
The idea of constitutional conventions, familiar in the Commonwealth since the times of A.V. Dicey, has recently been attracting some attention from American scholars. Gerard Magliocca is apparently using it in a forthcoming article. And, most recently, it appears in an intriguing guest-post by Miguel Schor at Balkinization. Prof. Schor argues that conventions are important…
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The Bill Is Due
In yesterday’s post on R. v. Cloud, 2014 QCCQ 464, I bemoaned the lack of property protections in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, arguing that, as Cloud demonstrated, it hurt the poor rather than the well-off. However, while property rights are not mentioned in the Charter, section 1 of the Canadian Bill of Rights…
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Greed Is Not Good
Many bad things have been said about the “victim surcharge” which the Criminal Code requires people found guilty of an offence to pay, and which recent amendments have made mandatory, depriving judges of any discretion to waive it, regardless of whether it represented a disproportionate punishment for a minor offence or would cause great hardship…
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#SochiProblems
There has been a great deal of talk over the last several months about the way one ought to react to the Olympics in Sochi in light of Russia’s ban on “propaganda of homosexuality” or whatever Russian prosecutors construe as “propaganda of homosexuality.” People have, in order of decreasing glamour and increasing effectiveness, boycotted a…
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ID OK
It seems like a long time since I’ve blogged about a court decision, especially one not by the Supreme Court. Today is a perfect day to return to that particular genre, because the decision I want to write about, Henry v. Canada (Attorney General), 2014 BCCA 30, concerns the constitutionality of voter identification requirements for…
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Is It in the Constitution?
How much does an entrenched constitutional text have to do with, you know, the actual constitution? I have argued (here and here for example) that a text is, at best, a partial and incomplete statement if what a constitution really is. It is quite possible to have a constitution without an entrenched text. But even…
Double Aspect 