Federal Courts
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L’Affaire Mainville: The Québec Factum
Some serious flaws in Québec’s arguments against the constitutionality of Justice Mainville’s appointment to the Québec Court of Appeal. Continue reading
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St-Hilaire on Federalism and “Modern Treaties”
Just a quick announcement of an upcoming guest post by Maxime St-Hilaire, a friend who teaches aboriginal law and constitutional law at the Université de Sherbrooke. Prof. St-Hilaire, who blogged this summer on the Supreme Court’s decision in Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia, 2014 SCC 44, will discuss some issues left open by the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence Continue reading
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What You Wish For
As promised, here are some thoughts on the Supreme Court’s opinion in l’affaire Nadon, Reference re Supreme Court Act, ss. 5 and 6, 2014 SCC 21. As I mentioned in my last post, which summarized the majority opinion and Justice Moldaver’s dissent, I think that the majority opinion is a weak one. I should note that my views here seem to be very Continue reading
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No-don
Yesterday, the Supreme Court has delivered its opinion concerning the legality and constitutionality of the appointment (and swearing in by the Court!) of Justice Nadon, Reference re Supreme Court Act, ss. 5 and 6, 2014 SCC 21. By a 6-1 majority, it finds that Justice Nadon’s appointment was not authorized by s. 6 of the Supreme Court Act, and that the enactment by Parliament Continue reading
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Cross-Purposes
I wrote some time ago about the challenges, legal and political, to the appointment of Justice Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court. I argued that although the appointment was unwise because Justice Nadon did not bring enough to the Court, the legal challenge to it, on the basis that he did not fulfill the requirements Continue reading
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Tempest in a Teapot
I’m quite late to the topic, but I want to say something about the debacle that is Justice Nadon’s appointment to the Supreme Court. The government’s decision to appoint him is being attacked both legally and politically, and while the political criticism cannot undo it, the legal challenge could, in theory, and has already forced Continue reading
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No Boondoggle
In his otherwise sensible recent column about the appointment of Justice Nadon to the Supreme Court, the Globe’s Jeffrey Simpson describes the office of supernumerary judge (which Justice Nadon held prior to his appointment) “is one of the biggest boondoggles in the public sector.” This is quite wrong, silly even. Supernumerary judges are actually a Continue reading
Double Aspect 