federalism
-
Rethinking Peace, Order, and Good Government in the Canadian Constitution
This post is written by Brian Bird. The United States has life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. France has liberté, égalité, fraternité. What is the calling card of the Canadian Constitution? It is peace, order and good government. Apart from being a concise expression of the political philosophy that animates Canadian society, or at Continue reading
-
Nothing to Celebrate
Québec’s irreligious dress code proposal isn’t an opportunity to extol democracy, or to do away with judicial review of legislation Continue reading
-
Don’t Know What You’re up to
Thoughts on Ilya Somin’s take on the consequences of political ignorance for judicial review Continue reading
-
This Will Be Good
I wrote last summer about the issue whether a federal legislature could enact a statute in order to implement a treaty despite the fact that, absent the treaty, the statute would be ultra vires (because provincial or state, rather than the federal legislatures have jurisdiction over its subject matter. If so, I said, this would Continue reading
-
Go Ask Your Mom!
Is it conceivable that states, like a child who, denied by one parent, asks the other to let them stay up late, ask around for permission to do something they would not normally be permitted? Lord Atkin enlisted the threat of such a course of action as an argument in his famous opinion for the Continue reading
-
Humpty Dumpty
Last week, the Globe’s Neil Reynolds blamed all the troubles, real or imaginary, of Canadian federalism on the “peace, order, and good government” (POGG) clause of s. 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867. Undeterred by his failure last time around to grasp the actual constitutional law he was bewailing, which I pointed out here, Mr. Continue reading
-
One’s Day in Court: Priceless?
In 1998, British Columbia started charging litigant stiff “hearing fees” for each day of a civil trial. Last week, Justice McEwan of the B.C. Supreme Court issued a monster of a judgment declaring them unconstitutional. The decision is very interesting for all sorts of reasons, but it is also abusively long. Fortunately for you, I have Continue reading
-
It’s Not a POGGrom!
Canada’s “newspaper of record” has published an ignorant rant by Neil Reynolds, savaging alleged abuses, rhetorical, legislative, and jurisprudential, of the “Peace, Order, and Good government” (a.k.a. POGG) clause of s. 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867, which sets out the powers of the federal Parliament. While the words “peace, order, and good good government” Continue reading
-
Don’t ask, don’t tell?
No, it’s not a post about gays in the U.S. armed forces. That’s so passé anyway. Actually, what I want to talk about is co-operative federalism again, the fascinating topic of the least-read post on this blog. (To the one brave soul who did read it: I love you, whoever you are!) More specifically, it Continue reading
-
Judicial Review and Co-operative Federalism
I would like to return to Justice Blanchard’s reasons for judgment granting the injunction preventing destruction of Québec-related gun-registry data pending judgment on the merits in this case, about which I posted here a couple of days ago. The case, says Justice Blanchard, is “exceptional,” “a first in Canadian judicial history” (par. 21). The reason it Continue reading
Double Aspect 