judicial review
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Bar This Claim
A couple of recent cases that the Québec Court of Appeal should consider in deciding whether to let the Barreau’s challenge to mandatory minimums go forward. Continue reading
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Courts, Government, and Originalism
Despite its popularity south of the border, originalism hasn’t had much of a purchase in Canadian constitutional thinking. One reason, no doubt, is the power of what we think is the example of the “Persons Case,” Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General), [1930] A.C. 124, generally taken to be a decisive rejection of originalist constitutional interpretation.… Continue reading
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More Dead than Ever
While the Supreme Court is getting ready for the oral argument in Québec’s challenge to the abolition of the long-gun registry by the federal government (set for October 8), a different challenge to the constitutionality of the Ending the Long-Gun Registry Act was dismissed by Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice earlier this month in Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic… Continue reading
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L’amour des deux citrons
J’ai déjà eu l’occasion de dénoncer les grossières exagérations et le simplisme époustouflant, le tout assaisonné d’une bonne dose d’ignorance et même de mensonge, de Frédéric Bastien, un historien qui passe ses temps libres à pourfendre le juges canadiens qu’il croit être des tyrans assoiffés de pouvoir. Il en remet dans son plus récent billet sur… Continue reading
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Coyne on Lazy Revolutionaries
In his latest Postmedia column, Andrew Coyne has some harsh and cogent observations about the Tories’ failure to come to terms with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and (Canadian) constitutional law more broadly. Mr. Coyne’s column is well worth reading, and some of his observations are similar to my own. Mr. Coyne points… Continue reading
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The Empirical Turn
In a post on the National Magazine’s blog, Kerri Froc discusses (among other things) what she refers to as “the empirical turn in Charter jurisprudence” ― the tendency of Courts to decide Charter cases on the basis of social science evidence instead of “expounding on the nature of human values embodied by rights.” Perhaps most recent… Continue reading
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People Power?
The Canadian Charter of Rights and freedoms was sold to Canadians as the “people’s package” of constitutional reform, one that would empower citizens at the expense of the legislatures and governments. And, to be sure, the provincial governments opposed it because it curtailed their powers (as well as that of the federal government). Still, I have… Continue reading
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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… Continue reading
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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… Continue reading
Double Aspect 