religion
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The Discomforts of Religion
Religion gives law a lot of trouble. Most often, the difficult question is what to do about it ― what to do about prayer at municipa council meetings, what to do about religious believers asking for exemptions from general laws. But sometimes, the law must confront a more basic, and perhaps an even more difficult Continue reading
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“We All Have to Compromise”
Once again, apologies for the last week’s silence. I have a good excuse for once, however: I was in Israel to participate in a workshop on the “Law in a Changing Transnational World” at the Tel-Aviv University. The workshop was very instructive, and I plan on having a few posts in the coming days and Continue reading
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Storm and Havoc
Time for more shameless self-promotion, after my rant on Thursday about not being cited by the Québec Court of Appeal. A paper of mine, called “Storm and Havoc: The Rule of Law and Religious Exemptions,” is coming out any time now in the Revue Juridique Thémis de l’Université de Montréal, a mere three years after Continue reading
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Undue Spiritual Influence
One of the most fascinating cases ever decided by the Supreme Court of Canada is one that you have never heard about ― or at any rate hadn’t heard about until two weeks ago, if you read Yves Boisvert’s account of it in La Presse. The case is Brassard v. Langevin, (1876-77) 1 S.C.R. 145 ― Continue reading
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Of Course Not
The Québec government’s proposal for a “Charter of Québec Values” is now official. It’s not much of a proposal, actually ― there is no bill, and there isn’t going to be for months yet ― but we do have a fancy website on which the government explains what the Charter will do. (The English version isn’t Continue reading
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Collateral Damage
Religious liberty is in danger; protections that were, not long ago, taken for granted, is now at risk of being swept away by a rising tide of hostility to the claims of believers not only to have a right to worship as they see fit, but also to live their lives in accordance with the Continue reading
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Ceci n’est pas une prière
Le dictionnaire Larousse définit le mot « prière » comme un « [a]cte rituel par lequel on s’adresse à une divinité ou à ses intercesseurs », ou encore comme un « [e]nsemble de formules, en général codifiées, par lesquelles on s’adresse à Dieu ». La Cour d’appel du Québec, elle, a une autre vision des choses. Une prière, Continue reading
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Faith and Acts
Is it permissible for an undercover police officer to pose as a religious adviser to induce a suspect to disclose information about a crime the officer is investigating? Not always, but sometimes it is, says the Court of Appeal for Ontario in a decision released last week, R. v. Welsh, 2013 ONCA 190. In that Continue reading
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Freedom of Corporate Religion?
A number of cases now working their way through the US court system and attracting a great deal of commentary, some of which Josh Blackman summarizes and/or links to in this post, ask an interesting question: can a corporation challenge a requirement that it provide its employees with health insurance covering, among a great many Continue reading
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Religious Freedom Is (a) Right
The Globe’s Doug Saunders has produced a very unfortunate op-ed this morning, arguing that “religious freedom” is at best redundant, at worst positively harmful, and that Canada should not be in the business of promoting it. The occasion for his outburst is the upcoming creation of the Office of Religious Freedom within the Department of Continue reading
Double Aspect 