Supreme Court of Canada
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A Voice of Moderation?
Thoughts on the Chief Justice’s Speech on “Democracy and the Judiciary” Her court might not be very busy ― it had decided only 19 cases this year through May 31, the lowest number this century ― but Chief Justice McLachlin certainly is. Another Friday, another speech. After the one she gave at the Université de Montréal‘s… Continue reading
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The Chief Justice and the Law
The CBA National Magazine’s blog has just published a blog post of mine that comments on the speech which Chief Justice McLachlin gave at the “Supreme Courts and the Common Law” symposium held at the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Law last week. I argue that the Chief Justice misunderstands the history of the common… Continue reading
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A Third View on Legislating Two Languages at the SCC
In the last number of days, Professor Grammond and incoming AUT Law School lecturer (and my very generous blogging host) Léonid Sirota have posted thoughtful analyses of whether Parliament can legislate a requirement that judges of the Supreme Court understand French and English without the assistance of translation. Grammond argues yes; Sirota says no. The… Continue reading
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The Comprehension of “Composition”
Parliament cannot require Supreme Court judges to be bilingual Sébastien Grammond has published a guest-post over at Administrative Law Matters arguing that Parliament could legislate to prohibit the appointment of Supreme Court judges who are not bilingual. It is a bold and interesting argument, and I greatly admire prof. Grammond as a thinker and advocate. Nonetheless,… Continue reading
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Originalism ― The Talk
My remarks on originalism in Canada at the Courts and Politics workshop Yesterday, I spoke about the place of originalism in Canadian constitutional jurisprudence at the Courts and Politics workshop that Kate Puddister and Emmett Macfarlane had convened at the University of Guelph. The whole things was a lot of fun and very educational, not… Continue reading
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Originalism in Canada
A couple of papers about originalism, and a call for comments As promised in my last post, I have something to show for my silence in the last few weeks. Benjamin Oliphant and I have been working very intensively on a study of originalism in Canadian constitutional law. In a nutshell, we argue that, contrary… Continue reading
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Why’d You Do This?
Giving Parliament more time on assisted suicide, the Supreme Court fails to explain itself On Friday, the Supreme Court issued its ruling on the federal government’s request for an extension of the suspension of the declaration of unconstitutionality of the Criminal Code’s provisions that have the effect of making assisted suicide unlawful in all circumstances.… Continue reading
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Extra Time
Assisted suicide and the trouble with giving politicians time to respond to judicial decisions This morning, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in the federal government’s application to extend the suspension of the declaration of invalidity of the Criminal Code‘s provisions that have the effect of prohibiting assisted suicide in any circumstances, which the Court granted… Continue reading
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Blessing Hypocrisy
After somewhat of a hiatus, I am back to blogging for the CBA National Blog. In a post they have just published, I come back to the issue of people smuggling, on which the Supreme Court delivered two decisions last week, which I summarized here. As I have already explained here and here, I believe that the… Continue reading
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Living with Imperfect Judges
The arguments about limiting appointments to the Supreme Court to bilingual candidates are rather tired, not to mention more or less moot. But they keep coming back, over and over again. I actually wrote about the topic a while ago, but since it is in the news again, following the appointment of (the apparently bilingual)… Continue reading
Double Aspect 