Category Archives: law

Deinstitutionalisation: The new crisis for journalism Part I

Posted by on | journalism, law, Uncategorized

1.

As far as the mainstream media is concerned, 2016 will be remembered as the year that the the print media ran out of runway, as the transition-to-digital bluff was called. There is no serious digital business model to speak of for online publishing – the recent round of mass layoffs at Medium only underscoring that even the digital-only ad-supported initiatives are a fool’s errand.

What should be done? For a while now, my view has been the same as Ken Whyte’s — we should do nothing. And that is pretty much the view I expressed at two of the seminars run by the Public Policy Forum as part of their initiative to determine if the decline of the news media is a problem, and if so, what should be done about it. My answers have been: Yes it’s a problem, and there’s not much to be done until the convulsions have ended.… Continue reading

Trudeau on Secession

Posted by on | Canada, law, political philosophy, politics, Quebec, Supreme Court (Canada), Uncategorized

So, my stint at L’actualité is over. It was terrific, but very time consuming. I promised myself that I would stay quiet this summer and focus on a book manuscript, but the urge to respond to Trudeau’s attack on Mulcair regarding the Supreme Court’s Reference on Quebec secession was too strong. I wrote an op-ed for the Ottawa Citizen. I should have added that there is another aspect of the Scottish referendum that I think should act as precedent: the agreement of both parties on the wording of the question. A question on secession should not be convoluted. The Brits and the Scots, at least with regard to the basic rules of the referendum, acted as grown ups. Our leaders should emulate them.

 

Ottawa Citizen… Continue reading

Voting rights for non-resident citizens

Guest post by Blain Neufeld

So there will be a federal election in Canada on October 19th. I’m a Canadian citizen. But from 2007 to this year I was not able to vote in federal Canadian elections. The reason is that – despite living in Canada on a regular, albeit sporadic, basis (2-3 months every year, depending upon my teaching schedule) – my primary residence was abroad (Ireland until 2008, the United States from 2008 to 2014). Fortunately, my year in Toronto has ‘re-booted’ my residency here, so I will be able to vote in the forthcoming election.  But more than a million other Canadians who live abroad will not be able to do so.Since 1993, Canadians who live abroad for more than 5 years have been ineligible to vote.  Until 2007, however, merely visiting Canada was enough to ‘reset the clock’ with respect to one’s status (that is, after a visit, one would have to be away for another 5 years in order to lose the right to vote).  … Continue reading

Are these really the Border Services we want?

Posted by on | Canada, immigration, inequality, law, multiculturalism, politics

It’s curious that complaints about the egregious behaviour of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) get so little traction. I wish there were a sophisticated, multi-faceted, complex explanation for this, but having watched the press on this for almost a decade, I think the explanation is pathetically straightforward: the CBSA deals mostly with foreigners. Sure, the Agency does a few bad things, a few human rights abuses and arbitrary exercises of power, but the broadly defined ‘we’ group is essentially willing to ignore this – or at least put up with this – in exchange for the sense of security that an armed border guard gives us.

Today, in my regular pursuit of near futile causes, I’d like to highlight just two things, to serve as a reminder that CBSA practices are quite far from the norm of what ‘we’ typically will tolerate from armed state officials and jailers in Canada.… Continue reading

In the wake of Jian Ghomeshi and #beenrapedneverreported: How do we move forward?

Posted by on | Canada, criminal justice, law, Quebec

One of the most remarkable aspects of the sordid Jian Ghomeshi story has been the ensuing explosion of women’s voices recounting episodes of sexual violence that have gone unreported. #beenrapedneverreported, a hashtag launched by my friend Sue Montgomery of the Montreal Gazette and Antonia Zerbisias of the Toronto Star, has become a sad but necessary global phenomenon. Thousands of women from around the world have used the hashtag to share painful memories sometimes buried decades in the past.

Being able to share these painful memories has had a therapeutic function for many of these women. I can’t imagine what it must be like to go years with the pain and trauma of sexual assault compounded by the feeling that, for a variety of reasons, this pain must be kept secret.

There is undoubtedly a huge range of reasons that women choose not to report episodes of sexual assault. The majority of cases of sexual assault occur at the hands of people who are known to victims, often family members.… Continue reading

Why you have no right to bear arms

Posted by on | criminal justice, law, political philosophy

The leaves are starting to change colour, the morning air is becoming crisp. When fall arrives, a man’s thoughts naturally turn toward… hunting. Myself, being of a wonkier frame of mind, I tend to think less about hunting and more about gun control.

Unlike Americans, we Canadians are not burdened by the straightjacket of a centuries-old constitution, and so there is no entrenched right of gun ownership in our society. Furthermore, neither politicians nor the courts have seen fit to create one. Indeed, the Supreme Court Reference re Firearms Act was a pretty unambiguous smack-down to any sort of “rights” talk. The current federal government is about as gun-friendly as any we are ever likely to see.

Some people, however, seem to have missed the memo (he says, casting his eyes westward). For those who did miss it, I want to explain in simple terms why you do not have, and ought not have, any “right” to own a gun.… Continue reading

Droit et démocratie: un gouvernement des juges ? (Partie 2)

Posted by on | Canada, law, political philosophy, Quebec, Supreme Court (Canada)

Comme je l’ai esquissé dans la première partie, la souveraineté populaire et la représentation démocratique d’un côté, et l’État de droit et les droits fondamentaux de l’autre, peuvent être vus comme les deux constellations de principes qui fondent la légitimité des régimes démocratiques contemporains. Il s’agit de deux logiques distinctes qui, bien que complémentaires, s’entrechoquent régulièrement. Alors que la souveraineté populaire stipule que le peuple doit être la source ultime des lois, les principes de l’État de droit et de respect des droits fondamentaux impliquent plutôt que l’exercice du pouvoir se fasse en conformité avec une constitution et que certaines normes doivent être à l’abri de la volonté de la majorité et du gouvernement au pouvoir. Comme on voit mal à partir de quel point de vue nous pourrions établir la priorité de l’une des logiques par rapport à l’autre, il vaut mieux les voir comme également fondamentales et en tension perpétuelle.… Continue reading

Droit et démocratie: un gouvernement des juges ? (Partie 1)

Posted by on | Canada, law, political philosophy, Supreme Court (Canada)

L’idée que le Canada soit gouverné par des juges et que l’équilibre des pouvoirs entre le judicaire et l’exécutif ait été rompu est vue comme une vérité évidente dans certains milieux intellectuels et politiques québécois. La Cour suprême du Canada aurait, depuis 1982, usurpé le pouvoir de nos représentants dûment élus. Le blogueur de L‘Actualité Frédéric Bastien répète cette idée comme un mantra. Dans son dernier billet, il implore le Parti conservateur d’utiliser le pouvoir de dérogation pour ignorer les jugements, dont ceux sur les centres d’injection supervisée et sur les maisons closes, qui lui déplaisent.

Comme je l’ai déjà avancé, les critiques de l’ « activisme judicaire » doivent nous expliquer comment ils conçoivent le rapport entre le droit et la démocratie ou entre, d’un côté, l’État de droit et les droits fondamentaux de la personne et, de l’autre, la souveraineté populaire et le pouvoir du parlement.… Continue reading

Three Faces of Canadian Homophobia

Posted by on | culture, inequality, law

Thankfully most Canadians find the homophobic bigotry of people like Rob Ford as repugnant and silly as Ford himself. Of course, it remains disturbing that polls suggest that some 20% of Toronto Area voters seemed prepared to vote for Ford even though he has been disgraced and discredited along so many so many dimensions it is hard to keep track. Perhaps some of these people are bamboozled by Ford’s insistence that he is ‘spendaphobic’ rather than ‘homophobic’. But in wake of Ford’s well-known refusal to participate in Pride celebrations, his boozed and drug fueled rants and his petty (and apparently sober) refusal to support a study of homeless shelter space for LGBT youth Ford has become the ugly face of Canadian homophobia. Ford’s variety of homophobia, replete with familiar hateful epithets and evident anxiety about with even distant association with anything vaguely gay, is easy to dismiss and mock. Indeed, Ford himself is such a buffoon that he provides an unwitting performative self-refutation of this variety of homophobia.… Continue reading

Mariage et union de fait: le paternalisme justifié du Conseil du statut de la femme

Posted by on | inequality, law, political philosophy, politics, Quebec

Au Canada, c’est au Québec que l’on trouve le plus grand nombre de couples vivant en union de fait. C’est aussi au Québec que le conjoint le plus vulnérable est le moins protégé au moment de la dissolution d’un couple non-marié. Le plus souvent, le « conjoint le plus vulnérable » est la conjointe. En gros, il n’y a pas de véritable partage du patrimoine et le conjoint le plus fortuné n’est pas obligé de verser une pension alimentaire, sauf une pension pour l’enfant né de l’union, le cas échéant.

Au moment du débat sur l’arrêt Éric c. Lola, j’étais malgré tout en faveur du maintien d’une distinction juridique significative entre union de fait et mariage. Cela m’a toujours semblé une question difficile, mais l’existence de l’ « union de fait » en tant que catégorie juridique distincte en droit de la famille offre une option supplémentaire aux couples en matière de vie conjugale.… Continue reading