Juries. To some, it may seem bizarre that 12 laypersons, untrained in the law, would be asked – required – to come into a courtroom and listen to the recounting of events about which they know nothing, involving people with whom they have no familiarity, and then make a decision about whether … [Read more...]
Important Concepts in Environmental Law – The “Precautionary Principle”.
Last issue we talked about sustainable development. This time the topic is the precautionary principle.Most human activity has risk. When we are deciding whether we should do something, we balance the risks against the possible rewards. Risk has two parts. First, there is the probability that … [Read more...]
Important Concepts in Environmental Law – the Idea of “Sustainable Development”
In the next few columns I am going to talk about some concepts that are important to understanding environmental law. The first is the idea of sustainable development. A quick search of the CANLII website shows the phrase appears in Canadian federal and provincial legislation 359 times and in … [Read more...]
Much of the Criticism of Bill C-69 is Demonstrably False
“So destructive … (it) must die,” claims Licia Corbella (“Corbella: Bill C-69 is Trudeau’s bookend to his father’s disastrous NEP,” Calgary Herald, Sept. 14).A “grave danger to the Trans Mountain pipeline … This beast should be ritually slaughtered,” implores Don Braid (“Braid: Liberals’ own … [Read more...]
Taxing Weed
On October 17, 2018, the federal government of Canada legalized the sale and recreational use of cannabis. Here is a brief summary of how sales and excise taxes are being applied to the various cannabis products sold in Canada.The federal government along with the provincial and territorial … [Read more...]
Words Matter
Introduction Several decades ago, in my first summer job during university, I washed dishes and performed other unskilled labours in the kitchen of a large government seniors’ nursing home in rural Alberta. While the work itself was not particularly memorable, I observed in that workplace of 15 … [Read more...]
Resolving Family Law Disputes: Alternatives to Court
When adults leave a serious relationship, they have a lot of decisions to make. Sometimes these are small decisions, about who can keep the dishes or the books, but more often they are big decisions. Things like where the children should mostly live, how their time will be divided, who should pay … [Read more...]
Effects of the Notwithstanding Clause on Human Rights
Recently, there has been much discussion of the use of the notwithstanding clause, which is section 33(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter). Section 33(1) reads: Parliament or the legislature of a province may expressly declare in an Act of Parliament or of the legislature, … [Read more...]
The Book That Didn’t Bark: Forster’s Maurice
You have no doubt heard the expression “the dog that didn’t bark – a wonderful phrase emanating from an old Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle. I would like to conduct a little touch of literary sleuthing and ask why E.M Forster, eminent English novelist, declined decade after decade to … [Read more...]
Back to the Future on Registered Charities and Political Activities
Regulation of registered charities' "political activities" has long been a bugbear of both the sector and governments. My last column dealt with an Ontario Superior Court decision that ruled parts of the current Income Tax Act (ITA) provisions governing charities' political activities … [Read more...]
