Reading Time: 5 minutes Jeopardy clue: “The Constitution of this 150-year old country exists as “Schedule B” to an ordinary statute of another country.” Correct response: “What is Canada?” This is true of what has been for 35 years the most significant part of the Constitution of Canada, the Constitution Act, 1982, Parts I and II of which are, […]

Reading Time: 7 minutes Looking Back 2017 not only marks 150 years since the British North America Act, 1867 (better known today as the Constitution Act, 1867), came into being, it also marks the 35th anniversary of an important part of our Constitution – the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. What is the Charter? At the grassroots level, […]

Reading Time: 8 minutes With the 150th anniversary of Confederation upon us, it is perhaps appropriate to reflect on the high points of 150 years of legal change in Canada.  Such an exercise is always a challenge, of course, because what might be considered significant to some may be seen as minor or less important to others. In this […]

Reading Time: 10 minutes This year, there are many celebrations for Canada’s 150th birthday. What we are really commemorating is the British North America Act 1867 (BNA Act 1867) which established our country’s Constitution. The BNA Act 1867 has since been renamed the Constitution Act 1982 after the repatriation of our Constitution from Great Britain. Ministers’ Working Group One […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes British imperial history is replete with examples of declarations of independence, often accompanied by violent uprisings or civil conflict. One of the fundamental documents of Canadian independence was also a declaration, albeit of a different character and issued under very different circumstances. In the early 20th century, the Dominions (at the time comprising of the […]

Reading Time: 7 minutes The concept of the rule of law and the need to strictly comply with it is often presented with a flourish in legal and political debates.  Canadians know that the rule of law is manifestly a good thing.  We might, though, have some difficulty pinning it down.  Surely, the growing recognition that the rule of […]

Reading Time: 9 minutes Introduction Legislation is enacted, amended and repealed over time in response to improvements and changes in social currents.  The common law also evolves in the same way as judges pronounce, tweak and elaborate and then occasionally over-rule their previous legal doctrines.  A recent search identified over 500 Supreme Court of Canada decisions that had been […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes Today, direct taxation is a course of action to build federal funds that has been in place for as long as most Canadians can remember. It has evolved from what was initially a ten-page statute to what is today over 2,500 pages and far too complex for the average Canadian to fully understand. Throughout the […]