CONSTITUTION Why this year could prove to be the Charters most controversial by Kirk Makin, April 15, 2012, The Globe and Mail
Created 30 years ago amid immense political controversy, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms could easily have become an empty shell. Instead, its guarantees of liberty, equality and fairness have permeated political life and Canadian cultural consciousness. Yet, for all the contentious issues it has settled, the Charter is poised to become more relevant than ever. A federal government with an ambitious agenda of reform is running headlong toward the one institution that has the power to send it back to the drafting board – the judiciary. … And a wave of new challenges is surging forward, including to mandatory minimum sentences, electronic surveillance and enhanced police powers. Prime Minister Stephen Harper may not face strong opposition in Parliament or from the provinces, but his policies are brushing up against more core legal roadblocks than any of his predecessors faced. Many legal experts believe that the Charter could be used to block mandatory minimum sentences, a crackdown on refugees and measures that will pack more inmates into already-overcrowded prisons. … With lower-court judges starting to dismantle some legislation, the burning question becomes: What will the Supreme Court of Canada do? … “Already, there are signs of pushback from the courts,” said law professor Jamie Cameron, of York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School. “It’s no secret that the Harper government is determined to test the limits of its power, for example, with criminal law, refugee law and Internet surveillance.” The government’s biggest courtroom loss came last fall, when the Supreme Court of Canada ordered it to keep its hands off of Insite, a supervised drug-injection clinic in Vancouver. The decision reverberated through the judiciary; serving for many judges as a sign from the top that it will act boldly when a situation warrants it. … When a judge finds that a Charter guarantee has been violated, the government is then compelled to show that the breach is “justifiable in a free and democratic society.” The key yardsticks in this analysis are whether the goal of the law was important enough to justify breaching a Charter right and whether less intrusive ways of achieving the same goal were available. After 30 years and hundreds of cases, some decidedly elastic concepts have also been added to the mix – such as whether the law was “arbitrary” or “grossly disproportionate” to the government’s goal. The next laws in line to fall may be some of the mandatory minimum sentences contained in a recent omnibus bill – Bill C-10. Queen’s University law professor Donald Stuart predicted that among the first to go could be a mandatory minimum sentence for growing as few as five marijuana plants. Echoing a widely held view in the legal community, Prof. Stuart argued the provision is so “simplistic and ridiculous” that it could cause the courts to breathe life into a little-used Charter guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment. [Emphasis added]
-
Recent Posts
- Frac’ing insanity in the Yukon. Chance Oil & Gas (was Northern Cross Ltd) wants $2.2 billion in damages (even though frac’ing is a major money loser) because of frac moratorium. January 22, 2021
- Frac’d Satan, Alberta: City of Lacombe enables mega fracquaker Vesta Energy Ltd. for a few puny bucks. Unforgivable idiotic greed. January 22, 2021
- Ohio: Erie Co Riseberg Pipeline delivers legal evil. Hits families that granted rights-of-way with mechanic liens of $18,946,185.00. Moral of the horrendous story: Never say yes to oil and gas. January 22, 2021
- The Last Breath of the Black Snake. Elder Casey Camp Horinek: “In my small Ponca tribe, we hold a funeral nearly every week from fossil fuel-related illnesses. All our families have multiple cases of asthma, cardiovascular disease and industry-specific cancers. **Our wells are so polluted our tribe must now buy water.** Our land is so toxic, organic food can’t be grown within 16 miles. They call it economic progress. We call it environmental genocide.” January 21, 2021
- Turn toxic radioactive frac waste into bathing water to burn your babies’ skin off? To ingest, breath and live with? “It’s economically prohibitive to clean the water.” What do oil & gas companies hate more than anything? Spending money to clean up their deadly pollution, on the environment or to protect public health and our drinking water. Terrifying: Water management market for oil and gas production in the U.S. was worth $33.6 **billion** in 2018 (for their use, not ours!) January 21, 2021
- Canada underestimated methane emissions from abandoned wells by as much as 150 per cent; Texas and Alberta have highest percentage of wells but no prior pollution measurement. Of course not, Alberta is Hell where regulators help Encana/Ovintiv illegally frac community drinking water aquifers. Kassie Siegel, director Climate Law Institute: “Big Oil is getting rich. For individual, ordinary people, it’s all risk and no reward.” January 20, 2021
- Oil patch polluted judicial industry: Trump’s extreme right Pedophile Church (aka catholic) Supreme Court Judge, Amy Coney Barrett, hears climate case against her father’s ex-employer Shell; Barrett participated even though as a lower court judge she recused herself from hearing cases involving Shell. January 20, 2021
- Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, Courageous Attorney General who took on The Predator Pedophile Church (catholic), frac’ers and more, sworn into 2nd term: “Justice requires us to have one rule of law — not different rules for different people. Not competing realities.” January 20, 2021
- Mayor High River, Craig Snodgrass: “I didn’t vote for Jason Kenney because he’s full of shit.” Keep raging Albertans! I love it. The most powerful Court in the world is that of Public Opinion, and it won’t *bankrupt* you with legal and court costs. January 19, 2021
- Jan 19, 2021, Webinar 1: Crimes against Nature through the lens of Indigenous Sovereignty. Jan 23, 2021: Green Criminology Master Class. Feb 16, 2021, Webinar 2: From Grassroots to the Courts January 19, 2021
- Alberta teachers, unions “across-the-board livid” about KKKenney’s UCP stealing control of their pensions via mega-money losing AIMCo. January 18, 2021
- 1982 Alberta: Sour gas and sickness; Smelly smelly run-around. Regulators/Health authorities, then and now, lie to the harmed, coddle the polluters. Alberta’s Pollution Solution: Discredit the poisoned; call them crazy. January 18, 2021
- “Rule of law” is a fart when it comes to oil & gas. Calgary-based dilbit polluter Enbridge tells Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to stuff her attempt to protect water and the public interest. January 16, 2021
- Pregnant women must avoid frac pollution to protect their health and that of their babies. How, when living surrounded by frac’ing? January 16, 2021
- Save Shell’s Day with anti-science “corporate bootlicker” justice. Jan 19, 2021: Trump’s new Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett, set to hear case against Shell, her Dad’s employer for 29 Years, has not recused herself January 16, 2021