This post is one of two winning papers submitted by JD students at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University as a written assignment for Prof. Richard Haigh’s State and Citizen course. In its 2007 ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada addressed the controversies regarding interjurisdictional immunity in Canadian Western Bank v The Queen in Right [...]

This post is one of two winning papers submitted by JD students at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University as a written assignment for Prof. Richard Haigh’s State and Citizen course. The doctrine of interjurisdictional immunity, which can be used to challenge statutes on the ground of division of powers, seeks to limit the applicability [...]

In 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada seemed to suggest that the utility of interjurisdictional immunity had been nearly exhausted. Justices Binnie and LeBel, in Canadian Western Bank v The Queen in Right of Alberta, [2007] 2 SCR 3 made reference to the doctrine’s asymmetrical application, propensity to create legal vacuums, and general superfluity. These [...]

I love the Supreme Court of Canada. I really do. I’ve spent most of my career trying to defend it (at least to my first year constitutional law classes). Very few people could do the job that Supreme Court judges do. But it’s sometimes hard to keep soldiering on defending the Court. How, for instance, [...]

(Editor’s Note: The author, Richard Butler, is a constitutional lawyer with the B.C. Ministry of Attorney General. The views expressed are those of the author, and not his employer.) Introduction A profound change of thinking on constitutional design is evident in the Supreme Court’s recent jurisprudence –  a change made manifest in the Court’s evolving approach [...]

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow. In the early days of Confederation, the constitutional seedling needed protection from winds and rains (centripetal forces drawing Canadian attention back across the seas or immediately to the south) which might have stunted or bent its growth. Next, the sapling needed protection from provincial governments with many of the [...]

Health care undertakings by a province are potentially immune from criminal law. That is the conclusion reached by a 2-1 majority in PHS Community Services Society v. Canada (Attorney General), 2010 BCCA 15 [PHS]. The case concerned Insite, a Vancouver clinic which provides a safe place for addicts to use drugs, and the applicability of [...]

Two appeals heard by the Supreme Court last week and now under reserve give the justices an opportunity to revisit an issue dear to many law students’ hearts (at least, the ones who sleep with a copy of Peter Hogg’s Constitutional Law of Canada under their pillows): interjurisdictional immunity. The cases, Attorney General of Quebec [...]