Elected oversight of municipal (or provincial) police forces is, as I indicated in my previous post, a difficult system by which to enforce standards on police. Foremost among the difficulties of this system: the relative lack of enforcement power granted to these boards. A corollary difficulty is the civilian nature of the oversight. Lack of … Continue reading Oversight awry: municipal police and elected oversight bodies, part II
Oversight awry: municipal police and elected oversight bodies, part I
The problem and our typical solution This analysis of police supervision in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States will appear in two parts. The first part breaks down the problem with civilian policing oversight; the second part addresses the issue with reference to English precedents that were received in Canada and the United … Continue reading Oversight awry: municipal police and elected oversight bodies, part I
Quebec protects language: the best defense is a good offense
Quebec calls for greater language protection for Canadian federal enterprises The Parliament of Quebec and the Bloc Québecois have formally requested an extension of cooperative federalism to Quebec language protection. ‘Cooperative federalism’ is a legal principle that has courts interpret legislation in ways that allow federal and provincial laws to work together. The term evokes greater ‘interlocking federal … Continue reading Quebec protects language: the best defense is a good offense
Colonial illness haunts Canada’s Parliament
Democracy Watch, an organization that works toward empowering Canadians and Canadian democracy, again turned to Federal Court to challenge the Canadian judicial appointments process. The organization’s frequent turns away from democratic institutions like Parliament speak to dwindling confidence in any sort of responsible government. The organization’s judicial challenge, in this case, speaks to the continuing … Continue reading Colonial illness haunts Canada’s Parliament
Nova Scotian House of Assembly does not sit for nine months
The Nova Scotia House of Assembly has ground to a standstill for the nine months that COVID-19 has raged throughout the world. I contend that this legislative inaction can either be attributed to the hyper-politicization of parliamentary procedure or to uninformed members stumbling through the motions. Either case is concerning, and it should concern all … Continue reading Nova Scotian House of Assembly does not sit for nine months
Preservatives and conservatives in a technological society
Don your futurist caps and peer into a political reality in which technology accelerates the speed at which society changes; what role is left for conservatives? The political, deliberative realm that we sometimes trust to chart our societies’ course either fades as deliberative government becomes too lugubrious for rapid development, or the speed of deliberative … Continue reading Preservatives and conservatives in a technological society
How to short circuit Donald Trump’s election suits: use a bill of peace to bring them into a single court
President Donald Trump has petulantly refused to accept the results of the American 2020 presidential election. His campaign and the Republican Party have filed almost a dozen lawsuits in Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, with more on the way. His aggressive legal action—actions that are being described as ‘entirely without merit’ and ‘flailing’—will almost assuredly not affect the election’s outcome. They … Continue reading How to short circuit Donald Trump’s election suits: use a bill of peace to bring them into a single court
Dicey’s ghost walks free
David Hume’s is-ought problem is oft-forgotten in Canadian political and legal circles, and it bears some repetition. We often forget the value of deduction in an algorithmic age, for computers and the science from which they stem cause us to increasingly rely on inductive logic. In this age of induction, we formulate general rules based … Continue reading Dicey’s ghost walks free
The Court of Parliament: how we let the legislator off the hook
Parliament has a legislative jurisdiction that can and should be put up against courts' jurisdiction in Charter of Rights disputes. The legislator is ultimately responsible for adjudicating disputes about societal problems. Courts have a limited jurisdiction in our adversarial system.