Download or read book Waiting for Coraf written by Allan C. Hutchinson and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The enactment of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 was celebrated as the harbinger of a new dawn in Canadian democratic politics. In this book, Allan Hutchinson contends that it was and continues to be a serious mistake. In his central argument he shows that, far from enhancing civic life, the Charter has attenuated both its practice and potential. He extends his argument to rights litigation in general, showing how 'rights-talk' actually betrays the cause of democracy." "Although primarily focusing on Canadian cases and writings, Hutchinson raises concerns that stretch well beyond Canada's boundaries. He condemns the assumptions and institutions associated with liberalism generally and shows how even critics of constitutional decision-making remain within flawed liberal premises. The book's coup de grace lies in its analysis of some leading decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, revealing the extent to which the Court has tendentiously interpreted many supposedly fundamental rights and freedoms. Thus exposing the constitutional enactment of rights as an elaborate legal mechanism that lulls citizens into political quietism, Hutchinson champions a style of politics that engages the virtues of democratic dialogue over the vices of rights-talk." "With this work Hutchinson has created a powerfully deconstructive expose of the unfulfilled promise of the Charter, offering constructive suggestions for a change of democratic focus. This is a persuasive and vital critique, whose influence will reach beyond law schools into the heart of contemporary political debate."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Download or read book Citizenship in Transformation in Canada written by Yvonne M. Hébert and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contributors argue persuasively that since conceptions of democratic citizenship are changing, so too should operational definitions of citizenship education.

Download or read book Governing with the Charter written by James B. Kelly and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Governing with the Charter, James Kelly clearly demonstrates that our current democratic deficit is not the result of the Supreme Court’s judicial activism. On the contrary, an activist framers’ intent surrounds the Charter, and the Supreme Court has simply, and appropriately, responded to this new constitutional environment. While the Supreme Court is admittedly a political actor, it is not the sole interpreter of the Charter, as the court, the cabinet, and bureaucracy all respond to the document, which has ensured the proper functioning of constitutional supremacy in Canada. Kelly analyzes the parliamentary hearings on the Charter and also draws from interviews with public servants, senators, and members of parliament actively involved in appraising legislation to ensure that it is consistent with the Charter. He concludes that the principal institutional outcome of the Charter has been a marginalization of Parliament and that this is due to the Prime Minister’s decision on how to govern with the Charter.

Download or read book Bills of Rights written by Mark Tushnet and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 720 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection examines the justifications for using bills of rights to protect fundamental human rights and the mechanisms for enforcing provisions in those documents. Articles deal with different forms of judicial enforcement and with legislative enforcement, of rights protected by such documents. The collection includes a road-map for evaluating the effectiveness of these alternative enforcement mechanisms.

Download or read book Indigenous Difference and the Constitution of Canada written by Patrick Macklem and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2001-12-15 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a unique constitutional relationship between Aboriginal people and the Canadian state – a relationship that does not exist between other Canadians and the state. It's from this central premise that Patrick Macklem builds his argument in this outstanding and significant work. Why does this special relationship exist? What does it entail in terms of Canadian constitutional order? There are, Macklem argues, four complex social facts that lie at the heart of the relationship. First, Aboriginal people belong to distinctive cultures that were and continue to be threatened by non-Aboriginal beliefs, philosophies, and ways of life. Second, prior to European contact, Aboriginal people lived in and occupied North America. Third, prior to European contact, Aboriginal people not only occupied North America; they exercised sovereign authority over persons and territory. Fourth, Aboriginal people participated in and continue to participate in a treaty process with the Crown. Together, these four social conditions are exclusive to the Aboriginal people of North America and constitute what Macklem refers to as indigenous difference. Exploring the constitutional significance of indigenous difference in light of the challenges it poses to the ideal of equal citizenship, Macklem engages an interdisciplinary methodology that treats constitutional law as an enterprise that actively distributes power, primarily in the form of rights and jurisdiction, among a variety of legal actors, including individuals, groups, institutions, and governments. On this account, constitutional law refers to an ongoing project of aspiring to distributive justice, disciplined but not determined by text, structure, or precedent. Far from threatening equality, constitutional protection of indigenous difference promotes equal and therefore just distributions of constitutional power. The book details constitutional rights to Aboriginal people that protect interests associated with culture, territory, sovereignty, and the treaty process, and explores the circumstances in which these rights can be interfered with by the Canadian state. It also examines the relation between these rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Feedoms, and proposes extensive reform of existing treaty processes in order to protect and promote their exercise. Macklem's book offers a challenge to traditional understandings of the constitutional status of indigenous peoples, relevant not only to Canadian debates but also to those in other parts of the world where indigenous peoples are asserting greater autonomy over their collective futures.

Download or read book Policing the Risk Society written by Richard Victor Ericson and published by Clarendon Studies in Criminolo. This book was released on 1997 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The focus of this book is the policing of modern society and the risks involved. It explores various issues and factors effecting policing communities, particularly communication and police organization.

Download or read book The Constitutional Protection of Freedom of Expression written by Richard Moon and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moon argues that recognition of the social dynamic of communication is critical to understanding the potential value and harm of language and to addressing questions about the scope and limits on one's rights to freedom of expression.

Download or read book Judging Bertha Wilson written by Ellen Anderson and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Madame Justice Bertha Wilson, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, is an enormously influential and controversial figure in Canadian legal and political history. This engaging, authorized, intellectual biography draws on interviews conducted under the auspices of the Osgoode Society for Legal History, held in Scotland and Canada with Madame Justice Wilson, as well as with her friends, relatives, and colleagues. The biography traces Wilson's story from her birth in Scotland in 1923 to the present. Wilson's contributions to the areas of human rights law and equality jurisprudence are many and well-known. Lesser known are her early days in Scotland and her work as a minister's wife or her post-judicial work on gender equality for the Canadian Bar Association and her contributions to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Through a scrupulous survey of Wilson's judgements, memos, and academic writings (many as yet unpublished), Ellen Anderson shows how Wilson's life and the law were seamlessly integrated in her persistent commitment to a stance of principled contextuality. This stance has had an enduring effect on the evolution of Canadian law and cultural history. Supported with the warmth and generosity of Wilson's numerous personal anecdotes, this work illuminates the life and throught of a woman who has left an extraordinary mark on Canada's legal landscape.

Download or read book Engineering Constitutional Change written by Xenophōn I. Kontiadēs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a comprehensive comparative guide to constitutional amendment in Europe and North America. The contributions to the book are written by experts in comparative constitutional law and looks at a particular country providing a critical analysis of its constitutional revision principles, procedure, practice and developments. The volume includes a final chapter with a comparative analysis on constitutional amendment elaborating on and attempting to develop an explanatory theory regarding the points of convergence as well as the detected differentiations. Thus allowing the comparative elements interesting at an international level to emerge and be assessed.

Download or read book Judging Democracy written by Christopher Manfredi and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2008-03-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Judging Democracy, Christopher Manfredi and Mark Rush challenge assertions that the Canadian and American Supreme Courts have taken radically different approaches to constitutional interpretation regarding general and democratic rights. Three case studies compare Canadian and American law concerning prisoners' voting rights, the scope and definition of voting rights, and campaign spending. These examples demonstrate that the two Supreme Courts have engaged in essentially the same debates concerning the franchise, access to the ballot, and the concept of a "meaningful" vote. They reveal that the American Supreme Court has never been entirely individualistic in its interpretation and protection of constitutional rights and that there are important similarities in the two Supreme Courts' approaches to constitutional interpretation. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate that an astonishing convergence has occurred in the two courts' thinking concerning the integrity of the democratic process and the need for the judiciary to monitor legislative attempts to regulate the political process in order to promote or ensure political equality. Growing numbers of justices in both courts are now wary of legislative attempts to cloak laws designed to protect incumbents through electoral reform. Judging Democracy thus points to a new direction not only in judicial review and constitutional interpretation but also in democratic theory.

Download or read book Not Good Enough for Canada written by Valentina Capurri and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Valentina Capurri addresses a topic that has been largely ignored, posing new questions on how immigration and disability in Canada have been constructed.

Download or read book Just Words written by Joel Bakan and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2017-06-22 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Canadian Charter of Rights is composed of words that describe the foundations of a just society: equality, freedom, and democracy. These words of justice have inspired struggles for civil rights, self-determination, trade unionism, the right to vote, and social welfare. Why is it, then, that fifteen years after the entrenchment of the Charter, social injustice remains pervasive in Canada? Joel Bakan explains why the Charter has failed to promote social justice, and why it may even impede it. He argues that the Charter's fine-sounding words of justice are 'just words.' Freedom, equality and democracy are fundamental principles of social justice. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms entrenches them in Canada's highest law, the constitution. Yet the Charter has failed to promote social justice in Canada. In Just Words, Joel Bakan explains why. Sophisticated in its analyses but clearly written and accessible, Just Words is cutting-edge commentary by one of Canada's rising intellectuals.

Download or read book Governing from the Bench written by Emmett Macfarlane and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Governing from the Bench, Emmett Macfarlane draws on interviews with current and former justices, law clerks, and other staff members of the court to shed light on the institution’s internal environment and decision-making processes. He explores the complex role of the Supreme Court as an institution; exposes the rules, conventions, and norms that shape and constrain its justices’ behavior; and situates the court in its broader governmental and societal context, as it relates to the elected branches of government, the media, and the public.

Download or read book Recovering Canada written by John Borrows and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2017-06-22 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Canada is covered by a system of law and governance that largely obscures and ignores the presence of pre-existing Indigenous regimes. Indigenous law, however, has continuing relevance for both Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state. In his in-depth examination of the continued existence and application of Indigenous legal values, John Borrows suggests how First Nations laws could be applied by Canadian courts, and tempers this by pointing out the many difficulties that would occur if the courts attempted to follow such an approach. By contrasting and comparing Aboriginal stories and Canadian case law, and interweaving political commentary, Borrows argues that there is a better way to constitute Aboriginal / Crown relations in Canada. He suggests that the application of Indigenous legal perspectives to a broad spectrum of issues that confront us as humans will help Canada recover from its colonial past, and help Indigenous people recover their country. Borrows concludes by demonstrating how Indigenous peoples' law could be more fully and consciously integrated with Canadian law to produce a society where two world views can co-exist and a different vision of the Canadian constitution and citizenship can be created.

Download or read book Constitutional Law in Theory and Practice written by David M. Beatty and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1995-12-15 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Beatty draws on more than twenty years' teaching experience to produce a comprehensive introduction to the basic rules in constitutional law, accessible to law and non-law students alike. He reviews the leading cases handed down by the Supreme Court of Canada and the Privy Council concerning the original BNA Act of 1867 and the Canadian Charter of Rights enacted in 1982. As well, Beatty reviews many of the most important decisions made by other courts around the world and analyses the function judges and courts perform in liberal democratic societies when they enforce written constitutions including bills of rights. The initial chapter introduces the reader to the subject of constitutional law – what it is all about, what its function is, and how it interacts with the constitutional text. The book goes on to examine Canadian federalism law and the Supreme Court of Canada's experience in the first decade in the life of the Charter of Rights. Beatty also examines significant human rights cases decided by the major courts around the world, in order to illustrate how the same principles and methods of reasoning are used to resolve disputes about the validity of laws no matter what the issue is or where it arises. The book concludes by showing how a theory of constitutional law which emphasizes the social duties which politicians must respect rather than individual rights should be responsive to the concerns of those who are more sceptical about the virtues of law and the courts as well as those who fear the cultural imperialism of western legal concepts. Beatty proposes a radically new way to think about the idea of ‘rights,’ one which emphasizes the social duties that are inherent in every conception of rights. The book argues that by reorienting our thinking about what rights and the rule of law are all about, it is easier to see that rather than being in conflict or tension with each other, democratic decision making and judicial review are supportive of a common set of values and ideals.

Download or read book Interpreting Censorship in Canada written by Allan C. Hutchinson and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Socially organized activity cannot occur without censorship. Going beyond ideological arguments, this collections of essays explores the extent of censorship in Canada today, the forms censorship takes, and the interests it serves.

Download or read book Good Government Good Citizens written by W.A. Bogart and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2007-10-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Good Government? Good Citizens? explores the evolving concept of the citizen in Canada at the beginning of this century. Three forces are at work in reconstituting the citizen in this society: courts, politics, and markets. Many see these forces as intersecting and colliding in ways that are fundamentally reshaping the relationship of individuals to the state and to each other. How has Canadian society actually been transformed? Is the state truly in retreat? Do individuals, in fact, have a fundamentally altered sense of their relationship to government and to each other? Have courts and markets supplanted representative politics regarding the expression of basic values? Must judicialized protection of human rights and minority interests necessarily mean a diminished concern for the common good on the part of representative politics? To what extent should markets and representative politics maintain a role in the protection of human rights and minority interests? Will representative politics ever hold the public trust again? Good Government? Good Citizens? responds to these questions. It does so by examining the altered roles of courts, politics, and markets over the last two decades. It then examines a number of areas to gauge the extent of the evidence regarding transformations that have occurred because of these changing roles. There are chapters on the First Peoples, cyberspace, education, and on an ageing Canada. The book concludes with reflections on the “good citizen” at the dawning of the new century. Of particular interest to professors and students of law and political science, Good Government? Good Citizens? will appeal to anyone interested in the changing face of Canada and its citizens.