Law

  • An Error Plagued Affront to Liberty

    In Convivium’s series exploring the line between freedom and COVID-19 responses, Douglas Farrow argues Quebec’s curfew and lockdown cut off our noses to spite our masked faces.

    The Quebec government, by order in council, has locked down the province for a month and deprived its citizens of their constitutional rights, on the grounds of a “public emergency” that does not presently exist, under cover of a pandemic that has almost ru...

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  • Protecting Freedom From COVID-19

    There’s no question the pandemic is real and really deadly but we must never forget that liberty, too, can suffer the painful demise of simply being forgotten, Peter Stockland argues.

    The thought occurred to me two Saturdays ago that freedom might end, or at least subservience begin, not with a bang or even a whimper but with a smart phone signal.

    The catalyst was two blats from my iPhone that sounded like Amber Alerts except they...

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  • An Unlikely Alliance Against Porn

    Jonathon Van Maren reports on the teamwork of a socially conservative Alberta MP and liberal feminist senator from Montreal to combat the Canadian-controlled smut giant Pornhub.

    For months, the porn industry has received wave after wave of bad news. An Ontario judge decided that Internet companies can be held liable if child porn is hosted on their servers. The New York Times ran an article by Nicholas Kristoff titled “The...

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  • Define the Crime in Conversion Therapy

    Canadians must challenge Ottawa’s vague Bill C-6 that sped through the Commons justice committee while we were all distracted by COVID, Iain Provan writes.

    We have all had a lot on our minds in the course of the past year, and in various ways we have become distracted. While we were distracted, an amendment to Bill C6 concerning so-called “conversion therapy” recently passed through the Commons justice committ...

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  • MAiD Muscles In

    Staff layoffs and eviction of B.C.’s Delta Hospice Society from its facility outside Vancouver show MAiD advocates’ power to impose their will on those who don’t want it, Peter Stockland writes.

    You might think the middle of a global pandemic is less than an ideal time to disrupt the operations of a hospice where palliative care patients receive comfort as they approach death.

    If so, you would not share the apparent thinking of the B.C. gove...

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  • Great Reset? Or Grand Unravelling?

    Prime Minister Trudeau has mused that COVID-19 will allow for Canadian society to “re-set” on a number of fronts. Peter Menzies says we’ll have to avoid coming apart at the seams first.

    Last week’s unravelling of the so-called Atlantic bubble should erase any lingering romantic thoughts that Canadians are united in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Since July 3, the nation’s four Atlantic provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, New Br...

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  • Justin Trudeau's Words to the Wise

    The Prime Minister got it right the first time on the limits of free speech. His mistake was backing down in the face of vociferous criticism, Peter Stockland writes.

    As a Westerner who’s lived in Quebec for 20 years, one of my great challenges is using the proper noun Trudeau and the adjective “correct” in the same sentence.

    It was so with the father. So it is also with the son. Yet right is right. It must be sai...

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  • Crescendo of Critics Denounce MAiD Legislation

    Experts in law, medicine and disability advocacy are joining the chorus calling for the withdrawal of the Liberal government’s bill to expand medically administered death, Peter Stockland writes.

    Doctors, lawyers and disability rights advocates are mobilizing against the federal Liberal government’s expansion of Medical Aid in Dying, warning it will open the door to “State-sponsored termination” of vulnerable Canadians.

    “Suddenly, a lethal in...

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  • The Perils of Facing Down Facebook

    Canada’s federal Heritage Minister needs a better grip on who he’s dealing with before shaking his fist too often at Mark Zuckerberg’s social media colossus, Peter Menzies writes.

    Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault is determined to pick a fight with Facebook in his bid to find a way to fund failing newspaper publishers - a battle that may end with news media being blocked from access to global social media audiences.

    Over the...

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  • Laws and Lawn Signs

    After a two-member pro-life group was investigated for providing campaign volunteers in the 2019 federal campaign, Peter Stockland reports on a likely legal challenge under the Charter in the near future.

    The lawyer for a two-member pro-life group being investigated for providing campaign volunteers in the 2019 federal campaign says he foresees a Charter challenge if fines are imposed under the Canada Elections Act.

    In fact, Albertos Polizogopoulos sa...

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  • Canada At Its Best

    Rabbi Reuven Bulka praises the integrity and wisdom of all sides in a legal bid to accommodate a Jewish candidate’s religious convictions by changing the federal election date.

    So, the Chief Electoral Officer has spoken, and Canada's next election will take place as scheduled, on October 21, 2019.

    Thus has ended the drama surrounding the date of the coming Federal election. The drama was widely reported as a source of confl...

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  • Cracks in Canada’s Media Freedom

    The good news, Convivium contributor Susan Korah reports, is Canadian journalists aren’t murdered like their global colleagues. The bad news is subtle intimidation and harassment that lets the powerful keep their secrets.

    The cloud that hovers over Canadian journalists’ freedom to report the truth has a silver lining.

    But even clouds with silver linings sometimes bring rain, and Canadian journalists need to be prepared for the storm that sometimes breaks over their he...

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  • Judicial Idiosyncrasy

    Lawyer Barry Bussey, who argued as an intervenor in the Trinity Western University hearings last winter, says Canadians must demand their legislatures protect religious freedom from a Supreme Court that seems to have lost its way.

    Last Friday’s Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decisions on Trinity Western University call for freedom-loving Canadians to courageously stand up and demand change to legislation governing the law societies in this country.  

    We need our legislatures to...

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  • The Charter Circle Game

    Some argue the Supreme Court left the Charter a wreck and a tangle with last week’s Trinity Western decision. But our Editor in Chief Father Raymond de Souza has a former Justice tell him it’s all part of making equality Canada’s concentric centre.

    A Supreme Court Justice told me how the Trinity Western law school case was going to turn out. So, while very disappointed, I was not entirely surprised by last Friday’s verdict. 

    Convivium writers more learned in the law than I will explain...

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  • MAiD and Modern Medicine

    Two years ago, on June 1, 2016, federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was escorted to her seat in front of Canada’s Senate to explain her government's rationale for Bill C-14, a legislative concoction with a name from a high school chemistry class and the full power to transform Canadian society forever.

    Two years ago, on June 1, 2016, federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was escorted to her seat in front of Canada’s Senate to explain her government's rationale for Bill C-14, a legislative concoction with a name from a high school chemistry class a...

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  • Trinity Western Loses

    Trinity Western University has lost its legal battle to have graduates of its proposed law school accredited by law societies in Ontario and B.C.

    In two separate decisions released today, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled protection of the public interest and the human rights of LGBT students at the evangelical Christian school outweigh the religious freedoms of TWU. Both decisions were decided b...

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  • A Wall Between Church and Court

    Convivium contributor Janet Epp Buckingham explains this week’s unusual Wall case in which the Supreme Court said judges have no business telling churches how to decide who belongs. It’s a positive outcome for religious freedom, she says, though less far-reaching than other anticipated rulings will be.

    It’s one of those strange legal cases that should never have gone this far. But on Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada brought an end to the strange saga of Randy Wall and his fight with the Highwood Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. 

    In essence...

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  • The Law Society of Orwell

    Ottawa lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos is saying “no” to the Law Society of Ontario’s demand for a written statement of principles obliging lawyers in the province to promote equality, diversity and inclusion. Here’s why.

    Every year, lawyers in Ontario are required to fill-out an annual report and submit it to the Law Society of Ontario (LSUC), the legal regulator in Ontario. The report addresses trust accounts, client identification and the scope of one’s practice. ...

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  • LGBTQ AT TWU

    As a Trinity Western University grad and member of the LGBTQ community, contributor Matthew Wigmore urges caution about seeing tomorrow Supreme Court hearing strictly as a legal fight over religious freedom. 

    Can religious freedom claims be taken seriously if the claimant is responsible for discrimination? In light of Trinity Western University’s ongoing battle for a law school, the question should effect c...

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  • Defending Trinity’s Right To Exist

    Tomorrow’s Supreme Court of Canada’s hearing on Trinity Western University should engage all Canadians confronted by the State’s chipping away at fundamental Charter rights, warns alumnus Evan Menzies.

    Off Metcalfe Street and MacLaren in Ottawa, sits the century old J.R. Booth mansion which now houses the Laurentian Leadership Centre. It runs and operates an internship program for Trinity Western, the private Christ...

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  • Trinity Western Wishes

    Tomorrow, Prime Minister Trudeau offers an unprecedented apology to persecuted members of sexual minorities. On Thursday, Trinity Western University is before the Supreme Court of Canada arguing for its religious freedom. Having previously presented TWU's perspective, Convivium asks lawyers Mark Berlin and Douglas Judson about sexual politics and the law.  

    Mark Berlin wishes Trinity Western University well in its bid to establish a law school at the evangelical Christian institution in B.C.’s Fraser Valley.

    He also wishes TWU’s Community Covenant didn’t bar him f...

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  • Lessons in Political Cooperation

    Cardus Law Program Director Dr. Andrew Bennett reflects on the way the House of Commons justice committee dealt with Bill C-51. 

    OTTAWA - Sometimes Parliament works just the way the textbooks say it’s supposed to work. Arguably, the most recent example is in the way the House of Commons justice committee dealt with Bill C-51, which aims to erase “outdated” parts of the Criminal Code....

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  • Simply About Freedom

    In the past two weeks, Ottawa lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos has argued the case for conscience rights of doctors, and won a major freedom of information legal battle over publicizing statistics about abortion. Convivium Publisher Peter Stockland sat down with him to discuss the cases.

    Convivium: You’ve just argued for Ontario doctors conscience rights, and were part of the group that forced Ontario to release statistics on abortion. How are the issues linked?

    Albertos Polizogopoulos: Both have to ...

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  • The Canon's Answer

    Convivium’s publication of David Goa’s review of “The Slow Professor, Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy” by Maggie Berg and Barbara K.Seeber sparked lively debate among our readers. The most eloquent were from university students engaged in various degree levels and programs of study.

    Convivium’s publication of David Goa’s review of “The Slow Professor, Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy” by Maggie Berg and Barbara K.Seeber sparked lively debate among our...

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