Advocates for the Rule of Law

On June 27, 2014, the Supreme Court released a decision that will affect every employment relationship across Canada.  In United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 503 v. Wal Mart Canada Corp., a 5-2 majority of the Court held that an employer – in this case Wal-Mart – is prohibited from permanently shutting down its business during the collective bargaining process, unless it ...

This Article was published in the Autumn 2014 edition of the Advocates’ Quarterly1   Eighty-five years ago this October, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council handed down its decision in Edwards v. Attorney-General for Canada, in which it held that “The British North America Act planted in Canada a living tree capable of growth and expansion within its natural ...

(This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post Canada) The Supreme Court of Canada’s recent decision in Reference Re Senate Reform has irked a great many Canadians who had hoped that our highest court would bless democratic reform in the Red Chamber. On virtually every question before it — from term limits to democratizing the selection process — the Supreme ...