Advocates for the Rule of Law
In January, Chief Justice Joyal of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench gave an address at the Canadian Constitution Foundation’s Law & Freedom Conference entitled “The Charter and Canada’s New Political Culture: Are We All Ambassadors Now?” The text of the address was published on this website at the time. The Canadian Constitution Foundation has now released the video of the address on YouTube, which can be viewed here.
Following his prepared remarks, Chief Justice Joyal took several questions. His off-the-cuff answers were all extremely thoughtful and eloquent. During one of his answers, Chief Justice Joyal made reference to the debate between Léonid Sirota and me last summer on the topic of Charter adjudication, and section 7 in particular. We lawyers, academics and law-students write about judges and their decisions often, so it is encouraging to learn that a judge has read and given some thought to our perspectives on the law and the proper judicial function. For those interested, the reference is made at approximately the 1:13:00 mark.
I would of course encourage everyone to watch the entire address and the questions that follow. Regardless of whether you agree with Chief Justice Joyal’s perspective, there is no denying its nuance or richness.
