The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has ruled that there is no duty to consult Indigenous groups at any stage of the law-making process. This is an important ruling as the recognition of a justiciable duty to consult in the legislative process would have had very significant implications for the ability of federal, provincial, and territorial governments to pass laws ...
Read More »Tag Archives: Aboriginal Law
Supreme Court Rejects Duty to Consult in Legislative Process
The Supreme Court of Canada released its decision today in Mikisew Cree First Nation v. Canada (Governor General in Council). The decision significantly deals with whether there is a duty on the government to consult with Aboriginal groups prior to introducing legislation. The Court held (7-2) that no such duty exists. However, 3 of the 7 justices were somewhat equivocal in their ...
Read More »Welcome to the Lawless Zone: the Kawaskimhon Moot and the Refusal to Recognize State Law
Media coverage of the letter written by Quebec’s Minister of the Environment, in opposition to the new federal environmental assessment process, sparked a debate in Le Devoir on the value of Aboriginal traditional knowledge. On the one hand, a group of eight lawyers argued that “[s]ubordination of traditional knowledge to compatibility with scientific data amounts to establishing a hierarchy of ...
Read More »ARL at the Supreme Court
Advocates for the Rule of Law is proud to announce that it has completed its first intervention at the Supreme Court. ARL intervened on behalf of the respondent in the case of Courtoreille v. Canada. ARL argued that the duty to consult principle must be balanced against the principle of legislative sovereignty. If the government fails to consult with Aboriginal groups prior ...
Read More »Why ARL Opposes a Duty to Consult in the Legislative Process
On January 15, 2018, lawyers for Advocates for the Rule of Law (“ARL”) will be appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada to make submissions in a case that will consider whether there is a justiciable duty to consult potentially affected Aboriginal groups in the legislative process. This is the first Supreme Court of Canada case that ARL has intervened ...
Read More »ARL is Headed to the Supreme Court of Canada
Advocates for the Rule of Law was granted leave to intervene in the Courtoreille Appeal by Order of the Honourable Justice Brown today. The decision can be read here: Order of Justice Brown. In accordance with the Order, ARL will be filing a factum and be given an opportunity to make oral submissions before the Court on January 15, 2018. ARL ...
Read More »Court of Appeal Justices: Invoking “Charter Values” Risks Subordinating Charter Rights
Ontario Court of Appeal Justices Miller and Lauwers recently critiqued the nebulous concept of “Charter values” in a written judgement and urged judges to avoid invoking Charter values as much as possible. The case, in Gehl v Canada (AG), 2017 ONCA 319, is worth reading, but I’ll summarize it for you here. The issue in Gehl was whether the appellant, ...
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