Roundup: Skirting the Charter

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It was a late-night sitting in the Senate to deal with more amendments to the assisted dying bill, and in the end, amendments that would include advanced directives in the bill were defeated. Part of the debate was that more time was needed to study the issue, and the mover of the amendments, Senator Cowan, made the very trenchant point that while the bill mandates the government to study the issue within 180 days of passage, there is no guarantee that they will do anything with it other than issue a report that will gather dust, because as we’ve been exploring lately, MPs tend to be rather spineless and because this is a tough “moral” issue, they will refuse to discuss it until forced to by the courts. Again. Meanwhile, a background paper on the bill was released by the justice minister that stated that they didn’t need to strictly follow the Supreme Court’s Carter decision because they were trying to articulate new principles about trying not to normalise suicide among the elderly and disabled. It seems to me that this is the very same logic that the previous government employed in their crafting new prostitution laws, which went around the very issues that the Supreme Court dealt with (the safety of sex workers) and tried to craft legislation that was inherently denunciating rather than which tried to put in place a better regime. That has yet to be challenged in the courts, but it is coming. In this particular case, it does seem like an attempt by the government to try and circumvent clear direction by the Supreme Court on how they have interpreted the Charter in this instance, as Carissima Mathen points out below, it’s not like they can simply say “new law!” and pretend that the existing Charter jurisprudence doesn’t exist, because it clearly does. Is this the way that this government purports to deal with the constitutional dialogue with the courts and push back against them? Maybe. But it also seems like they are flirting with a bill that is unconstitutional to try and keep themselves from pissing off too many interest groups, be they religious or the disabled community, despite the fact that there seems to be clear interest from Canadians that they want this kind of law in place (and in particular, advanced directives if you believe what senators say they are getting in terms of the feedback from Canadians). Of course, they could very well find themselves “forced” by the Senate to provide enough political cover (which I still think is a very distinct possibility), but I am getting the sense that we are now seeing the “campaign from the left, govern from the right” sensibilities starting to emerge in this current Liberal government.

https://twitter.com/cmathen/status/742528101364551680

https://twitter.com/cmathen/status/742531190243135488

Good reads:

  • RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson says harassment and resourcing are not in the unionization bill to deal with problems more quickly. Senators counter that it centralizes too much power in his office.
  • Robert Hall, that second Canadian hostage in the Philippines, has been killed.
  • The government has decided to go with an off-the-shelf design for new warships, but won’t say how many will eventually be built.
  • Incidentally, the outgoing head of the Navy says that we’re vulnerable and need to work more closely with the Americans to counter maritime threats.
  • Peter MacKay says he regrets not going ahead with the F-35 purchase while the Conservatives were still in government.
  • Following the meetings with First Nations youth and the Chief of Attawapiskat, the PM announced an additional $69 million in new First Nations mental health funds.
  • Conservative MP Bob Zimmer wants the same assault rifle used in the Orlando shooting to be less restricted in Canada. Ralph Goodale is not moved.
  • Oh look, speculation that Department of Finance wants a national carbon tax. Expect this to be howled about in QP today.
  • Small surprise, but the Liberals are rejecting the NDP marijuana decriminalisation motion.
  • The Conservatives want PMO officials brought before committee with regards to investigating the leaks of the assisted dying legislation.
  • A woman is suing the RCMP for botching her witness protection, which forced her onto welfare and with a crippling depression.
  • Egale Canada released their report on how they would like to see redresses for injustices against the LGBT community be handled.
  • Stephen Gordon explores the problems of the technocratic and political approaches to the social issue of electoral reform.
  • MP Rob Oliphant writes that Muslims are not to blame for the Orlando tragedy.

Odds and ends:

Praise for Mark Jarvis and Lori Turnbull working in PCO to assist on the democratic reform file.

Justin Trudeau’s foreign policy advisor is heading back to academia.