There were three major law-related stories in the news yesterday, starting with the announcement that Supreme Court of Canada Justice Clement Gascon has opted to retire early, citing “personal and family reasons.” This was quickly followed by Justin Trudeau announcing that a replacement process would be launched, and would again be headed by Kim Campbell, while the Conservatives followed a few hours later with a demand that this process not go ahead until the leak from the previous process was investigated (though the Privacy Commissioner is already on that case). The thing to remember of course is that there is something of a deadline here, being the election, and it’s more than possible that the Conservatives want this delayed so that they have the possibility of naming the next judge if they should happen to form government in October. For what it’s worth.

The second story was that of the carbon tax reference at the Ontario Court of Appeal, which was live-streamed for the first time in its history. The province’s argument apparently is that if the federal government is allowed to impose a carbon tax, that they’ll start intruding into other areas of provincial jurisdiction, which is…dubious. And it sounds like the judges weren’t having much of that line of reasoning either.

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https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1117809485395816451

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The third law story of the day was the revelation that the directive around civil litigation involving Indigenous people that Jody Wilson-Raybould instituted as one of her last acts as justice minister has been fiercely contested within the department because it many cases, it amounts to litigating badly and not actually getting the courts to resolve the legal questions that are at issue, which they argue doesn’t actually help reconciliation because you’re not dealing with underlying issues that require resolution. The piece also noted the frequent and direct political interference that Wilson-Raybould exerted on civil litigation (which she can do as Attorney General, unlike the arm’s length nature of criminal prosecutions), sometimes undermining the arguments that Crown attorneys were trying to advance in the middle of cases. It’s fascinating reading and yet more insight into what was going on with Wilson-Raybould in the lead up to her being shuffled.

Good reads: 

• Under-reported news yesterday was Canada joining a German-French effort to preserve the international order — and this effort excludes the United States, for obvious reasons.
• Chrystia Freeland also announced new sanctions on 43 members of Maduro’s regime in Venezuela. 
• Catherine McKenna ordered that the effects of increased marine shipping be considered in the environmental assessment of a new Vancouver port container terminal. 
• The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women is fighting in court for two RCMP files, which the Force says could jeopardize ongoing investigations.
• The fighter jet replacement tendering process will finally get underway next month. 
• There is a sense that the Liberals may be losing some of their momentum in nominating candidates for the upcoming election. 
• Conservative MP Mark Warawa says he may be facing pancreatic cancer. (He had already announced that he won’t run again this fall).
• As it’s the Alberta election today, here are six things we’ve learned about Rachel Notley, and six things we’ve learned about Jason Kenney.
• Jen Gerson notes that while the UCP platform has some commendable ideas, it is also full of theatrical ones that have no hope of success, (but that may well be the plan).
• Chantal Hébert remarks that a loss Notley today could mean the end of Trudeau’s national climate framework. 
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at the seven major bills that the government must pass in the 35 remaining sitting days. 
• Colby Cosh delves into that OECD report on the shrinking “middle class,” and provides some context as to what that actually means, particularly here in Canada.
• Matt Gurney contrasts proposed refugee changes with the recent polling data showing hardening attitudes to visible minority immigration to Canada.
• Andrew Coyne considers what the obsession with carbon pricing from our nominally conservative parties in this country means for the state of conservatism in Canada.
• John Ivison looks to the chaos in Westminster as a reminder that a bit of party unity isn’t such a bad thing in our system, looking directly at the Double-Hyphen Affair fallout.

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