An autopsy of the Google memo with Marni Soupcoff, writer, commentator and policy analyst. Did Google have the legal and/or moral right to fire Damore for his memo on "Google's ideological echo chamber"? Is the incident a canary in the coalmine, or a microcosm for American society more broadly? What...
From Charlie Hebdo to Charlottesville
Steve Simpson, Director of Legal Studies at the Ayn Rand Institute, discusses why free speech is the killer app for Western civilization and why the most disconcerting threats to free speech occur on the level of culture rather than law. Why is the conversation about free speech so frequently focused on...
PART II: Is s. 33 a useful tool or a loaded gun?
Part II of previous debate on the s. 33 notwithstanding clause with Leonid Sirota (AUT Law School), Maxime St-Hilaire (Université de Sherbrooke) and Geoff Sigalet (Stanford Law School). How should historical circumstances, in this case the intentions of parties to the adoption of the Charter, affect how we construe the proper...
DEBATE: Is s. 33 a loaded gun or a useful tool? (Part I of II)
In May 2017, Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall announced his government's intention to respond to a court decision holding that public funding for non-Catholic students who wished to attend Catholic schools violated state obligations of religious neutrality by use of the Charter's notwithstanding clause. In this episiode, we debate the proposition:...
Bruce Pardy and Asher Honickman: Bill C-16 is Law. Now What?
Discussion with Professor Bruce Pardy, Queen's Faculty of Law and Asher Honickman, Advocates for the Rule of Law. What does Bill C-16 mean and how would alleged human rights violations under Bill C-16 be litigated? We discuss the Ontario Human Rights Commission's guidelines and how they might interact with an allegation...
Call for Papers for Runnymede Society Conference and Book Project
ATTACKS ON THE RULE OF LAW FROM WITHIN A project co-presented by Maxime St-Hilaire, Faculté de droit, Université de Sherbrooke and Joanna Baron, Runnymede Society. In August 2016, Supreme Court of Canada Justice Rosalie Abella expressed her skepticism with the concept of the rule of law in an interview with...
Brian Bird: Liberty, Equality, Trinity
Discussion with Brian Bird, D.C.L. candidate at McGill's Faculty of Law and author of "Trinity Western and the erosion of religious freedom": why did the case of Trinity Western University's proposed law school occasion a 'clash of the titans' in the form of two powerhouse appellate courts, Ontario and B.C., disagreeing...
Chief Justice Glenn Joyal: The Charter, Rights Talk, and Institutional Imbalance
How has the Charter fundamentally changed Canadian politics? Discussion with Chief Justice (Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench) Glenn Joyal about Canada's founding ideological mélange and strands of liberal neutrality, communitarianism, and Westminster supremacy, the shift in political culture effectuated by the Charter, the notwithstanding clause, and how courts and legislatures can...