(Un)constructive expropriation lawby pwills on 11 February 2022 Next week, the Supreme Court is hearing a case concerning whether refusing to approve a development permit constituted “constructive expropriation” in Nova Scotia. In this post, I suggest the court should jettison the entire idea of constructive expropriation.
Electoral reform needs better PR: Childhood addendumby pwills on 22 October 2021 This is a brief addendum to the previous discussion about electoral reform. As I noted in Part III, s 3 of the Charter grants a right to vote to “[e]very citizen”, but not every citizen can vote. Most notably, citizens under 18 cannot vote. I’m going to discuss two less infringing alternatives than giving children… Continue reading Electoral reform needs better PR: Childhood addendum
Electoral Reform needs better PR (Part III)by pwills on 18 October 2021 [This the third of a three-part Post. In Part I, I proposed an alternative electoral system that provides locally proportional representation (LPR). LPR works by weighting legislators’ votes in the legislature according to the number of votes they received in the election. In Part II, I discussed the possibility of defining ridings based on criteria… Continue reading Electoral Reform needs better PR (Part III)
Electoral Reform needs better PR (Part II)by pwills on 29 September 2021 [This is the second of a three part post. In Part I, I proposed an alternative electoral system to provide locally proportional representation (LPR). LPR works by weighting legislators’ votes in the legislature according to the number of votes they received in the election. In Part III, I’ll discuss the courts’ role in all this.… Continue reading Electoral Reform needs better PR (Part II)
Electoral reform needs better PR (Part I)by pwills on 25 September 2021 Introduction What better way is there to spend the aftermath of an election than to wring one’s hands about the difference between the parties’ seat count and the popular vote they received? It is, after all, as pure a form of ineffectual handwringing as one could wish: any form of proportional representation (PR) seems as… Continue reading Electoral reform needs better PR (Part I)
Reserving s. 33 for the right momentby pwills on 30 August 2021 TL;DR The notwithstanding clause (s 33) is back in use in provincial legislatures, and so is in the news, in law journals, and in the courts. Prominent by its absence is Parliament. In this piece, I suggest Parliament could (and should!) play a greater role in governing the use of the notwithstanding clause. Specifically, I… Continue reading Reserving s. 33 for the right moment
Toron2(b)by pwills on 8 March 2021 The Supreme Court will hear the appeal of the Toronto election case on March 16, 2021. The case involves the constitutionality of the Better Local Government Act that redrew the City of Toronto’s electoral districts from 47 wards to 25 wards while the City’s election was ongoing. A variety of applicants sought to challenge the… Continue reading Toron2(b)
Doré or Door Bby pwills on 8 January 2021 An unpopular opinion: Doré [2012 SCC 12] is fine. In the 8 years since it, we haven’t seen a downfall of civilization and the Rule of Law (well, not in Canada at any rate). The core of Doré is the idea that when an administrative decision maker (ADM) makes a decision that implicates Charter rights,… Continue reading Doré or Door B