Enter a Justice clothing store
in Syracuse, New York.
Inquire whether an item
bought at that location
can be returned
in a Canadian branch.
The attendant
consults the chain directory.
“Sorry, Sir”
she raises her eyes,
“There is no Justice in Canada.”
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday)
“I admit it. I love the Canadian Constitution,” enthuses Professor Adam Dodek. So few Canadians do. In this we are not unique. A U.S. Rasmussen poll once found only 51 percent of Americans would actually vote for their Constitution; 63 percent thought it was an “excuse” to ban school prayer. And a U.K. study by the Hansard Society confirmed only 26 percent of Britons know what the House of Lords does. Forty-nine percent could not tell the difference between “parliament” and “government.”
In Canada the Constitution is so unloved, Dodek recalls the main textbook on our supreme law once went out of print for months “and nobody seemed to notice.” Dodek, dean law at the University of Ottawa, has a solution: his readable, 176-page account of the constitution and its meaning, written in plain English.
“A constitution can be thought of as an official rule book for hockey or Monopoly,” Dodek explains. “But a constitution is much more than a book of rules. A constitution can also be a symbol and a source of values. It can inspire, or it can disappoint.” In The Canadian Constitution readers learn that:
How many Canadians know they have a constitutional right to live in any province? Or that if charged with a crime, they have a right to a trial within a reasonable time?
Dodek’s Constitution has one unfortunate lapse, though he’s not the first to make it. A glossary of terms contains this misleading definition: “Executive: The branch of government that carries out the law. One of three branches that comprise the government – the other two are the legislative and the judicial.”
In fact the “branch” analogy is an Americanism. In Canada we have only a single Parliament that rules above all with the ability to sack any prime minister, fire any staff or void any court ruling. The reluctance of MPs to exercise these powers does not alter the fact.
Our constitution, as Dodek notes, is much more than a collection of bylaws. It says something of who we are, and has great moments.
By Holly Doan
The Canadian Constitution by Adam Dodek; Dundurn Publishing; 176 pages; ISBN 97814-5970-9317; $12.99
A federal agency paid an upfront cash advance to a Chinese company for pandemic vaccines never delivered. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had denied the contract with CanSino Biologics Inc. of Tianjin existed, calling it “disinformation.” The agreement was disclosed through Access To Information records obtained by Conservative MP Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard): “That is simply not true.”
Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier had government aircraft fly empty on a 2,200-kilometre round trip from Ottawa to her Gaspé home so crew could taxi her to a local news conference. “This is getting weird again,” a Department of Transport manager wrote in an Access To Information email. Lebouthillier had said all Canadians must reduce their carbon footprint: “Climate change has repercussions everywhere.”
The Conservative chair of the Senate communications committee managing Bill C-10 said he’s been flooded with protest emails on the measure. Senator Michael MacDonald (N.S.) said the bill sends Canada “down a rabbit hole on internet regulation.”
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault has issued a guide for reporters on how combat “disinformation and misinformation.” Guilbeault’s department will detail “concrete action they will take to implement the guiding principles” within a year, he said: “We have to act now.”
A $15 minimum wage is a “powerful tool when it comes to fighting poverty,” says Labour Minister Filomena Tassi. The labour department in a report said in fact there was only weak evidence suggesting minimum wages cut poverty rates: “Individuals in many poor families work very little or not at all.”
Blacklock’s pauses for the Canada Day observance to wish all friends and subscribers a happy First of July. We’re back tomorrow — The Editor
The Senate yesterday referred Bill C-10 to committee hearings as one legislator likened first-ever internet regulations to book burning. “I don’t think this bill needs amendments,” said Senator David Richards (N.B.). “I think however it needs a stake through the heart.”
Airbnb says it cannot meet cabinet’s deadline to begin collecting GST effective tomorrow. A lobbyist for Airbnb in a submission to the Senate national finance committee said the measure was unfair: “As written, it is impossible to comply with by July 1.”
More than a quarter of Canadian homeowners prone to flood risk expect taxpayer aid in case of catastrophe, says in-house research by the Department of Public Safety. About a million homeowners are at high risk on flood plains, by insurers’ estimate: “If you rely on taxpayer-funded bailouts there are no incentives to lower your risk.”
The Senate by a 60-19 vote yesterday passed into law a bill mandating that future cabinets draft successive climate change targets. One supporter described the cabinet bill as better than none: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
Taxpayers may be out three quarters of a billion on a federal buy-back program for prohibited firearms though final costs are “impossible” to forecast, the Parliamentary Budget Office said yesterday. Estimates of the number of banned weapons vary by hundreds of thousands: ‘Details remain unclear.’
Senators last night began proposing amendments to Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s Bill C-10, the first of two cabinet bills to regulate the internet. Legislators proposed lengthy committee hearings that would slow the bill: “Shouldn’t we ask Canadians if they even want the internet regulated in this way?”
Cabinet yesterday said it has “nothing to hide” over the firing of Chinese scientists at a federal lab, but defended a Federal Court reference to seal records in the case. The Court reference seeks to overturn four Commons orders that the files be disclosed to House lawyers under a citation for contempt: “What are you so desperate to hide?”
