On September 15, 2015, the Federal Court of Appeal issued a short ruling from the bench in the appeal of Zunera Ishaq’s case respecting the Department of Citizenship and Immigration’s policy that requires women who wear a niqab to unveil in order to take the oath of citizenship. In Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) v. Ishaq, 2015 FCA 194, Madam Justice Mary Gleason rendered a short six paragraph oral set of reasons, issued in this manner so that Ms. Ishaq might still be able to take the oath of citizenship and vote in the upcoming election.
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Monthly Archives: September 2015
The Governor General – will he be playing a bigger constitutional role after October 19th?
It is almost exactly one month to Election Day in Canada and the party leaders have been making all sorts of statements with a view to garnering sufficient votes to form the next government. Some of their statements, however, have had constitutional implications. In today’s Globe & Mail, Professor Eric Adams of University of Alberta has presented a quick summary of the leaders’ misconceptions as to who gets to form a government in the event there is no one party with a majority in the House of Commons. His article, “Minority Governments: The constitutional rules of the game” outlines how Conservative leader Stephen Harper, NDP leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau all get it wrong when it comes time to articulating the rules for formation of government.
Strata Corporations are not “government” for the purposes of the Charter
A recent decision on the Supreme Court of British Columbia has dismissed a strata property owner’s constitutional challenges to certain provisions of the Strata Property Act. In The Owners, Strata Plan NW 499 v. Louis, 2015 BCSC 1487, Mr. Justice Armstrong held that, although creatures of statute, strata corporations were not “government” for the purposes of the Charter and therefore, the disgruntled Mr. Louis’ constitutional arguments were not supportable
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