Health committee  I've gone over; forgive me.

Health committee  There are other reasons to doubt whether the POGG power can sustain legislation in this area that I won't go into, but they are set out in my brief. The final possibility that I'll just mention super-briefly is, of course, pursuing the establishment of a national agency with com

Health committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's an honour and a privilege to have the opportunity to participate in your extensive study of a national pharmacare program. My area of expertise is constitutional law, including the division of legislative powers. I will be confining my remar

Justice committee  I agree.

Justice committee  Sorry, I wasn't sure I understood. Jurisdiction over discrimination is, of course, divided between the federal Parliament and the provincial and territorial legislatures. As you know, pursuant to the Canadian Human Rights Act, federal jurisdiction applies only within certain are

Justice committee  Thanks very much. I think it's an excellent point, and it brings up one of the dominant principles of Canadian constitutional interpretation, the idea that the Constitution needs to be interpreted as a “living tree” capable of evolving over time and capable of addressing new soci

Justice committee  I agree with Professor Hogg. I suppose the closest equivalent would be in the context of hate speech, in that Parliament has acted to prohibit the willful promotion of hatred through the passage of subsection 319(2) of the Criminal Code. That is hate speech directed at identifi

Justice committee  Thanks, Mr. Fraser. I think it's an interesting question. Professor Hogg has taken a position that the federal Parliament can pass laws prohibiting discrimination pursuant to the criminal law power. We haven't had a lot of opportunity to consider the limits of such a power, beca

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Cooper. As a point of clarification, I don't think the chief justice's opinion in the Assisted Human Reproduction Act reference is correctly described as a dissent on some aspects of the decision. There were three separate opinions. I think the most important con

Justice committee  Thank you.

Justice committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you, honourable members. It's a great privilege to have the opportunity to appear before you today to speak about the constitutionality of Bill S-201, which is a very important initiative. In my view, the doubts that have been expressed