Looking forward to participating in the 2025 Courts & Politics Research Group annual spring workshop today with colleagues from political science. Kate Puddister and Emmett Macfarlane have done a terrific job putting the program together.

Pleased to have a chapter on the early professional life of Justice Abella in this open access collection. Congratulations to the editors on this important contribution to judicial biography in Canada.

In 2022, the @uodroitpublaw.bsky.social and the CIAJ held a conference to mark the retirement of Justice Rosalie Abella from the Supreme Court of Canada. I am delighted that an open-access collection flowing from the conference has now been published! utppublishing.com/doi/book/10.3138/9781552216712

On June 2, we will be holding a symposium at the UK Parliament on the unwritten rules, norms and principles that make constitutional government work. To join us, please contact @paolosandro.bsky.social at the email address below. Looking forward to seeing many colleagues there!

Excited to be in Taipei this week for Academia Sinica’s 2025 Comparative Constitutional Law Roundtable, hosted by Professor Oran Doyle. Interesting papers on comparative method, judicial agenda setting and constitutional amendment, among others.

I spoke with UN Secretary-General António Guterres today. In this time of rising conflict, Canada is ready to lead. We will build coalitions, defend democracy, and stand up for our values on the world stage. As others step back from global leadership, Canada is stepping up.

Congratulations to @yybrandonc.bsky.social for this work in the SCC in the Kanyinda case!

Bravo to our brilliant students for putting together this podcast on the prorogation decision, and to Mallory Dunlop, the student team member who worked with us on our intervention in MacKinnon, for her stellar commentary on the case in this podcast.

Terence Daintith and Alan Page's book Executive Self-Government and the Constitution is out!! academic.oup.com/book/59801?l...

INSCRIPTION MAINTENANT OUVERTE! Le @uodroitpublaw.bsky.social, @umontreal.ca et @schulichlaw.bsky.social tiendra une conférence académique pour marquer le 150e anniversaire de la Cour suprême du Canada. Informations sur la conférence et les modalités d'inscription ici: lnkd.in/esKJMbqR

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! On June 10-12, 2025, the @uodroitpublaw.bsky.social, the @umontreal.ca and @schulichlaw.bsky.social will hold an academic conference to mark the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada. Conference and registration details here: lnkd.in/esKJMbqR. Join us!

As we kick off an election in Canada this morning, for those concerned w/ the potential for undue electoral interference in this election — and we all shld be — it is worth taking a minute and familiarizing yourself w/ the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol. www.canada.ca/en/democrati...

Election time!

It’s no small thing that Canadian democracy stands strong (even if there is still room for improvement) at a time when democracy is under threat and in decline worldwide.

So richly deserved - way to go @jcyliew.bsky.social !!

New Substack on the recent John Howard decision macdonnell.substack.com/p/securing-t...

Bill Blair says DND is reconsidering buying F-35s from the U.S. amid tensions with the Trump administration.

The Canadian Bar Association welcomes the appointment of The Honourable Gary Anandasangaree as Minister of Justice and Attorney General. We look forward to working with him and his cabinet colleagues: https://bit.ly/4iMa8Zd

Full Ministry listing here: www.pm.gc.ca/en/cabinet

Gary Anandasangaree is Canada’s New Minister of Justice and Attorney General. He is also Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern affairs (!)

Website has been updated! www.pm.gc.ca/en

By the looks of it Carney has resiled from Trudeau’s practice of having a gender equal cabinet?

SCC majority concludes that the use of the balance of probabilities standard in prison disciplinary proceedings violates Charter ss 11(d) and 7 - presumption of innocence. Important decision for prison law with some stare decisis thrown in for good measure. decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-...

Please join @sonialawprof.bsky.social, Benjamin Berger, and myself on April 4 at our 28th Annual Osgoode Constitutional Cases Conference. It's an important time to be thinking about the hopes and the limits of Canadian Constitutional Law. Please share. Hybrid format: www.yorku.ca/osgoode/conc...

New Substack: Wondering How Government Transitions Work? Read These Documents lnkd.in/eN7-tQEU

My preliminary thoughts on the Federal Court's decision in MacKinnon: lnkd.in/ehsVzfUv. The Chief Justice has opened the door to a limited form of judicial review of prorogation, but politics and convention will largely continue to govern the Prime Minister's advice on prorogation.

New post: my thoughts on the Federal Court of Canada dismissing the challenge to the prorogation of Parliament ― the right outcome, a flawed decision, but rather better than it might have been.

Great post by @emmettmacfarlane.com on the prorogation case.

New at In Defence of Westminster: open.substack.com/pub/lagassep...

My preliminary thoughts on the Federal Court's decision in MacKinnon: lnkd.in/ehsVzfUv. The Chief Justice has opened the door to a limited form of judicial review of prorogation, but politics and convention will largely continue to govern the Prime Minister's advice on prorogation.

The Federal Court has dismissed the application in MacKinnon challenging the Jan 2025 prorogation of Parliament. Decision here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/m95bv.... Analysis to follow!

“What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that'll make it easier to annex us." This is the most extraordinary statement by a Canadian prime minister in the history of this country. The Trump administration is at war with Canada.

The @uodroitpublaw.bsky.social mid-term newsletter is now live! Lots of good stuff in there, including information about a major conference on academic freedom that Co-Director Sarah Berger Richardson is leading this month: mailchi.mp/b36e6a9811de...

On March 19, Cintia Quiroga and the Office of Public Policy Research and Outreach @uottawa.bsky.social is holding its fourth Brown Bag Lunch Series event on research and public policy. Prof. Jenn Wallner and I will be discussing our time as scholars-in-residence in government, 1/2

LEAF is hiring a new Executive Director. Please share this with people in your networks who may be a good fit! www.leaf.ca/news/leaf-is...

It’s Election Day in Ontario 🗳️ All the polls predict a Ford blowout but in this heavy political moment, our participation in the democratic process is more important than ever. Go #vote!

New Substack: Five Questions after Canada (AG) v Power: open.substack.com/pub/macdonne...

You can check out the awesome Table of Contents by clicking 'Contents'. This book is also in honour of my PhD Supervisor, Janet Hiebert, on the occasion of her retirement. I'm also proud that two former students of mine have chapters in the book, while I also co-wrote a one with a current student.

We are pleased to announce this year’s workshop will feature a keynote address from @vanessamacdonnell.bsky.social Join us in Guelph in May!

Very pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the 8th annual spring workshop of the Courts & Politics Research Group. Come join us in Guelph on Friday, May 9th. Details here: www.courtsandpolitics.org/Events.php

New Substack: The Competing Constitutional Imperatives of Canada (AG) v Power open.substack.com/pub/macdonne...

(1/2) I am delighted to see the publication of the fantastic edited volume Judicial Bricolage. The Use of Foreign Precedents by Constitutional Judges in the 21st Century (by Groppi, Ponthoreau & Spigno) & my first paper from the empirical part of my doctoral thesis on the Supreme Court of Canada!

The Factum of the @uodroitpublaw.bsky.social's Constitutional Law Initiative has now been filed. Read it here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7l5b3.... Thank you to pro bono counsel Torys LLP for their tireless work over the past few weeks.

My draft article on the upcoming prorogation case, to be heard this Thursday and Friday:

New Substack: A Paper on Prorogation open.substack.com/pub/macdonne...

Congratulations to my colleague @adodek.bsky.social, who has not one but two books on the Hill Times' top 100 books! www.uottawa.ca/faculty-law/...

Many thanks to professors @vanessamacdonnell.bsky.social, @pauldalyesq.bsky.social, @adodek.bsky.social and Dean Kristen Boon for the engaging discussion on judicial review, Parliament’s suspension & the legal stakes of this historic moment.

The MacDonnell Russomanno family will be at this year's Open House @uocommonlaw.bsky.social ! Always a pleasure to be on the bill with @lrussomanno.bsky.social, who is giving this year's keynote address. The little MacDonnell Russomannos will also be in attendance, but without speaking privileges.

There are many critiques to be made of civil servants, but they are also crucial precisely for the ways they continuously enact, uphold, and even contest the complex notion of the public interest.