Walking into a crowded cocktail party and looking over the heads of the guests to pick out your friends. Luckily, they're not too hard to spot, since they're all wearing togas and standing apart from everyone else because they were never invited in the first place.

I'm not persuaded by the argument that a province can't repeal the oath of allegiance for its legislators. But you know who was? Quebec's constitutional-reformer-in-chief, whose government proceeded to do just that, and who is now trying to get rid of the Lieutenant Gorvernor for good measure.

ICYMI: The Alberta CA strikes down the requirement that lawyers take an oath of allegiance; it's the right outcome, though reached for quite wrongheaded reasons, and no, it won't undermine the rule of law in Alberta. doubleaspect.blog/2025/12/18/t...

New post: the Alberta Court of Appeal holds that requiring lawyers to swear allegiance to the Sovereign is unconstitutional. Or, why oaths are not like statutes, what allegiance means, and why proportionality balancing doesn't care about your feelings.

Question aux membres du Barreau du Québec: avez-vous eu à prêter un serment (d'allégeance ou autre) avant d'être inscrit? Je ne vois rien dans la Loi sur le Barreau, mais peut-être que ça m'a échappé. Merci!

I am on this week's The Curious Task podcast (by the Institute for Liberal Studies), talking about the Canadian Charter's notwithstanding clause. thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/whats-wron...

My newest piece, forthcoming in the Constitutional Forum, is a comment on the Fair Voting BC decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, which upholdds the constitutionality of first-past-the-post elections. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

My newest piece, forthcoming in the Constitutional Forum, is a comment on the Fair Voting BC decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, which upholdds the constitutionality of first-past-the-post elections. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I am on this week's The Curious Task podcast (by the Institute for Liberal Studies), talking about the Canadian Charter's notwithstanding clause. thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/whats-wron...

Email from a well-liked editor at a major academic press, in response to a request for an update on a proposal and sample chapter I submitted (with the editors encouragement) three months ago. If anyone wants to suggest careers outside academia, I'd love to hear from you.

Email from a well-liked editor at a major academic press, in response to a request for an update on a proposal and sample chapter I submitted (with the editors encouragement) three months ago. If anyone wants to suggest careers outside academia, I'd love to hear from you.

ICYMI: For all that's wrong with the Quebec Constitution, it won't undermine abortion rights. doubleaspect.blog/2025/12/02/v...

New blog post: the Quebec Constitution bill is bad in all sorts of ways, not least in how it undermines rights, but the argument that it endangers abortion access does not hold up.

Nouveau billet: en réaction au projet de loi 9, qui interdira, entre autres, les signes religieux dans les écoles privées subventionnées comme celle où j'ai étudié, je partage mon souvenir d'un professeur jésuite. doubleaspect.blog/2025/11/27/l...

Nouveau billet, dans lequel je partage le mémoire que j'ai présenté à la Commission des institutions de l'Assemblée nationale pour son étude du projet de loi 1 doubleaspect.blog/2025/11/27/m...

J'ai récemment été invité, avec Guilleaume Rousseau, à parler du projet de loi 1, qui inclut notamment une constitution (un peu) codifiée et (pas vraiment) enchâssée pour le Québec, dans le cadre d'un épisode du balado des étudiants en droit de Sherbrooke, Affaire classée. Bonne écoute!

ICYMI: Some further mythbusting in relation to the notwithstanding clause. Does opposing it means opposing democracy? Are the judges whose decisions it's used to override just Liberals? The answers may surprise you! doubleaspect.blog/2025/11/10/n...

My new favourite bit of notwithstanding clause trivia:

New post: further notwithstanding clause mythbusting, to follow-up on my op-ed in the National Post last week.

George Brown on Canadian union and American insanity. (The American government was, in fact, insane; not for the last time.)

More George Brown on immigration and ambition for one's country.

George Brown on Comeau. Oopsie!

George Brown on how to think about taxation and trade.

George Brown on the people whose opinion you want to get on the right side of when you have ambitions and aspirations for your country's future.

ICYMI: My piece in the National Post addressing some of the myths being spread about the "notwithstanding clause" to justify its widespread use. nationalpost.com/opinion/leon...

Been called "some clown in England" at the other place, by some sad creature who goes by @TheKaiserSpeaks, which means I'm required to share this. I didn't make the rules!

My latest in the National Post, addressing a mythology that is coming to surround the "notwithstanding clause" and make it into something inoffensive and practically cuddly. It's nothing of the sort. nationalpost.com/opinion/leon...

Time to plug something I wrote back when I was teaching at AUT in New Zealand.

So this is a fun read for colleagues in UK universities.

John A Macdonald on Yes, Kings (but not *that* kind)!

Sir John A Macdonald stating the obvious during the Confederation Debates, February 6, 1865. The population of Canada at the time: a bit over 3 million. Being ambitious for your country means being open to immigration. Is there any country today that has this much ambition?

Sir John A Macdonald, describing the heights of political enmity during the Confederation Debates (February 6, 1865)

ICYMI: A right-wing takeover is no solution to left-wing philistinism

New post: too many institutions of culture and learning are run by ideologues who loathe what they are supposed to cherish. Replacing them by right-wing commisssars is not the answer.

Alberta has now used the "notwithstanding clause" to end a teachers' strike; Ontario did it too. The SCC's misbegotten case law on the "right" to strike is an embarrassment, yet there's no discussion of a constitutional amendment to overturn it, just lazy resort to s 33, which undermines all rights.

ICYMI: The Ontario government wants to scrap fixed-date elections and the censorship rules it used the "notwithstanding clause" to enact, and barely bothers hiding the rank partisan self-interest driving its proposals. doubleaspect.blog/2025/10/28/w...

Profound commentary from the longtime member of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal. ¿Por qué no te callas?

New post: The Ontario government can't censor pre-election ads against it, so it's scrapping fixed-date elections instead. That's not all bad, but the crass self-interestedness of its proposal is galling.

ICYMI: My piece on Quebec's provincial constitution bill's problems in The Line.

New post: some further thoughts on the Quebec Constitution project (specifically, the process by which it is being enacted). doubleaspect.blog/2025/10/21/h...

My latest in The Line, on the problems with Quebec's proposed provincial constitution. And I should take the opportunity to encourage Canadians, at least, to subscribe to The Line. They don't take government money. Give them some of yours!

En rappel, ma critique du Projet de loi 1, notamment en raison de son incohérence et incompatibilité avec le cadre constitutionnel canadien. doubleaspect.blog/2025/10/10/c...

Un peu de lecture pour votre fin de semaine de l'Action de grâce!

The thing is, there are OTHER books you have to read to review the one book. total scam by Big Book

New post (en français): Quebec's Bill 1 and its proposed provincial constitution is epically incoherent and incompatible with the Canadian constitutional framework into which it purports to fit.

Nouveau billet: le Projet de loi 1, avec sa Constitution du Québec, est un monument d'incohérence incompatible avec le cadre constitutionnel dans lequel il a la prétention de s'inscrire.

But if you are looking for a serious study of what a Quebec constitution could do and what constraints — legal, political, and principled — apply to provincial constitution-making, check out @richardalbert.bsky.social's and my edited book: www.mqup.ca/a-written-co...

The main thing to know about this constitutional wankery is that the party engaged in it is currently projected to win zero seats at an election due to take place a year from now.

The main thing to know about this constitutional wankery is that the party engaged in it is currently projected to win zero seats at an election due to take place a year from now.