New post: learning from impossible-to-comply-with consumer-protection legislation in Canada doubleaspect.blog/2025/09/23/p...

In light of the FCC's role in the imposition of Trumpian cancel culture in the US, Canadians should consider how they feel about a CBC answerable to a Trump imitator and a CRTC staffed by his appointees. The time to reduce government power is when the decent guys have it - after that, it's too late.

ICYMI

New post: no law, I'm afraid, but an attempt to think through what the Last Night of the Proms and the "Unite the Kingdom" protest tell us about the different ways in which love of country manifests itself.

En rappel: les arguments à l'appui de la contestation de la nomination du juge Robert Leckey à la Cour supérieure du Québec ne sont pas sérieux. doubleaspect.blog/2025/09/15/n...

Just learning of this patently ridiculous legal challenge now - this thread is spot-on.

Nouveau billet, reprenant en français mon argument à l'effet que la nomination du juge Leckey à la Cour supérieure du Québec est valide et le recours qui cherche à la contester, sans fondement. doubleaspect.blog/2025/09/15/n...

Some judicial appointment shenanigans to finish your week in style! Justice Leckey's appointment to the Quebec Superior Court is being challenged by a group led by Daniel Turp. Some thoughts below. Tl;dr: this has no legs. 1/5 www.lapresse.ca/actualites/2...

Next week, a group of our staff will be taking part in the Reading Legal Walk 2025 to help raise funds for advice charities in Reading. If you are able to support us, please go to: londonlegalsupporttrust.enthuse.com/pf/universit.... We are grateful for any contribution!

At heart religious toleration was about sharing civic space with those who disagreed about the most fundamental questions, who rejected divinity and truth, who spread heresy and threatened the eternal damnation of immortal souls. The stakes could not have been higher. 2/

It may be hard to fully comprehend what principles of religious toleration demanded, but it matters. If a religious adherent can be asked to tolerate those of another faith, we should be able to tolerate those who merely disagree about mere matters of politics or policy. 3/3

At moments like this it is worth considering and reflecting upon the history and principles of religious toleration. Such tolerance was not about being nice to people with different customs or holidays, but something far more profound. 1/

For the record, here's what I said in my earlier post (doubleaspect.blog/2025/08/28/o...). I do not want people to not be considered for academic positions because of the school or movement they belong to. I've reason enough to think that I'm a victim of that myself.

ICYMI: Contrary to what Adrian Vermeule insinuates, the Rule of Law requires more than the existence of laws and courts, and while it may not be an "achievement" of liberalism, it is not likely to survive without it.

New post: Adrian Vermeule wants to sell us a fantasy of illiberal legality by stripping the Rule of Law of any meaning, however thin. Caveat emptor.

I'm in the midst of a comparative project on the regulation of hate speech in Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and Australia. The UK has by far the fuzziest and most lax standards of enforcement in this area, with a litany of cases stretching back at least a decade of dubious charges for online speech.

ICYMI: Some thoughts on the law of incitement to violence, and why in real life it should be narrower than might be ideal in the abstract. doubleaspect.blog/2025/09/04/e...

New post: some thoughts on what recent events in the UK tell us about the role of law, and of law enforcement, in relation to incitement of violence. doubleaspect.blog/2025/09/04/e...

Woke may be ending elsewhere but, in Canadian legal academia, ideological favouritism is still going strong. This is an ad from @windsorlaw.bsky.social (www.uwindsor.ca/faculty/recr...).

New post: insisting that your preferred positions aren't up for debate is either lazy bullying or a sign that you're uninterested in persuading your fellow citizens. doubleaspect.blog/2025/09/03/t...

Quebec will ban street prayer—and invoke the notwithstanding clause to do it: www.lapresse.ca/actualites/p.... As I have argued, a ban that targets prayer rather than all gatherings in parks or on roads would be ultra vires the province and unconstitutional anyway doubleaspect.blog/2024/12/09/t....

New post: why the organizers of a Canadian conference are wrong to invite Adrian Vermeule as the keynote speaker. doubleaspect.blog/2025/08/28/o...

ICYMI: A reading list of recent-ish (since 2014) scholarship on constitutional interpretation in Canada doubleaspect.blog/2025/08/26/r...

New post: a compilation of scholarship on constitutional interpretation in Canada in the last decade or so, complete with links, for your reading pleasure. doubleaspect.blog/2025/08/26/r...

New post: an overview of the ONCA decision upholding the constitutionality of first-past-the-post elections. (Not much new ground vis-à-vis my thread the other day.) doubleaspect.blog/2025/08/14/s...

Mostly quite good decision by the ONCA rejecting a Charter challenge to Canada's first-past-the-post electoral system: coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/i... Well worth reading, but here are some quick-fire thoughts. 1/6

More on the Cycle Toronto decision: why arguments that courts should not be looking at the rationality of politically contested decisions in the face of doubtful evidence is not persuasive.

New post: the Cycle Toronto decision, which holds that a law requiring the demolition of certain bike lanes is unconstitutional, may seem counter-intuitive, but it is actually right. Demands that the notwithstanding clause be used to undo it misconceive not only the decision, but democracy itself.

ICYMI, on R (Smith) v Chief Constable of Northumbria Police, which held that uniformed police taking part in a Pride march breached their duty of impartiality.

New post, discussing (at awful length, I'm afraid) last week's Administrative Court decision on police participation in a Pride march. Come for nerdery on standing and reasonableness review, stay for musings on whether there is too much law and on culture war stuff.

My latest for @jotwell.bsky.social, reviewing a great paper on the early history of Canadian originalism by Preston Jordan Lim.

This really *is* Liberation Day: The U.S. Court of International Trade this afternoon struck down Trump’s mass tariffs as unlawful. It’s a fantastic win for the rule of law, human freedom, and prosperity, and a deserved rebuke for arbitrary one-man rule over our livelihoods. /1

The #Mankad inspires all sorts of thoughts, including on the spirit of business. #IPL2025 reminded us of our post on this!

For those who've watched yesterday's #LSGvRCB drama, a post from @akamalnath.bsky.social's and my archives!

All attempts to make nationalism something more than the organization of sentiment, an empire of feeling, requires ransacking the intellectual supply depot for barbed wire or steel bars that can be constructed to contain it, Jonah Goldberg writes: thedispatch.com/newsletter/g...

My annual post on why May Day should be Victims of Communism Day: reason.com/volokh/2025/...

Reckons ...

This is what the Elections Canada results page looks like at the moment. I do not think they should be highlighting a "winner", let alone a "winner" who falls short of a majority. This is a judgment for Parliament, not for the people counting the votes.

But in BOTH types of systems, certain parties are exercise OUTSIZED power. A party that wins 15% of the seats but joins a governing coalition with one that won 40% of the seats is arguably exercising a more DISproportionate amount of power than a party governing with 42% of the national vote share.

Moreover, if the 'wasted' vote idea hinges on representation, and in MMP or other PR-type systems there are representatives elected who NO ONE directly voted for, there is every bit the normative objection at stake. But MY point is the objection is always silly, regardless.

Your periodic reminder that there is no duty to vote: macdonaldlaurier.ca/prioritizing.... Don't reward people who haven't earned it.

For, as you may have suspected, this scenario is not fictional, Yascha Mounk writes. Read the full story and ask yourself: Is free speech still free? thedispatch.com/article/euro...

A meme. A tweet. A WhatsApp message. In today’s Europe, any of these could land you in prison. Would you say that this nation has a problem with free speech? If you do, then you should be very concerned about what has happened in Europe over the last few years.

Read the full story and ask yourself: Is free speech still free? thedispatch.com/article/euro...

Why would anyone compare two populist blowhards with a three-year-old's understanding of economics, fondness for foreign dictators, and hatred towards minorities? It's a mystery!

ICYMI: The UK shed Boris Johnson and Liz Truss with comparative ease, which the US seems unable to do to Donald Trump. Does that mean the British constitution is better than its American counterpart? doubleaspect.blog/2025/04/22/w...

New post by @markpmancini.bsky.social on the importance of procedure and legal orderliness. doubleaspect.blog/2025/04/22/f...

New post: a response to @lordnortonlouth.bsky.social's discusson of the constitutional differences between the UK and the US and their role in countering obnoxious leadership.

The anecdotes will differ, but the underlying message is one that Canadians need to take onboard, especially if the Liberal government wins re-election.

From the two-things-can-be-true-at-once series: 1) The SCC's decison striking down the law allowing for effectively no-parole life sentences was rubbish (see: doubleaspect.blog/2022/06/08/u...); 2) The notwithstanding clause should *never* be used (see e.g. doubleaspect.blog/2017/05/10/c...).