Supreme Court ruling in Ernst fracking case poses threat to Charter rights

Today the Supreme Court of Canada rejected Alberta landowner Jessica Ernst's legal challenge to sue the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for denying her right to freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court said that Ernst should have launched a judicial review of how the AER handled and defended the immunity clauses that shield government bodies from lawsuits.

Bill C-51 is violating our Charter rights and Canada doesn't care

Bill C-51 has been routinely called out by activists, journalists and legal scholars for empowering Canada's government and security establishment with the ability to violate charter rights and domestic privacy. Intelligence and security agencies in Canada already have a history of abusing their powers. Under their new expanded powers, this abuse can only become more sharply focused.

We are given a unique opportunity to voice our concerns of our unbridled national security apparatus. We need to push for a national security platform that is mandated to respect human rights (domestically, and abroad) and held accountable to those standards. Before this, we need to understand some of the major human rights concerns that this legislation enables.

Charter Rights at Issue in Fracking Supreme Court Case

An Alberta woman's landmark eight-year battle over fracking regulation, water contamination and Charter rights will take centre stage in the Supreme Court of Canada Tuesday.

Jessica Ernst claims fracking contaminated the water supply at her homestead near Rosebud, about 110 kilometres east of Calgary. She is seeking $33 million in damages.

Ernst is also taking on the agency that regulates the energy industry in Alberta, claiming it has denied her the right to raise her concerns effectively and is shielded by unconstitutional legislation that bar citizens from suing it for wrongdoing.

Lawyer’s lawsuit highlights Ottawa’s court clashes over Charter rights

Edgar Schmidt was once a lawyer earning $155,000 a year for the federal Justice Department, examining proposed laws for consistency with the Charter of Rights. But he felt uneasy about the way he was told to do his job, believing that officials in his own department – and the Justice Minister himself – were involving him in breaking the law. So he sued his employer.

Monday, in an Ottawa courtroom, his lawsuit against the Justice Minister, deputy justice minister and the department comes to trial, calling attention to an issue that has received little notice thus far in the federal election campaign: the Conservative government’s frequent clashes with the courts over the Charter of Rights.

Anti-terror bill threatens Charter rights, Ed Broadbent warns

The federal Conservative government is jeopardizing the civil rights of Canadians through its anti-terrorism legislation and has sat idly by as a wealth gap makes this a “vastly unequal country,” says former NDP leader Ed Broadbent.

Moreover, he says that as Canadian voters prepare for a federal election this year, they must consider replacing Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Tories after nearly a decade in power.

Broadbent says Harper is wrong to boast about his economic record – as “good jobs” increasingly become scarce – and that the governing Conservatives have abandoned environmental regulation in favour of letting oil companies “trample” the interests of many communities and First Nations.

Anti-terror bill C‑44: Pushing the limits of Canadian rights

On October 29, 2014 the government introduced Bill C‑44, an Act to amend the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and other (related) Acts, cited in short form as the Protection of Canada from Terrorists Act. Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney statedthat the amendments put forward under Bill C‑44 are required to keep Canadians safe from terrorism and to protect and uphold the privacy of confidential informants. However, in achieving the government's stated goals, Bill C‑44 deliberately pushes the limits of Canadians' right to privacy, protection from unreasonable search and seizure, and the right to life, liberty and security of the person.  

Tory Bill To Boost CSIS Spying Powers Abroad Is Constitutional, Official Says

OTTAWA - The deputy minister of public safety says a bill that would allow Canada's spy agency to break foreign laws is constitutional.

At a Commons committee meeting, Francois Guimont assured MPs that Justice Department lawyers had vetted the legislation against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Lawsuit Over U.S. FATCA Law Alleges 1 Million Canadians Had Charter Rights Violated

TORONTO - Canada has violated the charter rights of nearly a million Canadians by agreeing to share their financial details with authorities in the United States, two Ontario women allege in a new lawsuit.

Gwen Deegan of Toronto and Ginny Hillis of Windsor, Ont., have launched a claim against the Attorney General of Canada.

In it, they accuse Ottawa of breaching the Constitution by complying with a sweeping new American tax fraud law, known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

Stephen Harper Failing To Protect Charter Rights, Lawyers Claim

OTTAWA - The Harper government is falling short in its duty as a guardian of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Bar Association will be told Friday in a major speech.

Simon Potter, a past president of the association, is to deliver that scathing message in the keynote address to the day-long conference on the state of constitutional law in Canada.

Canadian spy agency sued for allegedly violating charter

One of Canada's top spy agencies, Communications Security Establishment Canada, is violating privacy rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, according to a lawsuit filed by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the OpenMedia organization.

Speaking on Tuesday morning in Vancouver, representatives for the two civil rights groups said the broad and unchecked surveillance of Canadians by the spy agency is unconstitutional.

'There is no right to protest': Montreal police deny Charter rights

"This is approaching absurdist comedy," tweeted Montreal Gazette reporter Christopher Curtis Friday night, trapped in a police kettle from which Montreal's finest inexplicably refused to release him as his deadline approached.

"Did they really, actually arrest Anarchopanda????" replied well known Québécoise pundit Josée Legault.

All rights, including speech rights, are subject to limits

It is with consternation that we read commentary condemning the Supreme Court of Canada’s unanimous decision in the William Whatcott case. The media are not disinterested parties and have a pressing and substantial interest in their own position. It is also disturbing to see the misinformation that has been circulating for years about human rights laws and human rights commissions now being recycled.

First, several comments suggest that the case poses a “danger” to free speech, and that the court failed to consider meaningfully the interests of free speech. The reality is that the court held that portions of the hate speech provisions in Saskatchewan’s human rights code did violate free speech rights, and that the violation was an infringement of Charter rights.

NDP MP claims failure to Charter-proof bills breaches privilege

As the Senate ponders whether to order the parliamentary budget office to cease and desist his efforts to seek clarity from the courts on the extent of his mandate, another ongoing federal court case has sparked a sweeping privilege claim from New Democrat MP Pat Martin.

Yesterday afternoon, Martin made his case for what he described as an "unprecedented" potential breach of privilege.

Does Nature Belong in Canada's Charter?

Public health worker Beatriz Mendoza was living near the Riachuelo River in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when she started losing feeling in her fingers and toes. Her neighbours were also experiencing health issues -- including skin rashes, cancers and birth defects -- clearly linked to pollution in the heavily industrialized area. The Matanza-Riachuelo basin is one of the most contaminated waterways in Latin America.

Moving trials along an ongoing struggle, top judge concedes Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/moving-trials-along-an-ongoing-struggle-top-judge-concedes-1.1013893#ixzz2AcoJ5M6m

Canada’s top judge has acknowledged that the nation’s justice system can be perceived as “too slow and too expensive,” particularly for ordinary citizens trying to resolve civil disputes.

In an interview broadcast on CTV’s Question Period Sunday, Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin said expediting trials while still following proper procedure is an ongoing difficulty.

Peckford writes alternate version of Canada’s Constitution

You know what’s tough? Fixing history. Or rewriting it or revising it, whatever term you prefer. The problem with history is that it’s a story, often with a cast of interesting and compelling characters. And once a story takes hold, it’s almost impossible to shake it from the public consciousness.

That’s Brian Peckford’s problem now. The former Newfoundland premier is determined to set the record straight on how the agreement came about in November 1981 to patriate the Constitution. He has written a political memoir that aims to change the story of how the deal went down.

Charter Anniversary: Tories Nixed Elaborate Birthday Party For Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms

OTTAWA - Bureaucrats planned an elaborate party to celebrate the birthday of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms but the Conservative government refused to RSVP, newly released documents suggest.

Instead, the idea of a ceremony to commemorate the charter's 30th anniversary in April was overruled by Heritage Minister James Moore in favour of a terse press release.

The plan, obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information, was drafted in February, less than two months before the milestone.

Bureaucrats proposed birthday party for charter, but Tories refused to RSVP

OTTAWA - Bureaucrats planned an elaborate party to celebrate the birthday of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms but the Conservative government refused to RSVP, newly released documents suggest.

Instead, the idea of a ceremony to commemorate the charter's 30th anniversary in April was overruled by Heritage Minister James Moore in favour of a terse press release.

The plan, obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information, was drafted in February, less than two months before the milestone.

The Proclamation of the Constitution Act was signed on a rainy Saturday in 1982, giving Canada full control over its foundational laws and bringing the charter into force.

Hey Parliament, Keep Your Laws Off my Body

Canadian women won equality rights 27 years ago when the gender equality clause in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms took effect in 1985. Our Supreme Court has since protected and advanced women's constitutional rights on numerous occasions. Yet, several times since the turn of the 21st century, Parliament has seen fit to debate whether women's rights should be restricted. How can this happen?

I'm speaking of course of the abortion debate, in which anti-choicers pretend that it's all about saving an unprotected class of "human beings" -- fetuses and embryos -- and not about completely subordinating pregnant women to their childbearing function, including forcing women by law to forfeit their own health and lives if necessary. Most anti-choicers, including Canada's national anti-choice group Campaign Life Coalition, want to ban abortion under all circumstances, including to save the woman's life.

The Charter guarantees 'peaceful' assembly

Canada has no “freedom of assembly” in its Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It has a “freedom of peaceful assembly.” The distinction means everything in the context of the student unrest in Quebec. An element of intimidation and physical threat has been part of the demonstrations over planned tuition increases for the past 14 weeks. There have been serious outbreaks of vandalism and violence, and student leaders have made no attempts to do anything about them. The Quebec government of Jean Charest has a duty to bring the province under control, and the law it has proposed would, with some tweaking, be a fair and constitutionally permissible means of doing so.

The students and their leaders have behaved outrageously. Only all-out victory will satisfy them. Thus, they are not partners for negotiations. They demand their constitutional rights be protected, as if their rights were absolute, yet they have no compunction about trampling on the rights of others.