SEVEN/FIFTY
The Centre for Constitutional Studies Blog

It looks increasingly likely that Albertans will be voting on whether to separate from Canada this year. This vote would not only pose an existential challenge to the entire country, but has also been found to contravene certain constitutional rights by Justice Colin Feasby (Alberta Court of King’s Bench) in Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta v Sylvestre . [1]  The effect of this ruling has been limited, however, by Alberta’s Justice Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (“Bill 14”),

Next week, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) will spend four days on a landmark hearing on the constitutionality of Quebec’s controversial Bill 21. [1] Enacted in 2019, Bill 21 — formally known as An Act respecting the laicity of the state [2]  — seeks to enforce secularism in the province by targeting the wearing of religious symbols in the public sphere. The law requires certain civil servants — lawyers, police officers, and public school teachers among them — to remove r

On December 16, 2025, the Alberta Court of Appeal did something no Canadian appellate court has done before: it struck down a statutory oath of allegiance requirement for admission to the bar as unconstitutional.   In Wirring v Law Society of Alberta , the Court held that Alberta’s requirement that aspiring lawyers swear an oath of allegiance to the Crown infringes freedom of religion under section 2(a) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“ Charter ”) and cannot be justif

Late last month Alberta Premier Danielle Smith sent Prime Minister Mark Carney a letter, made public in the first week of February, seeking a role for the Alberta government in the selection of federally-appointed judges. [1] This is a reasonable request. Indeed, my understanding is that it has generally been common practice for the federal Justice Minister to seek the opinion of their provincial counterpart from the province for which they would be appointing a judge (as we

This is the third in a series of three expert interviews on the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent judgment in Quebec v Senneville  — a judgment that elicited a great deal of public attention and controversy when it was released in October 2025.   In Senneville , the Supreme Court struck down two mandatory minimum sentencing provisions relating to possession and accessing of child pornography, ruling that these sentences violated section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and

Quebec’s Act respecting the laicity of the State (“Bill 21”) prohibits certain public sector employees from wearing religious symbols while performing their duties, [1]  prohibits certain public sector employees from delivering public services while wearing facial coverings, and prevents individuals accessing certain public services from doing so with their faces covered. [2]  The impact of these prohibitions, which clearly limit the religious freedom that is guaranteed by s

This is the second in a series of three expert interviews on the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent judgment in Quebec v Senneville  — a judgment that elicited a great deal of public attention and controversy when it was released in October 2025. In Senneville , the Supreme Court struck down two mandatory minimum sentencing provisions relating to possession and accessing of child pornography, ruling that these sentences violated section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and

On December 9, 2025, the Alberta Legislative Assembly successfully passed Bill 9 on third reading, [1] invoking the notwithstanding clause in an effort to thwart Charter challenges against three statutes that affect the rights of transgender individuals in the province: the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 (No. 2) [2] (previously Bill 26), which prohibits access to gender-affirming medical treatments for gender diverse youth under 16; the Education Amendment Act, 2024 [

This is the first in a series of three expert interviews on the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent judgment in Quebec v Senneville  — a judgment that elicited a great deal of public attention and controversy when it was released in October 2025.   In Senneville , the Supreme Court struck down two mandatory minimum sentencing provisions relating to possession and accessing of child pornography, ruling that these sentences violated section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and

It is, or at least was, fairly common practice in Canada to require people to take an oath to “be faithful and bear true allegiance to” the Sovereign, his heirs and successors. The single largest group of people who must swear the oath of allegiance are naturalized citizens, of whom I am one. Another fairly numerous group that used to be, and in some provinces still is, required to swear this oath consists of lawyers. It has also been a somewhat common practice for people to