SEVEN/FIFTY
The Centre for Constitutional Studies Blog

In this Q&A, 2025 CCS Summer Student Areeba Ismail talks to Ian Peach — Consultation Manager for the Wolastoqey First Nation, former Dean of the UNB Law Faculty, and an expert in intergovernmental affairs — about the Carney government’s Bill C-5 ( An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act ). In particular, Areeba and Ian talk about the context and reasoning behind C-5, its potential impact on the rights of Indigenous peoples,

When governments reach for the notwithstanding clause, three questions often get blurred together. Can they? Must they? Should they? These questions are related, but each demands a different kind of answer. “Can they” is a constitutional question about legal authority: does the Charter  permit this move? “Must they” is a question about necessity: were there viable alternatives that could have addressed the problem without overriding rights? “Should they” is a normative questi

Back in 2019, I published a paper called The Notwithstanding Clause and the New Populism , in which I argued that the ongoing justifiability of the notwithstanding clause was contingent on aspects of Canada’s political culture that were at risk of erosion. On the way to this conclusion, I dismissed defences of the notwithstanding clause couched in terms of legislative supremacy, arguing, in part, that such defences create a tension between the notwithstanding clause and the a

On Thursday, October 2, the Centre for Constitutional Studies hosted a talk by Andrew Stobo Sniderman  on the inadequacy of public services on First Nations reserves and the possibility that section 36 of the Constitution Act, 1982 could be used to challenge that inadequacy. [1]   The background to Sniderman’s talk is that Canadian law has created a serious conundrum for First Nations individuals. Given the under-funding of on-reserve services, many decide that it is better

The standard response to a law being found unconstitutional is to amend it to bring it into compliance with constitutional standards. An alternative response, that is now seemingly becoming more common, is to invoke the notwithstanding clause to revive the law, unchanged. The Government of Ontario took this step in 2021 after imposing its most far-reaching restrictions to date on third-party political advertising during the pre-writ period. [1]  It used the notwithstanding cl

by Aurora Lawrence and Jay Wai , J.D Candidates, University of Toronto. Originally published on the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights Blog on June 11, 2025. June 13, 2025 On February 28, 2025, the Centre for Constitutional Studies at the University of Alberta and the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights co-hosted a “Encampments and the Charter” workshop in Edmonton. The event brought together legal scholars and advocates to examine the legal, social, an