CCF staff write on a variety of policy areas from a mostly legal viewpoint. Our staff often focus on policy issues related to the legal cases we support.
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Which do you think is worse: police officers who don’t know the law, or officers who know the law but deliberately ignore or even mock it? That question has been on my mind since I saw the video made by Mike Miller, who observed two police officers making an arrest
Is it too late to save the spirit of debate on university campuses, the very places where dissent is supposed to be valued for its contribution to fresh and vibrant thought? We’ve been worrying about the problem for decades. In the early 90s, my contribution to free speech in education
“Some animals are more equal than others,” said one of the pigs in Orwell’s cautionary tale Animal Farm. In that story, once the animals wrested control of the farm from the humans, the pigs in charge were soon drunk on power and became even more oppressive than previous management. The
We are told that the organ transplant rules in Ontario, which require six months of sobriety before a patient can be considered as a recipient for a liver transplant, are necessary to protect a scarce resource — and the organ donors who provide it. Yet if one believes an alcoholic
It’s the optimism — or the lack of negativity. That’s what is being credited for the Liberals’ federal election victory; that’s what Harper cabinet minister Jason Kenney says conservatism needs more of. I say, set politics aside for a bit. It was a long campaign. But hang on to the
How do Canadians see the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms? The constitutional bill of rights is young enough that the benefits of its very existence are still an ongoing matter of debate, never mind differences of opinion about how it should be interpreted. That’s why it surprised me to
Last week, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump went on television and professed his love for eminent domain, the process by which government takes private property without the owner’s consent and uses it for a public purpose. His statement was not surprising given that Trump once stood to benefit personally from
Not much useful usually comes of hot mic incidents. When politicians or celebrities spout off without realizing their words are being picked up by live microphones, humiliation and offence are the typical results. But in the case of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s remarks to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a
This month, Alberta’s privacy commissioner began investigating the Edmonton Police Service’s practice of “carding” — also known as conducting “street checks” — which can result in the collection and storage of information about people not suspected of any crimes. As someone who deals with constitutional issues, I get asked about
