All societies need to make use of force, both to preserve internal order and to protect themselves from external enemies. A liberal society does this by creating a powerful state, but then constraining that power under a rule of law. The state’s power is based on a...
Under section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canadians are guaranteed freedom of thought, belief, and expression. These freedoms are fundamental in our democratic society. In fact, an official government commentary on the Charter states: “In a democracy,...
Book Review – Peter Best – Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools) (1 of 2)
On December 21st, 2018, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, in its unprecedented, de-stabilizing Restoule vs. Ontario and Canada decision, where all these causes came into play, ruled that Canada and Ontario were liable- 50-50- to pay to 21 rent-seeking Ontario...
A Snapshot of Property Rights Protection in Canada After 10 years
The writ has been dropped and Albertans are off to the polls on May 29. That leaves just four weeks for political leaders and voters to sort out what is arguably the most divisive, yet significant, issue for this election - health care. On Day 2, NDP leader Rachel...
Ontario’s appeal of the Restoule Court of Appeal decision was argued before a full panel of the Supreme Court of Canada on November 7th and 8th, 2023. The writer was present in the courtroom. Ontario was the only appellant. Canada supported the position of the treaty...
On November 7th and 8th , 2023, several important legal and fiscal issues will be argued before the Supreme Court of Canada in the Crown-Indigenous rights case: Restoule vs. Ontario and Canada. The main issue is whether the 19 th century treaties that Great Britain...
“A government’s most basic function is the protection of its sovereignty.” – Simon Schama Internal attacks by our political and judicial elites against the sovereignty of our country’s federal, provincial, and territorial governments are placing the existence of...
John McLean was a Christian missionary who lived for nine years with the Blood (Kainai) Indians in present-day Southern Alberta, learning their language, customs and traditions. Based on this, in 1889, at the request of the Smithsonian Institution, he wrote The...
Written in 1889 by John McLean: Christian Missionary, Philologist and Ethnologist The antagonism existing between the customs, intellects, and lives of the two races, and the despondency consequent upon the changed life of the Indians are important factors in...
During the whole of recorded history, the empire has been the most constant and common form of political organization. A basic, self-evident feature of all empire-building has been the successful occupation of the lands of the local, Indigenous inhabitants by outside...
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. -Corinthians 1 It is the right of all capable, adult citizens of Canada to share the same civic rights and to shoulder the same...
After a press interview several years ago Tomson Highway, author of Permanent Astonishment (Doubleday Canada, 2021) found himself sidelined by Indigenous and media elites for his apostacy in saying that some good things came out of residential schools. He said: Nine...
An Interpretation of this Case The Restoule case raises novel, contentious, and potentially destabilizing issues of national importance which the people of Canada deserve to have settled by the Supreme Court. The trial judge, upheld by a narrow majority of the Court...