Canada's Parliament now appears to have returned to its pathetic "business-as-usual" mode in the aftermath of the inexcusable prorogation last December. This gives citizens the dubious privilege of contemplating the events of the past few months, and trying to learn the necessary lessons to help us prevent further subversion of our democracy.
Law and legal issues
“One of the biggest threats to parliamentary democracy in Canada,” wrote the late constitutional expert Senator Eugene Forsey, “is the dogma that any government, regardless of circumstances, always has a dissolution in its pocket: that an appeal to the people is always proper.”
My father was writing in 1953, but more than half a century later Canadians are again being held hostage to the false notion that a government can never be defeated in the House of Commons without triggering an election.
“One of the biggest threats to parliamentary democracy in Canada,” wrote the late constitutional expert Senator Eugene Forsey, “is the dogma that any government, regardless of circumstances, always has a dissolution in its pocket: that an appeal to the people is always proper.”
My father was writing in 1953, but over half a century later Canadians are again being held hostage to the false notion that a government can never be defeated in the House of Commons without triggering an election.
Why wasn't immigration an issue in the recent election campaign, Lawrence Martin asked rather peevishly in his Globe & Mail column a few weeks before the campaign ended.
Perhaps he answered his own question. Martin spent much of his column citing the former executive director of the Canadian Immigration Service, James Bissett, who, in the Ottawa Citizen, recently predicted the usual doom and gloom that some associate with “ethnic” immigration.
Since September 11, 2001, both Liberal and Conservative governments have introduced a vast array of measures that they claim are needed to combat terrorism. Some are enacted through laws such as the Public Safety Act and the Anti-Terrorism Act. Many others have come into being through bilateral agreements with the United States, such as the Smart Border Declaration and Action Plan, and the Safe Third Country Agreement.