Category: Rule of Law Page 1 of 2

Matter Commented On: Canadian Law Societies’ Ours to Protect Campaign

PDF Version: The Political Threat to the Rule of Law in Canada

Recently, the law societies across Canada came together to launch? Ours to Protect, a national campaign to raise awareness about the importance of the rule of law. In Canada, when we talk about threats to the rule of law, we tend to glance nervously at chaos in other countries, especially the United States. The United States has provided a dramatic study in how quickly respect for legal norms can erode. The Trump White House openly vilified judges who ruled against it – accusing them of abusing their powers and even suggesting they be impeached or prosecuted. Some years back, the same president incited an attack on Congress itself. It was a stark reminder that even free societies can teeter when their leaders flout the rule of law.

Back to School Notwithstanding the Charter

By Shaun Fluker

On October 30, 2025

In Constitutional, Education, Labour/Employment, Rule of Law, Statutory Interpretation

By: Shaun Fluker and JD students registered in the Public Interest Law Clinic

Legislation Commented On: Back to School Act, SA 2025 (full citation unavailable at publication time)

PDF Version: Back to School Notwithstanding the Charter

On Monday October 27, 2025, the Minister of Finance Nate Horner tabled Bill 2, Back to School Act, in the second session of the current Legislature, and the UCP government subsequently pushed it through all three readings of the legislative process, effectively passing it on the same day it was introduced. The Back to School Act came into force on royal assent on October 28, 2025. The Act legislates the end of the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) strike and imposes labour terms between the Province of Alberta and the ATA for 4 years. While this alone warrants significant scrutiny, section 3 of the Act goes further and pre-emptively invokes the Charter’s notwithstanding clause (section 33), immunizing the Act from being struck because it unlawfully infringes sections 2 and 7 to 15 of the Charter. This post explains why the Back to School Act remains justiciable, which is to say, a law still amenable to judicial scrutiny.

Premier Danielle Smith and the (Non) Observance of Constitutional Conventions

By Nigel Bankes

On April 19, 2023

In Constitutional, Rule of Law

By: Nigel Bankes and Jennifer Koshan

Matter Commented On: Premier Smith’s interactions with the Department of Justice in the matter of Artur Pawlowski

PDF Version: Premier Danielle Smith and the (Non) Observance of Constitutional Conventions

For the past several weeks, news outlets have been reporting on Premier Danielle Smith’s involvement in prosecutions for COVID-19 and Coutts border blockade related offences. Most recently, a video was leaked of Premier Smith’s conversation with Artur Pawlowski, who is facing criminal charges for the Coutts blockade that Smith said she would discuss with Justice officials. One issue that has not squarely been addressed is the significance of whether Premier Smith actually spoke to prosecutors in Pawlowski’s case, or whether she just spoke to officials within the Department of Justice, including the Deputy Attorney General, about the case. The Premier’s back and forth on who she contacted suggests she believes this distinction matters, such that if she “only” did the latter she did not breach any constitutional convention relating to prosecutorial independence. In our view this is incorrect. Any contact by the Premier with the Department of Justice in relation to any particular case or class of cases is inconsistent with the constitutional conventions associated with the prosecution of criminal charges. These constitutional conventions are essential elements of the rule of law, the separation of powers, and ideas of equality before the law.

The Alberta Sovereignty Act and the Rule of Law

By Martin Olszynski

On June 22, 2022

In Constitutional, Rule of Law

By: Martin Olszynski, Jonnette Watson Hamilton, and Shaun Fluker

Matter Commented On: The Alberta Sovereignty Act and the Free Alberta Strategy

PDF Version: The Alberta Sovereignty Act and the Rule of Law

Last week, United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership hopeful Danielle Smith announced that, upon her election as Premier, she would introduce the Alberta Sovereignty Act, legislation described as the “cornerstone” of the Free Alberta Strategy (Strategy), published back in the fall of 2021 (see story here). Briefly, this law would purport to grant the Alberta Legislature the power “to refuse enforcement of any specific Act of Parliament or federal court ruling that Alberta’s elected body deemed to be a federal intrusion into an area of provincial jurisdiction” (Strategy at 22). Legal academics have dismissed the idea as one that would clearly offend Canada’s constitutional order, but to date mainstream media commentary has failed to acknowledge the fundamentally unlawful and undemocratic nature of this proposal.

Red Flags with Bill 15 – Education (Reforming Teacher Profession Discipline) Amendment Act

By Shaun Fluker

On May 10, 2022

In Administrative Law, Rule of Law

By: Shaun Fluker

Legislation Commented On: Bill 15 – Education (Reforming Teacher Profession Discipline) Amendment Act (30^th Legislature, 3^rd Session, Minister of Education)

PDF Version: Red Flags with Bill 15 – Education (Reforming Teacher Profession Discipline) Amendment Act

One day the Supreme Court of Canada will revisit its 2001 decision in Ocean Port Hotel Ltd v British Columbia (General Manager, Liquor Control and Licensing Branch), 2001 SCC 52 (CanLII), [2001] 2 SCR 78, because the Court will eventually have to address its failure in Ocean Port to give adequate consideration to the importance of real independence in the administrative process established by the executive branch, both in matters generally and more particularly in disciplinary proceedings. The disciplinary process for Alberta teachers, recently added to the Education Act, SA 2012, c E-0.3 by Bill 15, is a case in point. The Minister of Education stated at the beginning of second reading for the bill that the Commissioner in charge of the disciplinary process “would operate at arm’s length from the ministry.” (Alberta Hansard, April 21 2022 at 767) This post examines Bill 15 to assess the accuracy of the Minister’s claim, and concludes that not only is the Commissioner not sufficiently independent of the Minister, the disciplinary process as a whole exhibits very little indicia of being independent.