Abstract
The judiciary played an important but largely invisible role in the Canadian political system for over a century. From the founding of the country in 1867 to the ‘patriation’ of the constitution and adoption of an entrenched Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, Canadian judicial behavior reflected the conservatism of its English role model. Judicial restraint was a dominant feature of court work, with only a few notable exceptions that had no lasting impact on how the judiciary saw itself or saw the world around it.
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Notes
See among others Michael Mandel, The Charter of Rights and the Legalization of Politics in Canada (Toronto: Wall and Thomson, 1989) Socialist Studies 2 (1984), theme issue on ‘Critical Perspectives on the Constitution’;
David Frum, ‘Who’s Running This Country, Anyway?’ Saturday Night 103 (October 1988): 56.
For two useful assessments of the Charter in light of these arguments, see Peter H. Russell, ‘The First Three Years in Charterland,’ Canadian Public Administration 28 (Fall 1985): 367
Ian Greene, The Charter of Rights (Toronto: James Lorimer, 1989).
The best comprehensive analysis is Peter H. Russell, The Judiciary in Canada: The Third Branch of Government (Toronto McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1987), Ch. 14.
Alan C. Caims, ‘The Judicial Committee and its Critics,’ Canadian Journal of Political Science 3 (1971): 301.
Carl Baar, ‘Judicial Behavior and Comparative Rights Policy,’ in Richard Claude (ed.), Comparative Human Rights (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976), Ch. 14 at p. 362.
See Carl Baar, ‘Patterns and Strategies of Court Administration in Canada and the United States,’ Canadian Public Administration 20 (1977): 242.
Jules Deschenes, Masters in Their Own House (Ottawa: Canadian Judicial Council, 1981), pp. 97–9.
See for example Robert Martin, ‘The Judges and the Charter,’ Socialist Studies 2 (1984) 66;
Andrew Petter, ‘Immaculate Deception: The Charter’s Hidden Agenda,’ Socialist Studies 2 (1984): 66; The Advocate 45 (1987): 857
Harry J. Glasbeek, ‘A No-Frills Look at the Charter of Rights and Freedoms or How Politicians and Lawyers Hide Reality,’ Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 9 (1989): 293.
See Lorraine Weinrib, ‘The Supreme Court of Canada and Section One of the Charter,’ Supreme Court Law Review 10 (1988): 469. The key case on section one is The Queen v. Oakes (1986) 1 S.C.R. 103.
Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution, Volume 1: Findings and Recommendations (Halifax, Nova Scotia, December 1989).
Bertha Wilson, ‘Decision-Making in the Supreme Court,’ University of Toronto Law Journal 36 (1986): 227.
Bertha Wilson, ‘Courts Need Women’s Perspective Madame Justice Wilson Says,’ Canadian Human Rights Advocate 6 (Feb. 1990): 1–5.
See for example: Martha Jackman, ‘The Protection of Welfare Rights Under the Charter,’ Ottawa Law Review 20 (1988): 257; and three papers prepared for the panel on ‘Positive Rights, Participation and the Charter’ at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Law and Society Association, Victoria, British Columbia, 30 May 1990: Martha Jackman, ‘The Right to Participate in Regulatory Decisions Affecting Charter Protected Interests’; Kent Roach, ‘Remedial Implications of Positive Rights’; and Patrick Macklem, ‘Comment: The Limits and Possibilities of Judicial Review.’
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© 1991 Kenneth M. Holland
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Baar, C. (1991). Judicial Activism in Canada. In: Holland, K.M. (eds) Judicial Activism in Comparative Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11774-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11774-1_4
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