The Lawyers Weekly - April 13, 2012

n;Greg Sexton has joined
Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP as
an associate in the firm’s Van-
couver office. Sexton practices in
the area of civil litigation with an
emphasis on insurance defence in
a wide range of areas, including
product liability, road mainten-
ance and general casualty insur-
ance. He has trial experience in
the British Columbia provincial
and supreme courts, and has
acted in both the mediation and
settlement of numerous claims
involving personal injuries.
n;Joel Morris has joined Harper
Grey LLP as an associate and will
be practising with the firm’s health
law, insurance defence and com-
mercial litigation groups. Morris
originally joined the firm as a
summer student in 2009 and
returned as an articling student in
2011. Morris has also clerked at
the British Columbia Supreme
Court in New Westminster.

AWARDS

The Charter at 30:
Power to the
people, via judges

TLW: Has the Charter of Rights, 30 years after it was enacted, developed in the way the framers expected? On April 17, 1982, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was signed into law. Constitutional scholar Peter Hogg says the Charter has been been good for Canadians—but with the caveat hat the courts now have a bigger role in policy making. Hogg spoke with Shannon Kari, sen- ior editor of The Lawyers Weekly, at the Toronto office of Blake Cassels & Graydon, where he is scholar in residence.

n;For the second consecutive year, Ottawa based Perley-Rob-ertson Hill & McDougall’s LLP’s international arbitration group has ranked among the top international arbitration firms in the world by Global Arbitration Review 100. The firm was recognized for its attention to clients, experienced arbitrators and variety of cases not necessarily related to Canada.

n;Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP

(FMC) partners Sander Grieve and

Mark Evans have been awarded the London-based International Law Office Client Choice Award for

2012. Both lawyers were recognized for their excellence in client care and quality of service. . Grieve was recognized as the winner of the capital markets category for Canada. He is the national co-chair of FMC’s mining group and practices public markets finance and mergers and acquisitions. Evans was a winner in the litigation category for Canada. Since joining FMC in 1999, his practice has focused on banking, securities, professional liability and fraud.

Hogg: I think what a political scientist would have to say about the Charter is that it has moved a considerable degree of power to lawyers and judges that was formerly in the possession of legislatures and governments. That was not unpredictable to me.

It would not have
been unpredictable to
political scientists. But
I think that wasn’t a widely
held public perception, because
the Charter was always framed
as something that would
empower people — individuals.
And, of course, in a sense it does.
But, it is always through the
intermediary of the courts. So,
some of that I think is an
unfortunate development. THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002

TLW: Was it not set up so that the courts would have to be the conduit?

Hogg: That is right. But I think the courts have taken some unexpected turns and have been to some extent exercising power over policy, which was formerly the role of governments and legislatures…One of the very early Charter cases was the BC Motor Vehicle case. The court said, no, section 7 is not restricted to procedural justice. And that was a case that decided that you couldn’t have absolute liability for a person who was driving without a licence. There had to be some degree of fault before that person could be convicted of driving without a licence. That was an immediate change, an immediate expansion of judicial review. If fundamental justice was simply procedural,

PAUL LAWRENCE FOR THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

Peter Hogg, author of the most cited legal text in Canada, at his Toronto office.

that would not have been a breach of the Charter of Rights.

TLW: Now that we are 30 years in, are there clear guidelines on how section 7 is going to be interpreted?

dicted how far judicial review would go under section 7. And if we are looking 30 years ahead, this is obviously going to continue to be a major source of judicial review.

Hogg: No, I don’t think it is predictable. It is now open to persons to challenge laws on the basis that they are overbroad, disproportionate, arbitrary. The court even says that a law that is vague can be struck down under section 7, but they have never actually struck a law down on account of it being vague. I think it would have been very hard for anyone to have pre-

TLW: What should courts do so as not to be seen as going too far in judicial review?

Hogg: If you take Chaoulli [Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General), 2005 SCC 35, [2005] 1 S.C.R. 791] as an example, the court is really disagreeing with the policy of Parliament and the legislatures about the way a public health care system should be constructed—

Publisher

Julie Murtha

Editor In Chief

Rob Kelly

Senior Editor

Shannon Kari

Focus Editor

Matthew Grace, LL.B.

Ottawa Bureau Chief

Cristin Schmitz

Art Director

Tammy Leung

Production Coordinator

Pauline Braithwaite

Interns

Karen Alexiou & Anum Lateef

Correspondents

Luigi Benetton, Toronto Arnold Ceballos, LL.B., Toronto Thomas Claridge, Toronto Christopher Guly, Ottawa Jeremy Hainsworth, Vancouver Geoff Kirbyson, Winnipeg Luis Millan, Montreal donalee Moulton, Halifax Mike Sadava, Edmonton

® THE LAWYERS WEEKLY VOL. 22, NO. 27 NE WS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

Vol. 22, No. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION December 6, 2002

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002 VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002

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