Canada’s federal government has published a new Cabinet Directive on Regulatory Competitiveness and Red Tape Reduction. The Directive applies to regulations (i.e. anything coming within the Statutory Instruments Act) and is designed as best practice for all other rule-making activities. As a central government initiative, the application to regulations is straightforward. But its application to everything else, […] Read more

To what extent is the duty to consult, as a matter of Canadian constitutional law, influenced by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, especially in light of the legislation incorporating UNDRIP into domestic law? This was the question the Federal Court of Appeal grappled with in Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ltd. v. […] Read more

I gave a talk today at the International Institute of of Communications (Canadian Chapter) annual conference. Here are my remarks: Is your relationship with your spouse genuine? It is difficult to imagine a more human question and hard to think of a response that would be anything other than human. But, routinely, Canadian immigration decisions […] Read more

With Justice Stratas from the Federal Court of Appeal, I will be presenting the Ontario Bar Association’s annual judicial review update next month (November 12). Register here. The bill of fare is below! Foundations of Judicial Review & Adequate Alternative Remedies Democracy Watch v. Canada (Attorney General), 2026 SCC 28 (noted here) Hogan v. Canada […] Read more