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Beyond the Democratic Dialogue, and Towards a Federalist One: Provincial Arguments and Supreme Court Responses in Charter Litigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2006

Jeremy A. Clarke
Jeremy A. Clarke*
Affiliation:
Queen's University
*
Jeremy A. Clarke, Department of Political Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6; 4jasc@qlink.queensu.ca
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Abstract

A vigorous debate surrounding the “democratic dialogue” has done much for the understanding of our post-Charter parliamentary democracy. At the same time, it has diverted valuable attention from the settlement of the Charter with Canada's other constitutional pillar: federalism. This paper argues that the reconciliation of the Charter's national standards with the provincial diversity recognized by our federal Constitution is given expression by a federalist dialogue, occurring alongside, and even before, its democratic counterpart. An examination of several recent cases before the Supreme Court in which provincial policies have been impugned by the Charter provides evidence that provincial governments and the principles of federalism have a role to play in Charter interpretation, and that this role is often conceded by the Supreme Court in response to provincial factums. This discussion does not conclude the grand questions of federalism in the Charter era, but it does raise some definitive questions to propel the debate.

Résumé

Résumé

Le débat rigoureux concernant le « dialogue démocratique » a grandement contribué à la compréhension de notre démocratie parlementaire post-Charte. Au même moment, cependant, ce débat détourne de l'attention de la conciliation de la Charte avec l'autre pilier constitutionnel, le fédéralisme. Cet article défend que la réconciliation des standards nationaux de la Charte avec la diversité des provinces, reconnue par notre constitution fédérale, prend voix par le biais d'un dialogue portant sur les principes du fédéralisme qui se manifeste parallèlement, et même avant, son analogue démocratique. Une étude de plusieurs cas récents devant la Cour Suprême dans lesquels les politiques provinciales ont été contestées par la Charte démontre que les gouvernements provinciaux ainsi que les principes du fédéralisme ont un rôle à jouer dans l'interprétation de la Charte, et que ce rôle est souvent accordé à la Cour Suprême en réponse aux mémoires provinciaux. Par elle-même, cette discussion ne résolut pas les grandes questions du fédéralisme dans la Charte, mais elle soulève néanmoins des questions importantes qui relancent le débat.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 2006 , pp. 293 - 314
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Cambridge University Press

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