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The Inherent Right Of Indigenous Governance, Kent Mcneil

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I would like to start by acknowledging and thanking the Algonquin Nation, on whose unceded territory we are meeting.

When the Dominion of Canada was created in 1867 by the UK Parliament, the BNA Act gave the Parliament of Canada exclusive jurisdiction over “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians”. Parliament used this authority to enact the Indian Act in 1876. That statute gave the Canadian government the power to impose the band council system on First Nations without their consent.

The governance authority of First Nation band councils is therefore delegated authority – it comes from the Indian Act …

Indigenous Sovereignty And The Legality Of Crown Sovereignty: An Unresolved Constitutional Conundrum, Kent Mcneil

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Let me start by acknowledging and thanking the Enoch Cree Nation, on whose territory we are meeting.

So here we are, 150 years after Confederation, and yet the legal basis for Crown sovereignty over Canada remains uncertain.

The standard explanation is that the Crown acquired sovereignty over French Canada by cession of Acadia (French possessions in what became the Maritime Provinces) by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and by conquest of New France in 1759-60 and cession by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. However, this leaves unexplained how France got sovereignty over territories that were occupied and controlled …

The ‘Atlantic Seat’ On The Supreme Court Of Canada: An Endangered Species?, Philip Girard

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The sigh of relief on the Atlantic coast could be heard all the way to Ottawa on October 17, 2016. On that day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the nomination of Justice Malcolm Rowe of the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada seat vacated by Justice Thomas Cromwell. Justice Cromwell’s replacement was to be the first appointed pursuant to a new process put in place by the Trudeau government. When that process was unveiled on August 2, 2016, Trudeau announced that the position would be open to any qualified Canadian lawyer or judge who …

Social Enterprise, Law And Legal Education, Devon Kapoor, Lorne Sossin

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In this brief essay, we explore the relationship between law and social enterprise. Is social enterprise, like the “corporation,” a legal construct, or is it a term used to capture an emerging set of practices by existing entities—for example, where registered charities set up a separate structure to generate revenues which then fund the charitable activities. An organization that has undertaken such practices is the well-known Canadian charity, “Me to We,” which, while focused on development activities in sub-Saharan Africa, also has a revenue generating operation selling fair trade T-shirts and other goods. In describing this relationship, Me to We’s …