Against Judicial Activism:

The Decline Of Freedom And Democracy In Canada

Author: Rory Leishman

Published: May 2006
ISBN: 0773530541 · McGill-Queen's University Press

From the Critics:
This is a grand book in the best tradition of ''a citizen speaks out.'' Charterphile or charter-sceptic, you must take note. Janet Ajzenstat, political science, McMaster University, author of The Once and Future Canadian Democracy

Leishman does an admirable job of bringing an issue that has agitated the academic and legal profession for many years out of the shades of the arcane into the full light of day. Fred Vaughan, political science, University of Guelph

From the Publisher

The Charter and expansive versions of the federal and provincial human rights codes were supposed to safeguard the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Canadians. Rory Leishman argues that this experiment in radical constitutional reform has failed because judicial activists and human rights adjudicators have read their ideological preferences into the law rather than upholding the law as originally understood. Against Judicial Activism cites numerous cases to support this argument. For instance, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and Supreme Court read a ban on discrimination on the ground of transsexualism as being part of the provinces human rights code. On the basis of this revision of the law, the tribunal ordered the Vancouver Rape Relief Society to pay $7,500 to a transsexual man in compensation for refusing to admit him into a training course for rape crisis counsellors. Leishman argues that the proclivity of judges and adjudicators to change the law from the bench compromises the rule of law, constricts the historic rights and freedoms of Canadians, violates the separation of powers under the Constitution, and subverts the democratic process.

About the Author

Rory Leishman is a former lecturer, political science, University of Western Ontario, the national affairs columnist for The London Free Press, and a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines across Canada. He lives in Canada.