Author: Tim Platnich Original Date: April 1, 2026 Revised: May 2, 2026 This is not an April fools day joke, but some may think it is! The press has been ripe with rhetoric about how s. 33 of the Charter, the dreaded 'notwithstanding clause', will lead to tyranny when Charter rights are overridden by provincial legislatures. [1] This follows from the recent proceedings before the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) concerning Quebec's Bill 21 in the case of Hak, et al v. Procureur

Author: Tim Platnich Date: February 12, 2026 Oh, oh. This sounds like a philosophical debate. What does it have to do with modern controversies? First, let's roughly define some terms. I say roughly, because these terms are loaded and have a long historical pedigree. Truly detailed definitions would involve us in deep philosophical debate. Roughly, rationalism promotes the use of logic and reason to identify truth. The scientific method is an off-shoot of rationalism. Convers

Author: Tim Platnich Date: February 12, 2026 One of the attributes that makes Canada great, supposedly, is the rule of law. There are rules. People are expected to follow the rules. For those that do not follow the rules, there are consequences. Though most people follow the rules out of a sense of public or, perhaps, moral duty, some do not. We have significant infrastructure in place for dealing with the rule-breakers: police; prosecutors; criminal courts; and prisons, for

Author: Tim Platnich Date: January 30, 2026 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is in the news again. As usual she is being criticized by the media. The current issue is her opinion about the judiciary. Essentially, Premier Smith says that judges need to stay in their lane and leave policy decisions to the elected representatives in the legislature. My, how scandalous! Kevin Martin, in a piece published in the Calgary Herald on January 29, 2026, took umbrage with Premier Smith's v

Author: Tim Platnich Date: January 18, 2026 As the title of this post suggests, the following is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. For more serious readers, see the links in the notes. Just the name 'ultra-processed' sends a shiver down one's back. But should it? Did you know that the following foods are considered in some of the literature to be ultra-processed:[1] sweetened orange juice low fat yogurt, especially flavoured yogurt virtually every type of bread but especially whit

Author: Tim Platnich Date: January 5, 2026 There is much press these days concerning provincial use of the 'notwithstanding clause'. This clause is part of the Canadian Constitution. It is section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is as much a part of the Constitution as are the sections of the Charter that can be overridden with its use. Section 33(1) says: "Parliament or the legislature of a province may expressly declare in an Act of Parliament or of th

Author: Tim Platnich Date: October 31, 2025 On Tuesday, October 28, 2025, the Alberta government passed Bill 2 - Back to School Act. [Please note that the link provided is to the Bill before it was assented to. I was unable to find the actual legislation online]. This legislation has three main components for our purposes in this post. First, it orders the teachers back to work. Second, it imposes a four year collective agreement between the various school boards (defined as

Author: Tim Platnich Date: October 23, 2025 In this post I question whether the rule of law in Canada is a fiction. In law, according to Black's Law Dictionary, a fiction is "an assumption that something is true even though it may be untrue .... ". Legal fictions are used by legislatures and judges when they deem it necessary to do justice. Here, the untrue assumption (the fiction) may be that in Canada, we are ruled by law and not by capricious decision makers. I am talki

Author: Tim Platnich Date: October 12, 2025 Revised: October 13, 2025 Alberta K-12 teachers have grievances which include: pay and working conditions. Regarding pay, they argue they are underpaid. Let's analyze that a bit. Teachers argue that their pay has not kept up with inflation. Their existing pay scale was negotated and set by a collective agreement ratified in June, 2022 covering the school years of 2020/21 to 2023/24 (three years). According to a news article by CBC ,

Author: Tim Platnich Date: October 10, 2025 It strikes me that 'right-wing' and 'left-wing' are weaponized labels used to smear someone...

Author: Tim Platnich Date: October 6, 2025 I suppose it is not surprising that people support cancel culture provided that, and this is a...

Author: Tim Platnich Date: October 3, 2025 Do you feel, from time to time, that political parties seeking election pull a bait and switch with their campaign? They make promises that, when elected, they make no effort to put into effect through legislation or otherwise. If elected, we will eliminate the GST? Hmm, GST. Too lucrative to give up. Elbows up! Where are the elbows? Or, they omit to mention a planned policy, say a carbon tax, in their campaign only to implement the

Author: Tim Platnich Date: October 3, 2025 In this post, I will propose, perhaps a bit tongue in cheek, that judges who are overtuned on appeal should be subject to potential cost awards against them. Oy. This is crazy talk. Let me explain. When a party is successful in court, the default rule is that costs are awarded in favour of the successful party against the unsuccessful party. The unsuccessful party, is, in effect, penalized for putting the successful party through the

Author: Tim Platnich Date: October 3, 2025 I am in the process of writing a book on the history of the English Common Law with a Canadian context in mind. In the course of researching and drafting the book, it struck me how the law has evolved slowly and cautiously over at least 800 years. Principles recognized during the Norman period of English history still operate within our legal system today. William the Conquerer, rather than imposing law from Normandy upon his new sub

Author: Tim Platnich Date: September 4, 2025 In ancient times, rhetoric was taught as a necessary skill for public debate. The skill was to be persuasive in speech and writing. The skill was deemed necessary for democratic government. It was also deemed necessary for philosophical debate and the pursuit of truth. Over time, rhetorical speech acquired a structure that we would now call logical argument with an introduction, a narrative, an argument section and a conclusion. In

Author: Tim Platnich Date First Published: August 16, 2025 Republished September 4, 2025 with substantial revisions. In this post I will argue that judges should decline jurisdiction where parties are asking them to make policy. The reasons they should decline jurisdiction are based on the following: the preservation of democracy; recognition of the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government; the re-establishment of the suprema

Author: Tim Platnich Published: June 20, 2025 The US Supreme Court released its decision in United States v. Skrmetti, et al, on June 18, 2025. By a 6-3 decision, the Court upheld a Tennessee law that restricts sex transition treatments for minors. The split in decision was the all too typical one with Sotomayor, Jackson and Kagan, JJ. in dissent. I don't intend to get into a detailed analysis of the case however I am intrigued by a point made by the dissenting judges. In the

Published: June 10, 2025 Author: Tim Platnich Alcohol consumption, of any amount, is now reported to be akin to playing Russian roulette....

Author: Tim Platnich Orignally published: May 24, 2025 Revised: May 28, 2025 The fight between President Trump's administration and...