This commentary was first published in The Lawyers Weekly on Sept. 23, 2011.
It is now four months since Justices Ian Binnie and Louise Charron announced their intention to retire from the Supreme Court of Canada at the end of July. Nevertheless, and disturbingly so, their successors have still not been appointed and the court remains two short of its full complement of nine judges.
When addressing the annual meeting of the Canadian Bar Association in Halifax last month Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin urged the federal government to ensure that the new justices would be appointed in sufficient time for them to take their places on the court when the court begins its 2011-12 term hearing of appeals in early October.
Her wish is unlikely to be granted. Rob Nicolson, the minister of justice, only announced on August 5 the procedure the federal government intended to follow in filling the two vacancies. The procedure involves the establishment of a five member selection panel of the House of Commons to review a list of names submitted to them by the minister and the committee's submission of a short list of six unranked candidates to the prime minister and the minister of justice.
Continue reading "Prof. Jacob Ziegel: "Unacceptable delays in Supreme Court appointments"" »
This commentary was first published in the Globe and Mail on Sept. 21, 2011.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is asking the United Nations to declare his country a state. If it comes, UN recognition will do little to improve lives on the ground. It won’t end the conflict with Israel any more than all the other UN pronouncements have done, and it won’t bring good governance to those who live under the Palestinian Authority. As events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria have demonstrated, sovereign statehood is no guarantee of that.
If a statehood declaration is likely to have little impact beyond giving Mr. Abbas a rhetorical victory, why are the Palestinians and their supporters (the Arab League states, Turkey, Iran) making such a point of endorsing it, and why are the Israelis and their supporters (the U.S., Canada, Germany) opposing it so vigorously?
Well, there’s no telling which direction the political spin will take. The Palestinians calculate that Israel will feel increased heat if they’re successful, while the Israelis assume that Palestinian militancy will be harder to chill if their opposition to the move fails. But, in Middle East politics, predictions are dire and reversals the norm.
Continue reading "Prof. Ed Morgan: "The surprise factor of Palestinian sovereignty"" »
This commentary was first published in thestar.com on Sept. 18, 2011.
Toronto’s city council is about to weigh in on Mayor Rob Ford’s intervention into the Port Lands development, and the Mississauga inquiry is about to report on Mayor Hazel McCallion’s intervention in the city centre development. Already one can see a shared question mark linking the two GTA controversies: when it comes to a city’s prominent lands, what checks and balances does the rule of law impose on mayoral power?
To be sure, there are important political and legal differences between the two episodes. The Mississauga proceedings are focused on allegations of conflict of interest and the relationship between the mayor’s office and plans endorsed by her developer son. The Toronto debate is focused on contentions about circumvention of the consultation/approval process and the relationship between the mayor’s office and plans endorsed by his councillor brother.
But while the differences are clear on the surface of the two controversies, similar policy issues lurk just underneath.
Continue reading "Prof. Ed Morgan: "Who decides on land use in Port Lands and Mississauga?"" »
A decade ago, the world rightly stood in solidarity with the United States in the face of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The story of how the Bush Administration squandered that solidarity through Guantanamo, torture and the invasion Iraq is well known. Less well known is how the United Nations also lost its opportunity to unite world in principled counter-terrorism.
The 9/11 attacks provided the U.N. with an unparalleled opportunity to forge international agreement on a definition of terrorism. Whatever previous disagreements there were about freedom fighting and state terrorism, it was clear that the 9/11 attacks constituted terrorism. The killing of innocent people not engaged in hostilities in an armed conflict was terrorism; it did not matter whether they were in the planes, the World Trade Centre or the Pentagon.
On September 28, 2001, the Security Council demanded that all states enact tough counter-terrorism measures under its mandatory powers to enforce international peace and security. The Security Council offered no guidance on the definition of terrorism. It failed to so, even though a 1999 Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism Financing previously included a restrained but principled definition: the intentional killing or injuring of those not engaged in armed conflict in order to intimidate a population or compel governments to act.
Continue reading "Prof. Kent Roach: The UN’s Failed Response to 9/11" »
