Sunday, July 11, 2010

National Post on "God and the Charter"

On Saturday the National Post published a long editorial titled "God and the Charter". The editorial defends the portion of the Preamble to the Canadian Charter that states the country is founded upon "principles that recognize the supremacy of God" (and "the rule of law"). According to the editorial, the clause is recognition of an "anti-totalitarian principle" that reminds Canadians of a source of authority other than the state.

Legally speaking, I last looked into the meaning of the preamble a few years ago for my article "Church, State, and Charter: Canada's Hidden Establishment Clause". At that time, it was clear the courts had almost entirely ignored the Preamble, but it's very possible things have changed since then.

1 comment:

  1. Not sure if you've already come across this one, but one of the single best law review articles I've ever read was Penney & Danay, "The Embarrassing Preamble? Understanding the 'Supremacy of God' and the Charter" 39 UBC L Rev 290 (2006).

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