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The author raises questions about potential threats to our democratic order that may arise from advancements in surveillance technology. Among the developments that concern him are the increasing power of investigators to conduct surveillance, the enhanced ability of the public and private sectors to share information and the steady growth in the sophistication of surveillance technology. At the same time, there is less scrutiny of surveillance practices by independent bodies. The author argues that these factors are combining to make surveillance of individuals dangerously easy. He warns that this may erode key democratic values, particularly freedom of expression and the right to privacy. The author reviews the 'Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)', and concludes that while it is a good first step, it falls short by not adopting the European Union's strict approach to consent. As a result,further measures are needed to ensure that democratic values are adequately preserved, such as stronger laws dictating how government and private agencies collect and store information as well as greater accountability of government to its citizens. In addition, to help ensure such accountability, the author argues that there should be a method of tracking government searches for information. Finally, the author suggests an alternative system under which the personally identifying elements of collected information are removed and stored separately, accessible only upon independently verified grounds.
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Citizenship is a key factor in the development of national identity. Any system for establishing and defining citizenship is meaningless as a tool for the creation of such an identity, however, without control of the mechanisms by which this system is designed and implemented. In this paper I propose to examine the constitutional status of an Aboriginal right to control the design and implementation of citizenship codes. As the judiciary in Canada begins to grapple with questions of Aboriginal self-determination, it must begin to consider the extent to which its own vision of Canada as a constitutional democracy, currently engaged in a project of reconciling Aboriginal peoples to the sovereignty of the Crown, will set out parameters for locating and constructing such a right. Within the confines of constitutional law in Canada, do Aboriginal peoples have a right to design and implement their own citizenship codes, free from interference from Canadian governments? Alternatively, is there such a right, but subject to some measure of control by the Crown, and perhaps subject to other constitutional instruments, such as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
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The regulation of Native identity has been central to the colonization process in both Canada and the United States. Systems of classification and control enable settler governments to define who is “Indian,” and control access to Native land. These regulatory systems have forcibly supplanted traditional Indigenous ways of identifying the self in relation to land and community, functioning discursively to naturalize colonial worldviews. Decolonization, then, must involve deconstructing and reshaping how we understand Indigenous identity.
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This article attempts to update a Canadian classic - the realist account of statutory interpretation published by John Willis in the Canadian Bar Review in 1938. Willis' insights are compelling and they remain relevant today. However, by focusing on the rhetoric of statutory interpretation, by far its weakest point, Willis disregards the considerable work that goes on when statutory interpretation is well done. This article draws attention to that work. Part 2 looks at the kinds of analyses relied on by good interpreters to establish that elusive goal, the intention of the legislature. These include textual, purposive, scheme, policy and consequential analysis. Part 2 examines the difference between easy and hard cases, then focuses on the techniques used by interpreters to carry out the different kinds of analyses and how these relate to the formal rules. Part 3 looks at the range of arguments interpreters may construct based on their preliminary analysis. Not every argument in statutory interpretation is about the meaning of words. Interpreters also confront drafter's mistakes, gaps in the legislative scheme, overlap and conflict, and language that is over- or under-inclusive. The structure of these different kinds of arguments is set out and illustrated in Part 3.