Charter Rights and Universality
There's a piece published on CBC News Opinion this week, arguing that Canada should invoke the notwithstanding clause to facilitate the prosecution of returning ISIS fighters. The piece is authored by Brian Cox, a former US military lawyer and prosecutor, currently at Queen's Law as a visiting scholar. And his suggestion is one that ought to be rejected out of hand. Put briefly, he's arguing that the self-imposed constraints on our domestic legal system shouldn't impact our prosecution of offences that are committed overseas; that carrying out prosecutions under the auspices of those constraints makes these prosecutions unduly difficult; and that the protections aren't necessary when it relates to offences committed outside the country, because the kinds of government overreach against which the Charter protects aren't really concerns when we're talking about overseas conduct. The argument is specious, for a few reasons, but the one of the most impor...