What @SeanFraserMP doesn't say, but must know, is that he has asked the Supreme Court to adopt a totalising view of judicial power that would fundamentally alter the Constitutional compact of 1982, throwing the country into constitutional crisis. Funny he leaves that out. I'll explain: 1. As the Alberta Government's factum puts it, "The Constitution Act, 1982 was the result of a carefully negotiated federal-provincial agreement. Simply put, there would have been no Charter without s.33." 2. Minister Fraser and the Liberal government now want the Courts to undo that agreement and exercise a plenary and undefined power to limit the ability of legislatures to use the democratic safeguard of s.33. 3. On what basis are they asking the court do do this? Oh, you know ... ::Liberals gesture vaguely:: ... by using a ... uh ... "holistic" reading of the "basic constitutional structure" of the constitution ... sortofthing. 4. Why should that phrase "basic constitutional structure" raise alarm bells? Because it's the justification Supreme Courts in other countries have used to sweep aside democratic powers (look up "basic structure doctrine.") 5. How baseless is this proposal? Baseless enough that the Liberal government actually has to try to twist the fact that the Charter expressly provides for renewals of s.33 into an argument that this means that it in some cases it should not be allowed to be renewed. Really. (See AGC factum ¶¶ 26-31). 6. The Liberal government doesn't even purport to offer a test or clear rule for when the Court should second-guess and limit the use of s.33. Their actual words: "[T]his Court need not establish a definitive or exhaustive test. A court could assess the impact of any statute invoking s.33 by examining the specific circumstances of each use and by conducting a contextual analysis." (¶40). 7. It gets worse, but the upshot is that the Liberal government is asking the Supreme Court to engage in an unconstitutional power grab that would re-write the political compact that underpins our Constitution. How? 8. In 1982, all parties agreed that the Constitution would preserve some of the safeguards of our parliamentary democracy to prevent a handover of all legal and political powers to the courts. That safeguard was preserved in s.33. Now the Liberal government wants the courts to assume control of s.33 and limit its use based on an undefined "test" that the judges themselves will make up and apply on a case-by-case basis. 9. If the Court follows this approach, it is asking for a constitutional crisis. It is making the case for QC separation and inviting governments to ignore its rulings. I would like to think that at least four justices of the SCC have sufficient respect for the Constitution and enough of an instinct for institutional self-preservation to reject the Liberal government's reckless approach. 10. We'll see. I am not optimistic.