Mighty Judgement: How the Supreme Court Runs Your Life

[Oscar]

Mighty Judgement: How the Supreme Court Runs Your Life

QUOTE: "The Supreme Court of Canada may be one of the most powerful institutions in the land, but it's one Canadians know very little about."

= = = = =

LISTEN: Interview with Philip Slayton, author of Mighty Judgement: How the Supreme Court of Canada Runs Your Life

http://www.rcinet.ca/english/column/the ... re-corner/
15-20_2011-06-06-philip-slayton-author-of-mighty-judgement/

How the Supreme Court of Canada Runs Your Life": The Supreme Court of Canada may be one of the most powerful institutions in the land, but it's one Canadians know very little about.

Marc Montgomery talks to author Philip Slayton, whose book Mighty Judgement - How the Supreme Court of Canada Runs Your Life, suggests that the secretive court has evolved into a political institution, with a tiny group of unelected individuals making fundamental decisions about Canadian legal and social policy.

= = = = = =

Mighty Judgment

http://www.philipslayton.com/mighty-judgement/

Mighty Judgment by Philip Slayton, published in April 2011, follows his provocative and best-selling Lawyers Gone Bad: Money, Sex and Madness in Canada’s Legal Profession. Like Slayton’s earlier book, it is written for anyone interested in an essential Canadian institution. It is full of substance, but easy to read and often humorous.

Mighty Judgment’s subtitle is How the Supreme Court of Canada Runs Your Life. The book describes important issues the Supreme Court decides for individual Canadians and for Canada as a nation, and the surprising and dramatic ways in which it determines our future. A few examples: In the Morgentaler case (1988), the court struck down laws restricting abortion, leaving Canada as the only western country without any abortion laws. In the Same Sex Marriage Reference (2004), it decided that gays and lesbians can marry. In the Secession Reference (1998), it laid down the conditions under which Quebec could secede from Canada. In the Patrick case (2009), the court decided the right of privacy does not stop the police from rifling through garbage, even though Justice Binnie noted “residential waste includes an enormous amount of personal information about what is going on in our homes, including a lot of DNA on household tissues, highly personal records (e.g., love letters, overdue bills and tax returns) and hidden vices (pill bottles, syringes, sexual paraphernalia, etc.). …” And in January 2010 the court administered a tongue-lashing to the federal government over its treatment of Omar Khadr, and stopped a hair’s breadth short of demanding that Canada seek his repatriation from Guantanamo Bay. [ . . . ]

= = = = = =

REVIEWS of Mighty Judgement: Split verdict!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/
mighty-judgment-how-the-supreme-court-of-canada-runs-your-life-by-philip-slayton/article2021470/

REVIEWED BY EDWARD GREENSPAN
Published Friday, May. 13, 2011 4:30PM EDT Last updated Friday, May. 20, 2011 4:54PM EDT
Note to readers: In the spirit of litigation, Philip Slayton’s Mighty Judgment has been reviewed by two adversaries: lawyer Edward Greenspan and Report on Business law reporter Jeff Gray. Jeff Gray’s review is at the end of Mr. Greenspan’s.

= = = = = =

Other Interviews (Scroll down):

http://www.philipslayton.com/mighty-judgement/