Parliament can change law

[styky]

Parliament can change law


Vancouver Sun December 10, 2011



The Federal Court has decided the government's legislation making changes to the Canadian Wheat Board is an "affront to the rule of law." This is a serious finding, but it was not an inevitable conclusion. It required the court to give weight to a particular interpretation of another law, and to decide that what Parliament meant to say isn't precisely what it did say.

What Parliament did say, in Section 47.1 of the Canadian Wheat Board Act, added in 1998, is that no government can add or subtract any particular kind of grain to the wheat board's mandate without consulting the board, and getting a favourable vote from farmers in a "voting process ... determined by the Minister."

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/Parliament+ ... z1gB9rJiNu

[BlawBlaw]

This seems to be a decision from the "bibbity-bobbity-boo" school of legal theory where you have to say the magic words to get what you want. Apparently, even according to the court, parliament could simply pass a law to get rid of that particular section, and then pass another one to get rid of the whole thing. However, we have now wasted months of time and untold dollars to be told that you can't do it all at once.

Any other interpretation leads to section 47.1 being enshrined as tantamount to constitutional law.

If that is the case, then the Tories could slip all sorts of legislation into the books that future (Liberal) governments won't be able to get rid of.