Sask. government invokes notwithstanding clause over Catholic school ruling

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Brad Wall wants to give Catholic schools public money, but also refuses to resettle refugees because creeping SCHEERia.*

  • Scheer, the new leader of the federal Conservative Party, has been hiring Rebel Media staff (primarily known for supporting America’s emergent alt-reich)
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So this “notwithstanding law” will allow public funding of catholic schools?

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It’s a Get Out of Jail Free card provinces can use to retain laws contravening thr Canadian Charter. This is the pettirdt use of it so far. The clause was intended for use in a Quebec-crisis repeat.

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A temporary, but renewable Get Out of Jail Free card.

Any law using the Notwithstanding Clause can contravene the Charter, but whatever sections of the law make use of the Notwithstanding Clause expire after five years. Of course, you can renew it at that point, but it’s basically making every government that gets elected for a full term commit to the fact that they know the law violates the Constitution but they want it to stay in effect anyway.

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Shhh, you’re giving them ideas…

The Sask Party base is the same as Trump’s base. Imagine what Trump’s gang would do with a Not Withstanding Clause. :open_mouth:

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Pfft. They can’t even repeal the ACA, much less pass something with a clause blatantly saying “THIS PART IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL BUT WE’RE PUTTING IT IN ANYWAY.”

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And yet that’s exactly what happens with a lot of Quebec’s laws. They have a law which automatically renews the notwithstanding clause in all laws subject to the notwithstanding clause every five years.

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Can I get a reference for that? Wikipedia says that something like you describe was only in effect from 1982-1987.

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I thought it went into at least the 90s, but I’ve been wrong before. It was for the language laws IIRC. I will see what I can find.

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