Unit 1 Law

Manually made

Healing Circles

• Restorative

• Judge sits higher

• Round table of the victim, offender, and community

• Goal: for the offender to empathize with the victim

Gladue Court

• To help fix the systemic racism seen in prisons (overincarceration of Indigenous people)

• Try to avoid prison sentences

Types of Justice

• Restorative

• Rehabilitative

• Retributive

Restorative Justice

• Restore the situation as it was before the crime (does not work in all cases)

Retributive Justice

• Harsh punishment

• Deterrent

• Does not always work in practice

Rehabilitative Justice

• Healing or fixing a problem/behaviour

Presumption of Innocence

• Innocent until proven guilty

• Must be proven beyond reasonable doubt

Burden of Proof

• Prosecution/Crown has the burden of proof (must present strong evidence)

Constitution

• 1982

• Strong (prevents dictatorship)

• 7 parts

• Constitutional Supremacy (Constitution always wins in a legal disagreement)

Division of Powers

• Jurisdictions (municipal, provincial, federal)

Legislation

• Laws passed by the government

Rule of Law

• Applies to everyone equally

Common Law

• Judges have to refer to precedent to ensure consistent results

Cabinet

• Selected by the PM

• 38 ministers

• Each have a focus (eg. housing, defense)

Executive Branch

• Job: to create ideas for new laws/policies

Majority Government

• At least 170 seats

• Don’t need to collaborate

Minority Government

• Have to work with the other political parties to draft bills

Legislative Branch

• 338 ridings

• Job: vote on bills

Senate

• Job: editing bills, have veto power

• 105 appointed senators by PM

• Not politicians

• Until age of 75

• Can’t be fired

Judiciary

• Fancy way of saying “judges”

• Apply + interpret laws

• Do not write laws (undemocratic)

Divine Law

• Believe in a supernatural higher individual who decides justice (eg. God, witches)

Natural Law

• Humans naturally create/obey laws

Positive Law

• Laws are tools that the powerful use to maintain their power

• “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”

Lobby Groups

• A group of people that share political views

• MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving)

Royal Commissions

• Publicly funded research projects

• MMIWG (Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls)

The Drafting Process

• A bill has to undergo the drafting process before it can be passed into a law

• Brought into Parliament by the Cabinet Minister that drafted it

• Edits made

• Reading 2 + debate + edits

• Reading 3 + debate + edits

• 170+ votes to be passed

Mulroney’s Response

• Recognition as a distinct society

• Veto power

• Sympathy in the Supreme Court

• Protect heritage and culture (French)

• Mulroney gave all to Quebec and #2-4 to the other provinces

Amending Process

• Federal

• Every province

• Citizen’s vote

• Fail to pass at any level, it won’t go through

Elijah Harper

• Voted against the Meech Lake Accord

• Represented Indigenous people

• Stopped the Constitutional changes because there weren’t enough rights for Indigenous people

Charlottetown Accord

• Same as the Meech Lake Accord, but with added minority group rights

• Failed at the referendum (citizens) because they didn’t like the unpredictability

BC’s Pilot Project

• Decriminalized possession of 2.5g or less of drugs

• Backfired + recriminalized after 1 year

Cobra Effect

• Incentive if people bring in dead cobras, but then they started breeding them just to kill them for the $

Teresa Spence

• Hunger striked until Harper responded

• He waited 3 weeks and then their conversation was pointless

Whapmagoostni Walkers

• Walked for 6 weeks in the winter (16 year olds) to speak with Harper, then on the day of the meeting, he had a photo op with baby pandas and did not meet with them

R. v. Gladue

Royal Commission (MMIWG)

• 1181 murdered

• Government task force

• Classified the MMIWG a genocide

• 174 missing women/girls at the time

• 231 calls to action, 2 completed

Oka Crisis

• Golf course to be built on land where the Kanesatake people had their ancestors buried

• Blockaded the road for 8 days + the Mercier Bridge leading up to it

• Iroquois army + Canadian military had a 78 day standoff

Founding of Nunavut

• 1999

• 85% of the population is Indigenous

• Autonomy: if someone wants to run for a political position there aren’t any parties

Treaty

• A written agreement that works like a contract

Types of Leverage

• Military

• Economic

Extradited

• To be sent back to the foreign country which the crime was committed in

Bill 101

• protect French language in Quebec

Bill 21

• protect French culture in Quebec

Indigenous Treaties Entrenched in the Constitution

• Land allocations

• Capital transfers (paying for stolen land)

• Hunting/fishing exemptions

• Language/culture/way of life protection