Magpie River As Person,Reimagining Rivers: Indigenous Jurisdiction And

Alberta’s Referendum on Equalization

How will you vote? On October 18th, 2021, Albertans will be asked to vote yes or no on whether to remove the principle of equalization payments from the Constitution. Join Professors Lisa Young, Eric M. Adams, and Trevor Tombe to find out what equalization is, its strengths and weaknesses, and what your yes or no vote may mean.

Speakers:

Eric M. Adams Professor, University of Alberta

Lisa Young Professor, University of Calgary Trevor Tombe Professor, University of Calgary

Vaccine Mandates, Passports, and the Constitution

Join us in a conversation with Professor Carissima Mathen on the constitutionality of government vaccine mandates and vaccine passports. Are these mandates/passports a breach of Charter rights? Can a person conscientiously object to being vaccinated?

Speaker: Professor Carissima Mathen, LLM Faculty of Law. University of Ottawa Reimagining Rivers: Magpie River as Person

The Magpie River was recently granted legal personhood by the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the Minganie Regional County Municipality in Quebec. Our speaker, Yenny Vega Cárdenas, President of the Observatoire international des droits de la nature/ International Observatory of Nature Rights, will describe how this process unfolded and what ‘personhood’ means for the Magpie River.

This event is part of the Webinar Series, Reimagining Rivers: Rethinking and Reframing Relationship with the Environment. Legal rights govern how we interact with each other and with the world around us. Various jurisdictions, for example, are now granting legal rights to aspects of the environment such as rivers. This webinar series, jointly organized by the Centre for Constitutional Studies and the Environmental Law Centre, provides opportunities to learn from expert speakers about jurisdictional hurdles that impact the thriving of our environment as well as innovative approaches to rethinking relationship with it. The series will culminate in a Symposium next spring 2022, where we explore different conceptions of the North Saskatchewan river: as a legal person, as an agent, as a relation.

Watch the webinar below. Reimagining Rivers: Indigenous Jurisdiction and the Environment

Professor Darcy Lindberg and lawyer Terri-Lynn Williams- Davidson will discuss Indigenous jurisdiction and the environment – particularly from the perspectives of Nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) and Haida laws – and some of the ways these laws may inform Canada’s constitution, treaty relationships, and federalism as they relate to the environment.

Watch the webinar below. Aftermath! Federal Carbon Pricing and the Decision of the Supreme Court of Canada

Speakers:

Eric M. Adams, Andrew Leach, Darcy Lindberg, Jocelyn Stacey, & Noura Karazivan

Join our panel of experts as they discuss the Supreme Court’s decision in the Carbon Pricing Reference, and its implications for federal, provincial, and Indigenous jurisdiction in Canada.

This event is free and open to the public.

Pandemic, Populism and Democracy

Speakers:

Jeremy Webber, Oonagh Fitzgerald, and Pablo Ouziel.

Jeremy Webber, Oonagh Fitzgerald, and Pablo Ouziel reflect on how governments have elected to assert themselves during the pandemic, how citizens have responded, and what all of this could mean for constitutionalism and democracy.

This event is free and open to the public. Civil Liberty and Fundamental Rights: A Juridical Perspective

Speaker:

Quentin Skinner, Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities, Queen Mary University of London Professor Skinner considers two competing views of civil liberty – one, the condition of not being subject to the power of others, and the other, an absence of interference with choices and actions. He explores what this means for ‘fundamental’ rights, and suggests that re-appropriating the first view might help us to think more fruitfully about current threats to privacy and liberty.

This event is free and open to the public.

The Future of Liberal Democracies and Levy’s Separation of Powers Thesis

Please join our panelists for an engaged dialogue, as they discuss Jacob T. Levy’s thesis, presented as the 31st Annual McDonald Lecture in Constitutional Studies, on the separation of powers, the critical challenges it faces in light of nationalist populism and partisan polarization, and the future of liberal democracies in a changing political landscape.

Online Lecture Registration

Carbon Pricing and the Constitution

Why is the federal government’s carbon pricing so constitutionally contentious? The Ontario and Saskatchewan Courts of Appeal found the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (GGPPA, sometimes referred to as ‘carbon tax’ or ‘carbon pricing’) constitutional; the Alberta Court of Appeal did not.

On September 22nd and 23rd, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear arguments about whether the federal government has jurisdiction to enact the GGPPA.

Join Professors Eric M. Adams, Andrew Leach, and Jocelyn Stacey on Monday, September 21st, as they discuss key points the Supreme Court will need to decide, and explore wider issues related to the GGPPA litigation. Professors Adams and Leach will focus on the issue of whether the GGPPA is federal or provincial jurisdiction, while Professor Stacey will discuss environmental principles related to theGGPPA .

This event is free and open to the public. Download a copy of the poster here.

Eric M. Adams is Vice Dean and a Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta.

Andrew Leach is an Associate Professor at the Alberta School of Business – Marketing, Business Economics and Law.

Jocelyn Stacey is an Assistant Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION Professors David Dyzenhaus and Paul Daly, Presenting: “COVID-19: Emergency Powers and Legal Principle”

David Dyzenhaus, University Professor of Law and Philosophy, and Albert Abel Chair, University of Toronto Paul Daly, University Research Chair in Administrative Law and Governance, University of Ottawa

How far is too far? COVID-19 has sparked states of emergency across Canada and the world, with governments sometimes taking unprecedented actions. During this crisis, there may be temptation for governments to push the limits of power. This timely webinar will address and explain the concept of a ‘state of emergency’ in both the Canadian and Hungarian contexts. Professors David Dyzenhaus and Paul Daly explore what a state of emergency means, examine Canada’s federal and provincial responses to the current public health crisis, and suggest strategies on how to ensure that government power is not abused.

This event is free and open to the public. Webinar Registration