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Stephen Lautens Profile picture
Stephen Lautens
@stephenlautens
Legal gadfly, passionate moderate, publisher, editor, occasional columnist, velvet jacket enthusiast. Looker-upper of dubious facts. Tweets are clearly my own.
2 subscribers
Jan 23 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The Emergencies Act judgment by the Federal Court does not declare it unconstitutional. It simply says that for some of the parties the minimum threshold for invoking it was not met (paras. 372-74). It is a badly muddled judgment that will likely be overturned on appeal. It also says that there was no reason to apply the Canadian Bill of Rights (para. 373) and several of the parties had no standing to bring the case in the first place.
Nov 3, 2022 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
With Ford's outrageous invoking of the Charter's s.33 'Nothwithstanding' clause, it has provoked a bit of a Twitter storm among those interested in constitutional matters, some suggesting that the power of 'disallowance' can be used to fight it. Let's talk... The Charter's s.33 'Nothwithstanding' clause allows a government to stop any court challenges to laws that breach certain sections of the Charter. It doesn't make them legal, it just prevents court review. In fact, using it recognizes that the law is illegal.
Jul 27, 2022 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
The Pope speaking at the Plains of Abraham is an interesting historical nexus. The battle there ended French rule of North America and began English 'Canada'. The French were Catholic and the English were resolutely not. The 'Doctrine of Discovery' is a Catholic doctrine. The English rejected the Pope and Catholic dogma in 1534 with Henry VIII. At that time there was no English presence in what is now Canada. The first tiny fishing outposts were founded in 1611. In 1763 the English defeated the French at Quebec and began its colonizing of 'Canada'
Jul 26, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The Supreme Court of Canada considered the "Doctrine of Discovery" in Tsilhqot’in Nation v. BC, 2014: “The doctrine of terra nullius (that no one owned the land prior to European assertion of sovereignty) never applied in Canada, as confirmed by the Royal Proclamation (1763)”. Other churches in Canada have already repudiated the "Doctrine of Discovery", including the United Church, and the World Council of Churches united-church.ca/social-action/…
Feb 4, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The Conservatives have grossly underestimated the anger towards them of those Canadians who have sacrificed, stood in line for hours to get vaccinated, not gone to the movies or fave restaurant, missed family gatherings and been separated from loved ones even as they died. We have acted like adults, masked up, washed our hands, and followed the best (sometimes changing) medical advice. It hasn't been easy, but we realize we are looking after not only ourselves but neighbours and strangers. In short, we're being responsible.
Sep 10, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
I'm amazed at how many people don't understand the basic philosophy of taxation. "Wealth" is frequently already after-tax. It is the accumulation of your after-tax gains. You have already paid tax on it. /2 It is a basic principle of taxation is that you are only taxed once on the same money. You are also only taxed on capital when investments (or real estate, or a business) are liquidated and you realize a profit or loss. /3
Aug 20, 2021 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
I was curious, so I spent a little time deconstructing Erin O’Toole’s military record from public sources. Part of his political persona is “12 years in the military”, but it is a little more complicated than that... Out of high school O’Toole applied to go to the Royal Military College in Kingston in 1991. RMC is a university where O’Toole took a 4 year BA degree in history. Your education is free at RMC under the ROTP (Regular Officer Training Plan), and a monthly salary is paid to students
Jul 19, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
This isn't because LTC homes don't know how to keep Covid out. It is because LTC homes refuse to fix a broken but profitable model. #ONpoli The biggest problem? Using part-time staff who have to move from job to job all week. Too much money at stake. thestar.com/business/2021/…
May 5, 2021 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Okay - one more time. That little purple line at the bottom? That's Ontario #Covid cases from travellers (most of whom are returning Canadians). The other lines are sources the province has chosen to not control. #ONpoli #cdnpoli If only the Province of Ontario published this kind of data themselves. Oh, wait. They do. #ONpoli
covid-19.ontario.ca/data/likely-so…
Aug 3, 2019 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
One more obvious thing about the Fraser Institute tax "study": What is a "profit tax"? Except for this chart, it is never defined or mentioned again in the report itself, so we don't know what it is. It isn't in the Income Tax Act. More fakery. #cndpoli

Is it a capital gains tax (gain on certain types of investments)? You'd think they'd use that term if it was. Even so, a family would have to have a capital gain of about $15-20,000 a year to have a capital gain tax liability of $4,726 a year. #cdnpoli
Jul 4, 2019 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
The Hon. George Strathy, now Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal who denied Del Mastro's final appeal, was a Harper appointee, as were most of the SCC Justices who denied his leave to appeal to them. #cdnpoli The thing about Canadian judges - in stark contrast to the USA - is that they drop all politics and keep their own personal politics under close wraps the moment they are appointed to the bench. The ideology of Judges is almost impossible to see in decisions /...3
Mar 31, 2019 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Exactly. That is what Wernick said in his JUSCOM testimony. That the "national" part of the "national economic interest" prohibition in DPA laws was about international competitiveness, not domestic jobs. I think he is right. That's why this bit of his testimony at JUSCOM makes sense. It may also explain why PMO/PCO were at loggerheads with JWR who interpreted it to simply mean any "economic interests" (ie: jobs) ignoring what "national" is there for. #cdnpoli
Mar 30, 2019 • 48 tweets • 9 min read
I've been a private lawyer and corporate counsel literally for decades. Clients come to you and say: "I want to do this." My job is to say, "Okay", or, "You can't because of X or Y". Some clients take advice. Some insist on the wrong route. My duty is then to quit. #cdnpoli It is not my duty to stop them from getting other advice (which may or may not agree with me), or stop them from proceeding in what in my legal judgment is the wrong path. My duty is to quit.
Feb 10, 2019 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
I know I'll regret it, but the SNC-Lavalin / AG "scandal" is an interesting issue. There are people better versed in this than I, but I keep coming up with "what if" scenarios. Here's one that just occurred to me... 2/... The AG can legally take charge and change direction of a prosecution (like SNC-Lavalin) being run by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) under Section 15 of the DPP Act. /3...
Feb 9, 2019 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
I'll point out one more stumbling block regarding pressure on the AG to cut SNC-Lavalin a deal. The prosecution is carried out by the Director of Public Prosecutions, who is largely independent of the AG & appointed for a non-renewable 7-year term .../2 ppsc-sppc.gc.ca/eng/bas/index.… The DPP has a staff of about 1000, and is independent of (but subject to the supervision of) the AG... /3 ppsc-sppc.gc.ca/eng/pub/fpsd-s…
Feb 9, 2019 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
@Occupy108 On Oct. 9, 2018 the Director of Public Prosecutions (AG's 'Crown attorney") rejected Lavalin's request for a deferred prosecution agreement alternative to a criminal prosecution, saying it “is not appropriate in this case.” SNC-Lavalin appealed... 2/ @Occupy108 SNC-Lavalin has been lobbying everyone to avoid criminal prosecution and cut a deal that allows them out of a 10-year ban on bidding for public contracts. (They are Canada's biggest engineering firms.) Lobbying doesn't seem to have gone anywhere because... 3/