New Release Books by Janet Hiebert

Although the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is twenty years old, little is known about how it affects those who wield power, what influence it has on legislative decisions, or to what extent the government believes it should be constrained by Charter concerns. For most laws Parliament has the final word on how social policy is balanced against protected rights. Thus the extent to which legislation is sensitive towards rights depends on how those who develop, propose, and assess policy view the Charter. How influential are governmental legal advisors? How risk averse or risk tolerant are government ministers when pursuing legislative goals that may result in Charter challenges? How capable is Parliament in requiring government to justify and explain legislative choices that may impair rights? In Charter Conflicts Janet Hiebert examines these questions while analyzing the Charter's influence on controversial legislative decisions such as social benefits for lesbians and gay men, the regulation of tobacco advertising, the rules of evidence for sexual assault trials, the use of DNA for law enforcement purposes, and the rules for police searches of private residences. She questions the broadly held assumption that only courts are capable of respecting rights, arguing that Parliament shares responsibility with the judiciary for resolving Charter conflicts. She views the Charter's significance less in terms of the judiciary overruling Parliament than in the incentives and pressures it provides for public and political officials to satisfy themselves that legislation is consistent with protected rights.

Limiting Rights is an in-depth exploration of who is, and who should be, responsible for determining whether legislation that conflicts with the entrenched rights of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms should nevertheless be upheld as a reasonable limit on protected rights. Janet Hiebert addresses a topic that threatens to undermine claims that what courts do can be distinguished from the discretionary decisions of policy makers and raises concerns about whether judicial review of the Charter is consistent with democratic principles.

This document presents information on ethical issues in the debate on reform of the Canadian Elections Act; public sector ethics; allegations of undue influence in Canadian politics; negative political advertising; variations across time and in space in citizenship and equity; fairness, equity and rights; and a code of ethics for political parties.

"This book features 36 edited Charter decisions accompanied by commentary and analysis. Discussion questions are provided for each of these landmark cases to help facilitate classroom debate and further study."--

This paper examines how the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms has affected policy making, tracing three federal legislative initiatives where rights considerations have played an important role. The first section discusses expectations in the literature about how representative institutions might respond to the Charter, particularly in situations where rights issues arise. Section two examines the federal government's internal processes for evaluating legislation from a Charter perspective. Sections three to five analyze the Charter's effects on legislative decision making in three policy areas: restrictions on tobacco product advertising, rules for conducting sexual assault trials, and access to victims' private records in sexual assault cases. Section six revisits the issue of how representative institutions are responding to the Charter and comments on tensions that arise between the judiciary and Parliament. The final section recommends a process to augment Parliament's role and effectiveness in evaluating legislation in light of Charter considerations.