Interview with former Supreme Court of Canada judge John (Jack) Major
By Chris Schafer

Law, especially rights-entrenching constitutional law, has become a new sacred text, allegedly defining the legitimate community and putting apostates beyond its pale. In Canada, the pulpit hyperbole that cast Wilfrid Laurier as a heretic in late 19th Century Quebec has been replaced by the “Charter Hyperbole” now used to demonize Stephen Harper.

In this wide-ranging account, the economic historian Niall Ferguson sets out to explain the rise of Western civilization, as well as defend its achievements from the enervating effects of multiculturalism, post-modernism and post-colonialism. Ferguson argues that the economic, social and political institutions of the West still provide the best hope for guaranteeing lives which are meaningful and rewarding, and for solving the problems the modern world faces.

All rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Charter are subject to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. This article explains how the courts have been using the words “free and democratic society” as a hollow feel good notion devoid of any specific meaning to substitute the analysis of what a society founded on democratic principles and made up of free individuals should be with utilitarian tests designed to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people at the expense of the least misery for the smallest number of people.

c2c’s Joseph Quesnel interviews Joanne Marcotte, a pioneer in Quebec’s freedom movement, a co-founder of the Réseau Liberté Québec and author of the recently-released Pour en finir avec le governemama

With opinions polls indicating that on many policy issues Quebecers have conservative stances, the best way to explain the election of 59 MPs for the NDP is to consider how confused voters are because of the politically correct discourse that has dominated the history of province.

The Quebec conservative scene has been shaken-up by the emergence of a new political movement — and now official political party — called the Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec (CAQ). Paul Beaudry argues that despite media spin, the coalition is not to be considered “conservative” in any sense of the word, and that the right-of-centre Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) should rebuff attempts at a merger.