When Saskatchewan launched its constitutional challenge of Ottawa’s carbon tax, the usual suspects in academe and the media contemptuously dismissed it as lacking any legal merit. While a 3-2 majority on Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal last week ruled the carbon tax lies within federal powers, dissenting Justices Ralph Ottenbreit and Neal Caldwell argued powerfully that it violates the Constitution in several clear ways. For a total no-hoper, Saskatchewan’s case is showing surprising legs. With challenges in other provinces underway and an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada pending, Ottawa might just be sweating bullets.

Keeping the AI Apocalypse at Bay
Writing in City Journal, Judge Glock examines legal efforts to control AI and dismisses the current fixation on suing for specific harms, such as bad advice. “The idea that we should treat Big Tech, including AI companies, like we treated Big Tobacco, is exactly the wrong idea,” he observes. A better approach is to assess product liability based on which parties can perform the task at the cheapest cost, as is the case with the regulation of medical equipment. This “has the benefit of putting the onus on companies themselves to game out dangerous scenarios and prevent them,” he advises. For more on AI, see this C2C article.


