"If there are commands of God, then there must be rights of man."

G.K. Chesterton in “The Empire of the Insect” in What’s Wrong with the World, quoted in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 12 #4 (Jan.-Feb. 2009).

In my latest Loonie Politics piece I say the real question about shrinking Toronto City Council is why people who call Doug Ford an evil rights-hating maniac for invoking the Notwithstanding Clause to protect legislative authority aren’t even slightly concerned about judges routinely invoking Section 1 of the Charter to infringe fundamental rights like free speech.

BTW this particular piece is not behind a paywall. But Loonie Politics depends on subscriber support. So please sign up for their monthly or annual plan to support their work… and mine.

“I find it enormously interesting that this approach [that the law is what the sovereign commands] to finding a replacement for a transcendental source of values involves, in effect, a redirection of metaphorical energy: to find a human equivalent for God, there is a focus not on God’s goodness, but on his Power. It makes sense.”

Arthur Allen Leff, “Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law,” Duke Law Journal Vol. 1979 #6