Reference no: EM133376719

Why did the case below seem so important to shaping and changing canadian law.

In that famous case the Supreme Court ruled that no public official is above the law, specifically the premier of Quebec at the time, Maurice Duplessis, who had revoked Frank Roncarelli's liquor licence because he was financially helping his fellow Jehovah's Witnesses who had been arrested for handing out religious literature.

Des Rosiers argues that Canadian legislatures do not have less power than before the charter, that they continue to exercise wide-ranging authority and can always use the notwithstanding clause (which has to be renewed every five years after it is employed) to circumvent most court decisions.

What has changed, Des Rosiers said, is that the charter forces governments to justify all legislation in light of human rights.

While noting that before the charter there was concern on both the left and the right about judicial activism, McPhedran observed, "the so-called 'anti-judicial activism forces' in this country, many of whom are now senior advisors to our federal government, have been brilliantly successful in redefining what it means to be a so-called judicial activist." She argues that they have had "a real impact on the way in which judges write and the extent to which they will reach."