Condominium is an architecture of land ownership that produces separate, privately owned units within multi-unit developments. Condominium also constructs a form of private, democratic government, described as a fourth order of government, that acts beneath federal and provincial governments, and alongside municipal government, to govern owners and their property. This article considers a conflict between residential-unit owners and a commercial-unit owner within a condominium development in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Drawing from material produced in litigation, the article situates the dispute within its property and urban contexts to argue that condominium government requires attention, and not just for its impact on owners, or even residents within, but also because cities must now account for, work alongside, and, in some circumstances, contend with these rapidly proliferating sites of government that are helping to shape who has the right to live in the city.

In 1975, the Bourassa government received legal advice that the James Bay Northern Quebec Agreement exceeded provincial jurisdiction. Legal counsel advised the constitutionality of the Agreement be secured through formal constitutional amendment. No such amendment was sought. Based on authorized access to Premier Bourassa’s archived dossier on the Agreement’s negotiation, this article sets out the following: 1) why the provincial government sought to encroach on federal jurisdiction; 2) the strategic means employed to insulate the Agreement from s. 91(24) litigation; and 3) provincial negotiators’ views on how judges would approach the Agreement going forward. This article confirms theoretical expectations about when governments might coordinate to transgress federalism’s division of powers: a high probability that courts would find a transgression occurred, and a high political cost should governments not coordinate on a transgression strategy.

En se basant sur les travaux de Sally Engle Merry, cet article étudie le parcours du droit au consentement préalable, libre et éclairé des peuples autochtones en droit interaméricain, et met en lumière les dynamiques de glissement, d’effacement et de confusion qui opèrent entre cette norme et le droit à la consultation active. En prenant en considération le contexte d’intervention des instances interaméricaines, l’article met en lumière la vulnérabilité des juges interaméricains dans leur rôle de « traducteurs » et identifie des pistes de réflexion quant aux répercussions de ces glissements discursifs sur les relations entre les peuples autochtones et les États.

In R v Gladue, the Supreme Court of Canada famously remarked that the incarceration of Indigenous people represents a “crisis.” Since Gladue’s release, the language of “crisis” has been used with frequency in Canadian legal discourse. In this article, I analyze how this language has shaped the broader legal understanding of Indigenous mass imprisonment. My focus is not on specific iterations or uses, but on the cumulative impact of the language of “crisis” over the last twenty years. I suggest that however well-meaning these representations may be, their cumulative impact is harmful. In the face of the relentless intensification of Indigenous mass imprisonment, the language of “crisis” has operated to subtly entrench the colonial structures it purports to disrupt. Urging a shift away from its use, I argue that the language of “crisis” is not only ill suited to address the problem, but is part of the problem.

The empirical literature on plea decisions shows that rational motives and coercion may coexist, but there is uncertainty with regard to whether accused feel that their decision is voluntary or made under considerable pressure. However, in most jurisdictions, the legitimacy of the plea bargaining process rests on the Court’s obligation to ensure that the guilty plea is entered voluntarily and knowingly. This study proposes to understand how the accused interpret the rational or coercive elements of their decision-making process and the extent to which their decision to plead guilty is voluntary. Based on semi-structured interviews with twenty convicted individuals, we describe the different decision-making processes, from free and informed decisions to forced decisions to plead guilty while innocent.

Access to information and freedom of information (ATI/FOI) requests are an increasingly utilized means of generating data in the social sciences. An impressive multi-disciplinary and international literature has emerged which mobilizes ATI/FOI requests in research on policing, national security, and imprisonment. Absent from this growing literature is work which deploys ATI/FOI requests in research on higher education institutions (HEIs). In this article I examine the use of ATI/FOI requests as a methodological tool for producing data on HEIs. I highlight the data-generating opportunities that this tool offers higher education researchers and provide a first-hand account of how ATI/FOI requests can be mobilized in higher education research. I argue that despite the value of ATI/FOI requests for producing data on academic institutions, the information management practices of HEIs limit the effectiveness of ATI/FOI in ways that I detail drawing on my experience using information requests to scrutinize the quality assurance of undergraduate degree programs in Ontario. I suggest that in an age of rankings and league tables HEIs are likely to prioritize the protection of their reputation over the right of access. In conclusion I consider the implications of the article’s findings for higher education researchers and ATI/FOI users.

Cette étude s’intéresse au discours des juges du Tribunal administratif du travail du Québec en matière de harcèlement sexuel à partir d’un échantillon de 12 décisions rendues entre 2014 et 2017. Dans la moitié des décisions analysées, les motifs du juge reposent sur une logique binaire. Des binômes (femmes/hommes; subjectivité/objectivité; émotionnalité/rationalité, etc.) se glissent dans l’appréciation de la preuve, perpétuant des mythes qui banalisent le harcèlement sexuel. Une logique binaire est généralement associée au rejet de la réclamation. En revanche, dans l’autre moitié des décisions, les motifs du juge prennent en compte le contexte ainsi que la complexité du harcèlement sexuel. Nos résultats illustrent comment le discours des juges sert soit à perpétuer, soit à remettre en question les stéréotypes négatifs relatifs au harcèlement sexuel des femmes au travail, et ce, dans un cadre juridique identique.

Cette étude examine les approches réglementaires de dix pays : la France, le Danemark, l’Australie, le Canada, les États-Unis, la Russie, le Japon, le Brésil, la Chine et l’Inde, relativement à la réglementation des antimicrobiens aux trois points d’entrée principaux dans le processus agricole, soit dans le cadre de la médecine vétérinaire, de la production agricole et de la vente des produits agricoles. Pour être efficace, la réglementation doit tenir compte du contexte dans lequel elle s’inscrit. Cette étude tente donc de tirer des leçons des dix juridictions ci-haut à la lumière des réalités qui entourent l’utilisation d’antimicrobiens dans les processus agricoles.