TILMA legislation flouts rule of law, democracy: Shrybman
Trade law expert cites Liberal government's Bill 32 with constitutional
violations
VICTORIA, May 21 /CNW/ - The Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility
Agreement (TILMA) between British Columbia and Alberta - and the B.C.
legislation enabling it - violate the Canadian constitution by usurping the
role of judges and endowing cabinet with too much power, says a leading trade
law expert in a legal opinion released today.
In the written opinion, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell lawyer Steven Shrybman
says that the TILMA and the BC Liberal government's Bill 32 "confront basic
constitutional norms, including the rule of law and democracy", by trumping
the authority of both judges and parliaments.
"By imposing financial penalties and other sanctions on the province for
the lawful actions of governments and other public bodies, TILMA and Bill 32
improperly fetter the exercise of legislative and public authority," Shrybman
says, in the May 7 document.
They also usurp the role of senior courts "by empowering ad hoc tribunals
to adjudicate private claims concerning the actions of government and other
public bodies." TILMA and Bill 32 also offend constitutional limits on the
delegation of legislative power to the executive branch of government "by
amending certain provincial statutes to accord Cabinet the discretionary power
to nullify, through regulation, the application of provisions of those laws to
companies and other entities from outside the province."
The legal opinion was commissioned by the Canadian Union of Public
Employees.
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http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2008/21/c2538.html
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