I have been increasingly bullish about the use of artificial intelligence in public administration. In a piece on “Artificial Intelligence and Administrative Tribunals“, I suggested that generative AI, such as Chat GPT or Claude, could be used to enhance the justification of decisions by providing reasons that are even more justified, transparent and intelligible than […] Read more

The interesting and important recent decision in  Evely v. Nova Scotia (Minister of Natural Resources), 2026 NSSC 118 is a very good example of what I have described as the “Doré Duty” in action.  Under the Doré duty, where Charter rights or values are engaged by administrative action, the decision-maker must demonstrate that it considered the effect of its decision […] Read more

The title is ironic enough, as I haven’t produced a blog post in a while (I have been writing, rest assured, just not in bloggable form!), but there is a very important new resource — publicly available, and for free — that is useful to all legal writers. In Some Writing Tips, Justice David Stratas […] Read more

Tomorrow, I will be appearing as a witness at a meeting of the Standing Committee on International Trade. Here is the Notice of Meeting. And here are my opening remarks: My name is Paul Daly, I am a professor at the University of Ottawa and I appear in a personal capacity. Chair, members of the […] Read more

This week, the Supreme Court of Canada heard argument in the appeal from the decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal in Organisation mondiale sikhe du Canada c. Procureur général du Québec, 2024 QCCA 254. One of the issues in this sprawling and complex case, is whether the Quebec legislature’s use of the notwithstanding clause […] Read more

In two important recent decisions, the Ontario Divisional Court and the Federal Court of Appeal addressed delay in administrative tribunals. The issue in Bokhari v. Top Medical Transportation Services, 2026 ONSC 1073 related to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal’s practice of dismissing complaints of discrimination where, on a balance of probabilities, the complainant had not […] Read more

With apologies for this St Patrick’s Day interruption to normal service: Walking all the day, near tall towersWhere falcons build their nestsSilver winged they flyThey know the call of freedom in their breastsSaw Black Head against the skyWhere twisted rocks they run down to the seaLiving on your western shoreSaw summer sunsets, asked for moreI […] Read more

Here is an extract from the “Single Market Myth” paper I co-authored with Professor Mancini, speaking to the role (or not) of the Charter in advancing economic integration Here, too, the judicial approach has been to eschew any economic rights, thereby defanging the Charter as a potential weapon against over-intrusive regulation. In this section, we explain how […] Read more

Here is an extract from the “Single Market Myth” paper I co-authored with Professor Mancini, speaking to the constitutional basis of regulatory authority in Canada Legislative authority over trade and commerce in Canada is highly decentralized, posing significant challenges for regulatory – or deregulatory – legislation that is national in character. This section explains why […] Read more

With Mark Mancini, I have prepared a report for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute on dismantling internal trade barriers within Canada, a project to which there is much rhetorical commitment but rather less in the way of concrete action. We explain how what should be done can be done: We Canadians like to think that we live […] Read more