Episode 2: Ontario's Recent Turn to Section 33

After ignoring the notwithstanding clause for nearly forty years, the Ontario government has recently changed tack, starting with its (successful) attempt to restructure Toronto City Council during a municipal election in 2018. Although a Court of Appeal decision rendered the invocation of section 33 unnecessary in that instance, the Ford government's readiness to hit the notwithstanding button was the beginning of a (now) clear attitudinal shift. Subsequent years brought two actual invocations -- one of which was withdrawn after intense public backlash -- and, more recently, murmurings about the possibility of a fresh invocation to shore up governmental powers to clear homeless encampments. For a survey of these developments and the constitutional questions they raise, we talked to two Ontario-based lawyers: Marion Sandilands (Conway Litigation) and Kris Kinsinger (SV Law).