Coming Full Circle: Supreme Court Gives Royal Assent to Same-Sex Marriage Legislation

The debate over the passage of same-sex marriage legislation came to a fitting end today, when Mr. Justice Morris Fish of the Supreme Court of Canada gave Royal Assent to Bill C-38.

While a Justice of the Supreme Court can, and does, give Royal Assent to legislation in the absence of the Governor-General (who is presently ill), it's intriguing how this debate has come full circle: it was provincial Courts of Appeal that really started the debate over changing the traditional definition of marriage; now the country's highest court has signed this essentially judicially-prompted bill into law.

Turn off the Subsidy Faucet, Premier (Or "On Taking a Page out of 1970s Airline Policy")

The paucity of blogging did not abate, as I indicated it would below (a fortnight ago). So it seems fitting that what riles me out of my slumber are reports of the public spat between PEI Premier Pat Binns and Air Canada. [Domina and ALW will remember my January 2003 tirade aimed at a New Democrat in a Toronto hotel suite because of said NDPer's ridiculous assertion that individuals living in remote communities have a "right" to efficient and convenient airline service]

Long story short: PEI earlier this summer decided to provide $500,000 in pork to WestJet to begin flying a direct route from Toronto to Charlottetown for the duration of the summer, without extending the same subsidy package to Air Canada, which flies to the island year-round. So Air Canada began threatening to remove its year-round service, arguing that the increased competition in the summer would prevent it from using its summer service to subsidise the diminished demand it has for the route in the winter.

The Premier's audacity extends further: he actually has the gall to accuse Air Canada "of mistreating his province by using small planes that cramp the style of tourists..." With talk like that, you'd think he was Mayor of an underserviced city of 2,000,000 people, rather than Premier of a tiny, rural, remote island of 130,000.

Binns' brilliant economic intervention in what is already an overregulated industry has actually *reduced* the very service he wanted to see increased, which was the ostensible purpose of the subsidy. Can one even begin to rationalise the PEI government's policy (nor his salt-in-the-eyes remarks aimed at Air Canada) on either an intellectual or economic basis?

Hypocrisy Anyone?

Well, hopefully the paucity of blogging witnessed last week will abate now that Domina and I have returned from British Columbia. Bellator, however, continues his hiatus as he begins the second leg of his vacation by driving down America's Blue Coast (named for the political orientation, not the colour of the Pacific).

In the news, Quebec is seeking a "stay" of the Supreme Court's ruling in Chaoulli, which as most readers are aware, held that the prohibition on private health insurance in Quebec violated that province's Charter of Human Rights and was thus of no force or effect.

According to the CBC,

Quebec said in a brief presented to the top court on Monday that the delay is needed to ensure stability in the supply and organization of health services in the province.

Never mind that permitting persons to purchase private insurance would likely increase the supply of health services available for the public's consumption. Quebec's request is rich, coming from the very province that, more than any other in Canada, has allowed private clinics to flourish alongside those supported by taxpayers.

It's hard to interpret this exercise as anything more than an attempt to score political points for an unpopular government. We can take solace, however, that the court normally grants suspensive declarations (stays) of constitutional violations at the time of its judgment, and not retroactively.

The argument for the declaration would be much more compelling if the ruling was applicable in every province. Strategically, then, the Court might want to give legislatures an opportunity to ensure the constitutionality of their health systems without the chaos that an immediate declaration of these systems' invalidity might cause.

This isn't the case, however, and in the three weeks since the ruling's release, Quebec still appears not to have descended into anarchy, and its much-vaunted "social fabric" still remains intact. Instead of grasping at the now-damaged mythology of Canada's public health care system, provincial governments would be wise to spend their energy reforming their systems by allowing patient choice and greater private sector involvment instead of defiantly and pathetically trying to perpetuate an anachronism.