In a commentary in the Globe and Mail, Prof. David Schneiderman discusses how Parliament could overcome the Prime Minister's prerogative in order to get access to documents relating to the Afghan detainee abuse issue ("How to tame a PM's prerogative?", March 10, 2010).

Read the full commentary.

Listen to David Schneiderman discuss this issue on CBC's The Current (March 22, 2010)

Prof. Ed Morgan has published a commentary in the National Post online edition about the limited scope of Canada's hate speech laws ("Canadian educators need education on hate speech," March 22, 2010).

Read the full commentary.

Canada’s access axis

by Lisa Austin

This commentary was first published in the Globe and Mail on April 20, 2010.

Why do citizens need access to information held by the government? According to the 1977 Green Paper that essentially brought us our federal law, “Open government is the basis of democracy.”

Why do we need access-to-information laws? Because the government has strong political incentives to prevent the disclosure of potentially embarrassing and damaging information.

The University of Toronto team has won the annual Wilson Moot, held this year on the last weekend of February. The team also won the Second Place Factum Prize, and individual team members received recognition for their performance.

Congratulations to the team of Dan Rohde (first place oralist), Lindsay Beck (second place oralist), Rebecca McConchie and Dave Forsayeth.  The judges of the final round against Queen’s University were Peter Hogg, Justice Eileen Gillese of the Ontario Court of Appeal, and Justice David Stratas of the Federal Court of Appeal.