Runnymede Radio

Runnymede Radio is back! This episode features Philippe Lagassé, associate professor and the Barton Chair at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Professor Lagassé and our National Director Mark Mancini discuss parliamentary prorogation in light of recent events in Ottawa. A timely and informative conversation.   https://runnymedesociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Runnymede-podcast-aug-28b.mp3

This episode features Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, the Member of Parliament for Beaches-East York – a riding he has represented since 2015. As a parliamentarian, Mr. Erskine-Smith currently sits on the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Before politics, Mr. Erskine-Smith worked as a lawyer in Toronto. He obtained his undergraduate and law degrees from Queen’s University, and later obtained a postgraduate degree in law from the University of Oxford. In this episode, Mr. Erskine-Smith speaks with Mark Mancini, the National Director of the Runnymede Society, about the federal government’s continuing response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with particular focus on how this response implicates the rule of law, constitutionalism, and individual liberty.

This episode features Dr. Ryan Alford, an Associate Professor at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University. Dr. Alford received his doctorate in public, constitutional, and international law from the University of South Africa. He also holds a master’s degree from the University of Oxford and a law degree from New York University. He is called to the Bar of Ontario and is a Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario. In 2017, McGill-Queen’s University Press published his book entitled Permanent State of Emergency: Unchecked Executive Power and the Demise of the Rule of Law. In 2020, the same publisher will release his book entitled Seven Absolute Rights: Recovering the Foundations of Canada’s Rule of Law. In this episode, Dr. Alford speaks with Mark Mancini, the National Director of the Runnymede Society, about emergency powers in Canada.

This episode of Runnymede Radio features Shannon Salter, the Chair of British Columbia’s Civil Resolution Tribunal – Canada’s first online tribunal. Ms. Salter earned her BA and LLB from the University of British Columbia, and her LLM from the University of Toronto. She clerked at the Supreme Court of British Columbia before practising civil litigation at a Vancouver law firm for several years. In 2017, Ms. Salter was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada. She is also an adjunct professor at UBC’s Allard School of Law, where she teaches administrative law and legal ethics. Interviewed by Mark Mancini, the National Director of the Runnymede Society, Ms. Salter discusses the nature and work of the Civil Resolution Tribunal and how this administrative body is reshaping legal dispute resolution in British Columbia.

This episode of Runnymede Radio features Carissima Mathen, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. Interviewed by Mark Mancini, the National Director of the Runnymede Society, Professor Mathen discusses her book entitled Courts Without Cases: The Law and Politics of Advisory Opinions, released in 2019 by Hart Publishing. Below is a blurb describing the book. We hope you enjoy this episode of Runnymede Radio! Since 1875, Canadian courts have been permitted to act as advisors alongside their ordinary, adjudicative role. This book offers the first detailed examination of that role from a legal perspective. When one thinks of courts, it is most often in the context of deciding cases: live disputes involving spirited, adversarial debate between opposing parties. Sometimes, though, a court is granted the power to answer questions in the absence of such disputes through advisory opinions (also called references). These proceedings raise many questions: about the judicial role, about the relationship between courts and those who seek their 'advice', and about the nature of law. Tracking their use in Canada since the country's Confederation and looking to the experience of other legal systems, the book considers how advisory opinions draw courts into the complex relationship between law and politics. With attention to key themes such as the separation of powers, federalism, rights and precedent, this book provides an important and timely study of a fascinating phenomenon.

This episode of Runnymede Radio features Asher Honickman, a partner at Matthews Abogado LLP in Toronto. He is also the founder and CEO of Advocates for the Rule of Law, a legal think tank dedicated to promoting the rule of law in Canada. Interviewed by Mark Mancini, the National Director of the Runnymede Society, Asher discusses Canadian federalism, using two high-profile lawsuits – one concerning pipelines, the other concerning the federal carbon tax – as the basis for their conversation.

This episode of Runnymede Radio features Dr. Kerri Froc, an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of New Brunswick. Interviewed by Mark Mancini, the National Director of the Runnymede Society, Professor Froc discusses the intersection of feminism and originalism in the context of Canadian constitutional law and interpretation.

This episode of Runnymede Radio features Dr. Paul Daly, a member of the Faculty of Law (Common Law Section) at the University of Ottawa, where he holds a University Research Chair in Administrative Law and Governance. In this episode, Dr. Daly and Mark Mancini, the National Director of the Runnymede Society, discuss the much anticipated rulings of the Supreme Court of Canada in the so-called "administrative law trilogy", a trio of cases in which the Court has sought to clarify the law governing judicial review of administrative decisions in Canada. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov Bell Canada v. Canada (Attorney General)

This episode of Runnymede Radio features Dr. Geoffrey Sigalet, a postdoctoral fellow in the Research Group on Constitutional Studies at McGill University. Dr. Sigalet, interviewed by Mark Mancini, the National Director of the Runnymede Society, discusses a collection of essays he co-edited with Grégoire Webber (Queen's University) and Rosalind Dixon (University of New South Wales). The collection is entitled Constitutional Dialogue: Rights, Democracy, Institutions (2019, Cambridge University Press). The blurb for Constitutional Dialogue captures the focus of the collection: The metaphor of 'dialogue' has been put to different descriptive and evaluative uses by constitutional and political theorists studying interactions between institutions concerning rights. It has also featured prominently in the opinions of courts and the rhetoric and deliberations of legislators. This volume brings together many of the world's leading constitutional and political theorists to debate the nature and merits of constitutional dialogues between the judicial, legislative, and executive branches. Constitutional Dialogue explores dialogue's democratic significance, examines its relevance to the functioning and design of constitutional institutions, and covers constitutional dialogues from an international and transnational perspective.

In the first Runnymede Radio episode of the 2019-2020 academic year, we speak with the new National Director of the Runnymede Society, Mark Mancini. We discuss the growth of Runnymede since its inception in 2016, recent campus events, the profile of Runnymede in The Globe and Mail, the inaugural Runnymede Fellows Program, and the upcoming Law and Freedom Conference in February 2020.