ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM:

The 2021 Annual Symposium on Religion, Law & Human Rights is dedicated to exploring the “The Forgotten Foundations of the Canadian Constitution”. The discussion will build on topics explored at our previous Symposium, which culminated in the publication of The Forgotten Fundamental Freedoms of the Charter (LexisNexis Canada, 2020).

The Supreme Court has said on many occasions that the Constitution of Canada has an architecture. What does that architecture look like? The Court has also said that the many clauses of the Constitution do not exist in isolation to each other, but inform one another and thereby create constitutional meaning. But the relationship between various textual provisions of the Constitution, and the legal ramifications of this relationship, have not been deeply explored.

And the text of the Constitution is not the end of the story. The written dimension of the Constitution is accompanied and animated by unwritten principles: the rule of law, the protection of minorities, and democracy to name a few. The relationship between the written and unwritten elements of the Constitution, like the interrelationship between written elements, also remains underexplored.

This event will breathe life and shed light on these unmapped sections of Canada’s constitutional blueprint. By bringing together leading jurists and legal thinkers from across the country to support this aim, this event is poised to make significant strides in our understanding of how the Constitution – the supreme law of Canada – is structured, designed, and interpreted.

The Symposium will feature a keynote address by The Hon. Marshall Rothstein, Former Supreme Court Justice. You can review the Schedule here.

We encourage lawyers and law students to attend this Symposium, where there will be an opportunity to interact and ask questions of the panelists. We look forward to seeing you there.

Special thanks to: