SCOC VERDICT IS POLITICAL, NOT JUDICIAL

 In a 6-3 verdict the Supreme Court upheld the federal government’s carbon tax and rejected challenges from several provinces whose combined population is roughly 80 per cent of Canada’s total. The ruling that the carbon tax is constitutional seems more political than judicial. The Peace, Order and Good Government (POGG) clause of the Constitution, which is what the majority used to justify its conclusion, is broad enough to encompass whatever jurists decide it should cover. And yet, as the lengthy and compelling dissents signed by Justices Russell Brown and Malcolm Rowe, and endorsed partly by Justice Suzanne Côté, state, the ruling would “open up by way of national standards any area of provincial jurisdiction to unconstitutional federal intrusion once Parliament decides to legislate uniform treatment. This is a model of federation that rejects our Constitution and rewrites the rules of Confederation.”