Shop Talk: Conversations about the Constitutionality of Our Labor Law

In this essay Professor Beatty joins the debate as to how, if at all, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the process of judicial review can be integrated with our tradition of democratic rule and the sovereignty of the popular will. Rather than deal directly with the arguments of those who are critical of the entrenchment of a written bill of rights, Professor Beatty endeavors to cast the Charter and the new role of the judges in the best possible light. Analogizing the process of constitutional review to conversations of justification (using examples drawn from the labour law field), Professor Beatty describes how the Charter offers those who are generally financially weak, numerically small and otherwise politically disadvantaged an opportunity to participate in the formulation of social policies which profoundly affect their lives in a way majoritarian politics have never allowed