Grant Huscroft

Grant Huscroft is a Canadian jurist and legal scholar, who currently serves as a justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario.[2]

The Honourable

Grant Huscroft
Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario
Assumed office
December 16, 2014
Nominated byStephen Harper
Appointed byDavid Johnston
Preceded byMarc Rosenberg
Personal details
NationalityCanadian
Spouse(s)Tracy Shultis
Children2[1]
EducationUniversity of Western Ontario
Queen's University
University of Auckland

Biography

Huscroft was educated at the University of Western Ontario (BA 1980), Queen's University (LL.B. 1984), and the University of Auckland (LL.M. 1987).[2]

Huscroft taught at the University of Auckland Law School between 1992 and 2001 and then the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law from 2002 to 2014, where he was Associate Dean from 2006 to 2008.[2][1]

Huscroft was appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario in 2014 on the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.[3][4][5]

During his time on the bench, Huscroft was in the habit of giving lectures to law students at their university. For instance, in a January 2016 appearance at Queen's University, he said that:[6]

The most important thing I learned as an academic is that disagreement is almost always in good faith. I think we have to approach disputes about rights or the Charter with a great deal of humility and we have to start with the position that however strongly we may feel, we might be wrong.

Huscroft also has participated in Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice seminars, such as when he presented a paper on "Sufficiency of tribunal reasons: when do a tribunal’s reasons engage issues of procedural fairness" at their May 2016 Advanced Judicial Seminar on Administrative Law reunion.[7]

Notable judgments

In re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act

In June 2019, Huscroft wrote in his dissenting GHGPPA opinion that the decision of the majority could have repercussions to the existing that division of powers between the provinces and the federal government.[8] He noted: "federalism is no constitutional nicety; it is a defining feature of the Canadian constitutional order that governs the way in which even the most serious problems must be addressed" and "in effect, [the federal government] has asked the court to sanction a change to the constitutional order -- to increase Parliament's lawmaking authority while diminishing that of the provincial legislatures, and to do so on a permanent basis."[9] Huscroft's dissent was described as "traditionalist" in its view of the division of powers and compared to Gérard La Forest, a former puis-ne on the Supreme Court of Canada, by former Attorney-General Peter MacKay.[5]

Published works

Huscroft outlined his criticism of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in a 2012 newspaper article. He argued that the passage of the Charter has provided constitutional status to rights and freedoms while empowering judges to strike down laws passed by democratically elected representatives that are seen to infringe on these rights and freedoms, and that this has resulted in political questions increasingly being brought before the courts and out of the purview of elected representatives. In his view, judges do not have any greater insights into complex social and moral issues than any other person, and therefore the power to find solutions to these issues must be put back in the hands of democratically elected representatives. In support of his position, he pointed out that many judicial decisions interpreting and applying the charter have been controversial, and the opinions of Supreme Court judges have often been divided in these cases.[10]

Articles
  • Huscroft, Grant (2006). "Political Litigation and the Role of the Court". The Supreme Court Law Review: Osgoode's Annual Constitutional Cases Conference. 34.

Learned texts, as editor
gollark: Wait, do the active coolers on the diagonals work?
gollark: Cool, but also madness, but cool.
gollark: .NET framework on Linux.
gollark: Unfortunately, the reactor planner thing seems to not run under mono.
gollark: It's easy, as long as it'll always be near a computer you control when booting.

References
  1. "Grant Huscroft appointed to bench in Canada". Auckland Law School. The University of Auckland. 18 December 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  2. "Brief Biographical Note of Justice Grant Huscroft". Court of Appeal for Ontario. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  3. Fine, Sean (17 December 2014). "Tories appoint two conservative law professors as judges". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  4. "Ontario Judicial Appointments Announced". Department of Justice. Government of Canada. 16 December 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  5. Brean, Joseph (28 June 2019). "In dissent on carbon pricing, a 'traditionalist' judge puts Ottawa in its place". Postmedia Network Inc. National Post.
  6. "Ontario Court of Appeal judge sits down for Q&A with students". Queen's University. Queen's Law. 29 January 2016.
  7. "ADVANCED JUDICIAL SEMINAR ON ADMINISTRATIVE LAW DUNSMUIR ON LIFE SUPPORT: WILL THERE EVER BE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL?" (PDF). CIAJ. 26 May 2016.
  8. McGrath, John Michael (28 June 2019). "What you need to know about the Ontario Court of Appeal's carbon-tax decision". TVO. Ontario Educational Communications Authority.
  9. Strathy C.J.O.; Hoy A.C.J.O.; MacPherson, Sharpe; Huscroft JJ.A. (28 June 2019). "Reference re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, 2019 ONCA 544". Court of Appeal for Ontario.
  10. Huscroft, Grant. "Yes. The Charter of Rights has given judges too much power". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
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