Leonid Sirota
Legal academic; mostly Canadian and comparative public law. Associate Professor @unirdg-law.bsky.social; Senior Fellow, Macdonald Laurier Institute; blogger, doubleaspect.blog
- I guess the shambles of a "constitution" wasn't enough to save Mr Legault's political career, whose highlight will remain banning teachers from wearing headscarves. Good riddance to him, and, hopefully, to the "constitution" gambit too.
- ICYMI: My just-published review of Lord Sumption's recent collection of lectures and essays, with a focus on legal and political constitutionalism.
- Hot off the @publiclaw.bsky.social presses, my review of Lord Sumption's recent book is now available on Westlaw, or in its pre-publication format on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers..... Many thanks to @lewisgrahamlaw.bsky.social for inviting me to do this!
- ICYMI: Why New Zealand's approach to life imprisonment without parole is doctrinally and philosophically sounder than that of Canada and the European Court of Human Rights — a new paper with @guyjbaldwin.bsky.social
- New paper with @guyjbaldwin.bsky.social, in which we argue that, in finding whole life sentences to be contrary to human rights, the ECtHR and the SCC have made important doctrinal and philosophical mistakes. Forthcoming in the EHRLR, but pre-print available on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
- New paper with @guyjbaldwin.bsky.social, in which we argue that, in finding whole life sentences to be contrary to human rights, the ECtHR and the SCC have made important doctrinal and philosophical mistakes. Forthcoming in the EHRLR, but pre-print available on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
- Hot off the @publiclaw.bsky.social presses, my review of Lord Sumption's recent book is now available on Westlaw, or in its pre-publication format on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers..... Many thanks to @lewisgrahamlaw.bsky.social for inviting me to do this!
- Walking into a crowded cocktail party and looking over the heads of the guests to pick out your friends. Luckily, they're not too hard to spot, since they're all wearing togas and standing apart from everyone else because they were never invited in the first place.
- I had missed this latest delirium by Adrian Vermeule on birthright citizenship 'Common law?! NAH, it's the Roman law of adoption that should govern the interpretation of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution!' thenewdigest.substack.com/p/immigratio...
- I'm not persuaded by the argument that a province can't repeal the oath of allegiance for its legislators. But you know who was? Quebec's constitutional-reformer-in-chief, whose government proceeded to do just that, and who is now trying to get rid of the Lieutenant Gorvernor for good measure.
- Good thing he isn't also the historian-in-chief
- ICYMI: The Alberta CA strikes down the requirement that lawyers take an oath of allegiance; it's the right outcome, though reached for quite wrongheaded reasons, and no, it won't undermine the rule of law in Alberta. doubleaspect.blog/2025/12/18/t...
- New post: the Alberta Court of Appeal holds that requiring lawyers to swear allegiance to the Sovereign is unconstitutional. Or, why oaths are not like statutes, what allegiance means, and why proportionality balancing doesn't care about your feelings.
- This builds on my article on the oath of allegiance required of naturalized citizens, available here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
- Question aux membres du Barreau du Québec: avez-vous eu à prêter un serment (d'allégeance ou autre) avant d'être inscrit? Je ne vois rien dans la Loi sur le Barreau, mais peut-être que ça m'a échappé. Merci!
- My newest piece, forthcoming in the Constitutional Forum, is a comment on the Fair Voting BC decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, which upholdds the constitutionality of first-past-the-post elections. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
- I am on this week's The Curious Task podcast (by the Institute for Liberal Studies), talking about the Canadian Charter's notwithstanding clause. thecurioustask.podbean.com/e/whats-wron...
- Email from a well-liked editor at a major academic press, in response to a request for an update on a proposal and sample chapter I submitted (with the editors encouragement) three months ago. If anyone wants to suggest careers outside academia, I'd love to hear from you.
- ICYMI: For all that's wrong with the Quebec Constitution, it won't undermine abortion rights. doubleaspect.blog/2025/12/02/v...
- New blog post: the Quebec Constitution bill is bad in all sorts of ways, not least in how it undermines rights, but the argument that it endangers abortion access does not hold up.
- Nouveau billet: en réaction au projet de loi 9, qui interdira, entre autres, les signes religieux dans les écoles privées subventionnées comme celle où j'ai étudié, je partage mon souvenir d'un professeur jésuite. doubleaspect.blog/2025/11/27/l...
- Nouveau billet, dans lequel je partage le mémoire que j'ai présenté à la Commission des institutions de l'Assemblée nationale pour son étude du projet de loi 1 doubleaspect.blog/2025/11/27/m...
- J'ai récemment été invité, avec Guilleaume Rousseau, à parler du projet de loi 1, qui inclut notamment une constitution (un peu) codifiée et (pas vraiment) enchâssée pour le Québec, dans le cadre d'un épisode du balado des étudiants en droit de Sherbrooke, Affaire classée. Bonne écoute!
- En rappel, mes billets sur le sujet: doubleaspect.blog/2025/10/10/c... et doubleaspect.blog/2025/10/21/h..., ainsi que ma chronique dans The Line: www.readtheline.ca/p/leonid-sir...
- Et, pour aller plus en profondeur, une collection que j'ai co-dirigée avec @richardalbert.bsky.social: www.mqup.ca/Books/A/A-Wr...
- ICYMI: Some further mythbusting in relation to the notwithstanding clause. Does opposing it means opposing democracy? Are the judges whose decisions it's used to override just Liberals? The answers may surprise you! doubleaspect.blog/2025/11/10/n...
- My new favourite bit of notwithstanding clause trivia:
- New post: further notwithstanding clause mythbusting, to follow-up on my op-ed in the National Post last week.
- George Brown on Canadian union and American insanity. (The American government was, in fact, insane; not for the last time.)
- More George Brown on immigration and ambition for one's country.
- And more!
- George Brown on Comeau. Oopsie!
- George Brown on how to think about taxation and trade.
- George Brown on the people whose opinion you want to get on the right side of when you have ambitions and aspirations for your country's future.
- ICYMI: My piece in the National Post addressing some of the myths being spread about the "notwithstanding clause" to justify its widespread use. nationalpost.com/opinion/leon...
- Been called "some clown in England" at the other place, by some sad creature who goes by @TheKaiserSpeaks, which means I'm required to share this. I didn't make the rules!
- My latest in the National Post, addressing a mythology that is coming to surround the "notwithstanding clause" and make it into something inoffensive and practically cuddly. It's nothing of the sort. nationalpost.com/opinion/leon...
- I am grateful to the Post, which has been the venue in which much of this mythology has been published in recent weeks, for taking up my contrary perspective!
- Time to plug something I wrote back when I was teaching at AUT in New Zealand.
- So this is a fun read for colleagues in UK universities.
- John A Macdonald on Yes, Kings (but not *that* kind)!
- Sir John A Macdonald stating the obvious during the Confederation Debates, February 6, 1865. The population of Canada at the time: a bit over 3 million. Being ambitious for your country means being open to immigration. Is there any country today that has this much ambition?
- Sir John A Macdonald, describing the heights of political enmity during the Confederation Debates (February 6, 1865)
- ICYMI: A right-wing takeover is no solution to left-wing philistinism
- New post: too many institutions of culture and learning are run by ideologues who loathe what they are supposed to cherish. Replacing them by right-wing commisssars is not the answer.
- Alberta has now used the "notwithstanding clause" to end a teachers' strike; Ontario did it too. The SCC's misbegotten case law on the "right" to strike is an embarrassment, yet there's no discussion of a constitutional amendment to overturn it, just lazy resort to s 33, which undermines all rights.
- ICYMI: The Ontario government wants to scrap fixed-date elections and the censorship rules it used the "notwithstanding clause" to enact, and barely bothers hiding the rank partisan self-interest driving its proposals. doubleaspect.blog/2025/10/28/w...
