David Lametti talks mandate letters, MAID, and Public Service at the Faculty of Law
Earlier this month, Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti stopped by the Faculty of Law to give brief remarks and answer students’ questions. For the students and dignitaries assembled (including Hal Jackman—yes, that Jackman—and Frank Iacobucci), it was a uniquely intimate setting in which to hear from a sitting Cabinet minister.
Lametti spent the bulk of his hour at the Faculty talking about his life and career before politics, as well as the mandate letter he had been given by the Prime Minister just weeks prior. Lametti revealed that, during his undergraduate degree at St. Michael’s College, he was a SNAIL as a regular patron of a previous iteration of the law library.
He was also an Oxford buddy of Dean Ed Iacobucci, who, in his introduction for Lametti, made reference to mysterious stories from their Oxford days that were not to be told.
Lametti also spoke about some of his priorities for the upcoming year. These include implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights (UNDRIP) of Indigenous Peoples by the end of 2020 (an ambitious deadline at best), banning conversion therapy, continuing to develop the judicial appointment system implemented by his predecessor, and some digital initiatives, including “protecting the individual online” and regulating online hate speech.
Lametti also discussed, as one of his most pressing priorities, updating the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) legislation. In his free and relatively unrestricted Parliamentary Secretary days, Lametti was one of four Liberal MPs to vote against the MAID bill as it was written, citing its unconstitutionality. This was affirmed by the Quebec Superior Court just this past Fall.
In his current role, however, Lametti was cautious to speak with any specificity about the next steps for MAID, aside from adhering to the March deadline set by the Quebec Superior Court for the provision’s amendment, and plans for upcoming consultations on advanced directives, access for mature minors, and access for mental health patients.
Students questioned Lametti with characteristically uncompromising vigour. Topics ranged from the resurrected sexual assault training bill for newly-appointed judges to ending the ban against men who have sex with men blood donors, to implementing the free, prior and informed consent components of UNDRIP.
Lametti’s answers may have been disappointing for some, as he referred only to confirmed government policy. Though he would only say that lifting the blood ban was something that had been considered by the government in the past, he offered relatively detailed responses to questions of judicial independence raised by the sexual assault training bill and dealing with consent for resource projects as part of UNDRIP.
While he could not speak to the robustness of “social norms” as protective measures for other democracies, Lametti expressed confidence in the resistance of Canadian social norms to deterioration. Lametti was only as forthcoming about policy as one could expect from a sitting Cabinet minister.
The Minister’s visit raised many significant policy and legal issues to keep an eye on in the upcoming months. During his remarks, Lametti also made an impassioned call for law students to consider public service work, saying that “ten students from this faculty on Bay Street would have a far smaller impact than ten in the House of Commons.”
