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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: paul_philp who wrote (36602)8/9/2002 9:48:36 AM
From: Ilaine  Read Replies (2) of 281500
 
If we start tossing out our constituting principles for the sake of expedience, we are lost.

Non-lawyers think this, but in fact, civil liberties are always curtailed during wartime. A Roman maxim: inter arma silent leges, "in times of war all laws are silent." Read Chief Justice Rehnquist's All The Laws But One. Some examples: Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War, the internment of the Japanese during WWII.

I recently re-read the three main decisions pertaining to the internment, and it's clear that as a concept, internment of Japanese-born people living in the US during WWII was constitutional because there had been incidents already of their assisting the Japanese government covertly. However, internment of American-born people of Japanese heritage was unconstitutional absent some showing of loyalty to the Japanese government.

Which isn't directly on point with the case you mentioned, but my point is that in times of war, civil liberties have always taken a back seat and public safety is something which is taken more seriously. Civil liberties don't do you any good if you're dead.

I don't know how courts make decisions about constitutional interests in Canada but I assume it's the same way it's done in the US -- competing constitutional interests are all important, and must be balanced. The balance in wartime is struck differently than in time of peace.
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