Blunting the Edge: Federalism, Criminal Law, and the Importance of Legislative History after the Reference Re Assisted Human Reproduction Act
![handle is hein.journals/ubclr48 and id is 557 raw text is:
BLUNTING THE EDGE: FEDERALISM, CRIMINAL
LAW, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF LEGISLATIVE
HISTORY AFTER THE REFERENCE RE ASSISTED
HUMANREPRODUCTIONACT
DAVE SNOW'
I. INTRODUCTION
The Canadian attempt to make national law for assisted reproductive
technologies (ARTs) provides a cautionary tale. After 15 years of
concerted policymaking efforts, in 2004 Parliament passed the Assisted
Human Reproduction Actl a comprehensive piece of legislation
containing criminal prohibitions and a framework for national
regulation. Just over 6 years later, however, a majority of Supreme Court
of Canada justices ruled in Reference Re Assisted Human Reproduction
Act2 that most regulatory, administrative, and licensing aspects of the
AHR Act were ultra vires the federal Parliament, as they were in pith and
substance related to health rather than criminal law. Dreams of a
uniform national policy were dashed, the federal criminal law power was
diminished, and the onus was put on provinces to regulate this
important field.
t Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Guelph,
snow@uoguelph.ca. I would like to thank Frangoise Baylis, Rainer Knopff, Mark
Harding, Tim Anderson, and this journal's anonymous reviewers for their comments
on earlier drafts of this paper. This work was supported financially by the Killam
Trusts at the University of Calgary and at Dalhousie University.
1 SC 2004, c 2 [AHR Act].
2 2010 SCC 61, [2010] 3 SCR457 [ReAHRA].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ubclr48&div=18&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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