Wormer Clauses – God of the Machine
Feb 062003
 

Turns out Canada has a “notwithstanding clause,” “a rarely-exercised legislative veto allowing some individual rights to be suspended, explicitly, where a statute conflicts with them.” (Cosh: it’s not just hockey and Canadian football any more.) Hey, great: just like Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution! You remember, that was the one Hitler used to suspend the Constitution and declare himself dictator. I propose to christen these “Wormer clauses,” after Dean Wormer’s classic line in Animal House: “There’s a little-known codicil in the Faber College Constitution granting the Dean unlimited powers in times of campus emergency.”

  3 Responses to “Wormer Clauses”

  1. I have violated Canada’s hate speech laws. It’s given me a sense of accomplishment.

  2. They bust you yet?

  3. No, the Canadian Feds don’t read my blog or tap my phone. This has given me a sense of insignificance. Anyway, I said in those media things that are likely to cause others to hate a certain group of people. That’s illegal here.

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