Merch store closes Monday!
Get I Stand with Canada hats, Relentless Decency shirts, From Far and Wide stickers, and more at Tod’s shop. Check Out the Shop
by Tod Maffin
Follow me on Bluesky (or elsewhere)
▶️ All my videos • 👾 Join My Discord
Canada has an escape hatch in its Constitution — the “notwithstanding clause.”
In short, it lets provincial governments preemptively override legal challenges on whether their laws violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It was meant as a last-ditch emergency measure, but increasingly some provinces are using it as a matter of business. Mostly to pursue laws that override collective-bargaining. Or keep people from wearing things important to their faith. Or play politics with pronouns.
What most Canadians don’t know, though, is that there is a veto button that can cancel all of it out. It’s called Section 90.
Section 90
Like the notwithstanding clause, Section 90 also in the Constitution. It was also meant for extreme situations. The framers of the Constitution put it there to protect minorities from discriminatory provincial laws.
It gives the federal government a power called Disallowance, where the federal Cabinet can straight up cancel a provincial law within one year of it passing. Cancel. Wipe it off the books. Gone.
T O D B I T
Section 90 sets no test for when Ottawa can step in. Cabinet can cancel a provincial law within one year for any reason at all.
While a province can use the notwithstanding clause to defend its law from a Charter challenge, it can’t use it to defend against federal disallowance. If the federal Cabinet wanted to kill a provincial law that used the notwithstanding clause, it could. A disallowance order would erase the law entirely, override or not.
The breaker switch no one touches
In the nineteenth century, Ottawa used this power over a hundred times. But its last use in 1943. Why? Politics. The federal government hasn’t touched these powers in eighty years, because doing it today would set off a political earthquake. Premiers, I can think of one in particular, would lose their minds.
Canada works when governments protect the people who need it most. That is the heart of this place. When rights become political props, that heart starts to falter. Section 90 exists for moments, like we’re seeing, when a province steps past the line and forgets its responsibility to everyone who calls this country home.
It’s time to use it.
If the federal government hides from it, we tell every premier that rights can be bargained away for applause.
If our federal government does have the courage to use it, we remind the country, and our global neighbours, who we are. Decent people who look out for each other.
The Constitution gave this country a safeguard for moments exactly like this.
At some point we need to decide which future we are willing to live with.
— 30 —
Join the discussion about this issue now in my community!
Lift someone’s week… for a whole year!
If someone in your life could use less doom in their inbox, gift them an annual Premium subscription to From Far and Wide. It gives them a full year of hopeful Canadian stories in their inbox, twice a week. No clutter, just a small reset every week.
🎁 CLICK HERE, then select Gift at the top and Annual in The Tod Squad 💜 box.
Trivia
Which province has never invoked the notwithstanding clause and, in 2025, introduced legislation requiring any future government wishing to use it to first obtain an opinion from its Court of Appeal?
The Weekly Poll
Do you think Canada’s system of government checks and balances is working well today?
Last Week:
What You Missed This Week
There’s Still Good News Out There 💗
SunFest London founder Alfredo Caxaj, a Guatemalan refugee who arrived in the city 40 years ago and started the festival in 1994, was honoured with the Order of Canada in Ottawa for creating a major cultural event that attracts tourists and musicians from around the world.
Santa is taking to planes and helicopters this week to bring holiday cheer to Northern Manitoba First Nations, as the MKO Santa Express visits 25 communities over five days to lift spirits after a challenging year.
Double Jeopardy: Identical twin brothers Ron and Ray Lalonde, born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ont., have made Jeopardy! history as the first identical twins to appear on the show.
A new workshop being offered through the Construction Association of Nova Scotia aims to change the “boys will be boys” culture in the construction sector, addressing harmful masculine norms that can contribute to bullying, harassment, and poor mental health among workers.
Grandparents are spreading holiday cheer this year: A new survey shows 1 in 5 parents are relying on them for gift-giving support, and a third of grandparents are even splurging more than parents to make kids’ holidays extra special.
A new Alberta–B.C. train route, Passage to the Peaks, launching in June and July 2026 from Banff or Jasper, has already been named one of the best new experiences in the world.
Canada’s unemployment rate fell to 6.5% in November, driven largely by growth in part-time jobs, with youth unemployment also declining.
Wild Things 🦫
Rats 4, Toronto 0: For the fourth year in a row, Toronto has been named Canada’s rattiest city by pest control company, Orkin Canada.
Where is the IKEA monkey now?: Thirteen years after going viral as a diaper-and-shearling-clad baby monkey in a Toronto IKEA parking lot, Darwin is all grown up and enjoying a calmer life at Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Ontario, swapping memes for indoor swings and grapes.
Orcas 🤝 dolphins: B.C. researchers found that dolphins and killer whales team up to hunt salmon together, showing a cooperative partnership with no aggression between the species.
A Manitoban, who lives with chronic pain and severe migraines, has found purpose and comfort in fostering dogs, opening her home over the past decade to 58 pups.
Trade Tea 🫖
Big mood: For the first time since the U.S. trade war began, Canada posted a trade surplus, with exports to non-U.S. countries jumping 11% and shipments to the U.S. rising while imports from south of the border fell.
A new report shows every U.S. state along the Canadian border is feeling the financial hit from declining Canadian tourism, a trend linked to Trump's tariff policies that have made cross-border trips far less common.
The Sorry Files 🤦
Wayne Gretzky’s hometown statue in Brantford was defaced this week with MAGA hats and a temporary plaque criticizing his recent golf outings with Trump, leaving his parents unscathed and even placing a Santa hat on Walter’s head.
Only in Canada: An Ontario man has been charged with assault after allegedly aiming a snow blower at another person during a dispute in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
A Guelph woman has been arrested and charged after police recovered roughly 140 stolen Jellycat toys believed to have been taken from stores across southwestern Ontario.
Which, if you’ve ever bought a Jellycat, you know is basically the GDP of a small nation.
Scent of regret: A B.C. truck driver pulled over for speeding raised eyebrows when officers found a lit “festive” candle in his cab, suspected to be masking liquor, before he blew a “warn” and racked up multiple penalties.
Across Canada 📍
Ontario Liberals are urging Doug Ford’s government to sell its stockpile of U.S. alcohol and donate the proceeds to food banks, following moves by provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia to do the same.
The Ontario Science Centre will open an interim location at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre by summer 2026 while its permanent new home at Ontario Place is planned for 2029.
Health Canada has authorized zuranolone, sold as Zurzuvae, a new pill to treat moderate to severe postpartum depression. It’s already cleared for use in the U.S., the U.K., and the EU.
It’s a girl: Staff at Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens got a smelly surprise when their 40-year-old ginkgo tree, long thought to be male, produced odorous seeds for the first time, emitting a smell likened to dog poo or vomit, and revealing the tree is actually female.
Lift someone’s week… for a whole year!
If someone in your life could use less doom in their inbox, gift them an annual Premium subscription to From Far and Wide. It gives them a full year of hopeful Canadian stories in their inbox, twice a week. No clutter, just a small reset every week.
🎁 CLICK HERE, then select Gift at the top and Annual in The Tod Squad 💜 box.
Canada’s Market This Week
Royal Bank | |
TD Bank | |
Enbridge | |
ScotiaBank | |
Bank of Montreal | |
CP Rail | |
Shopify | |
Canadian Tire | |
Loblaws | |
Tim Hortons (RBI) | |
Dollarama | |
Rogers |
How did I do?
In partnership with
