In Canada, wrongful convictions arose as a social problem with the rise of the innocence movement throughout the 1990s (Zalman, 2020). Despite its rise as a social problem and the increasing attention it has received in the popular media, there has been a lack of research analyzing exactly how wrongful convictions are constructed. The purpose of this research is to analyze how the claimsmakers present at the Morin Inquiry constructed the wrongful conviction of Guy Paul Morin. The purpose of this analysis is to provide insight into the overall construction of wrongful convictions as a social problem through the examination of the claimsmaking taking place within a typifying example. To accomplish this, a qualitative content analysis of the Commission on the Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin, using a social constructionist lens, was conducted. Specifically, this thesis analyzed the contents of the Morin Inquiry using the theory of contextual constructionism as defined by Best (1987, 2013). The findings of this research reveal that: (1) the claimsmakers in the Morin Inquiry constructed Guy Paul Morin’s wrongful conviction as a preventable occurrence caused by a combination of individual wrongdoings and correctible systemic errors; (2) through the construction of blameless victims and blameworthy villains as well as the demonstration that wrongful convictions challenge the legitimacy of the criminal justice system, the claimsmakers were able to demonstrate that Morin’s wrongful conviction was worth addressing; and (3) through the adoption of inquiry recommendations, future wrongful convictions can be prevented, and the legitimacy of the criminal justice system can be restored. Finally, this thesis concludes by discussing implications, contributions and limitations of the findings before presenting ideas for future research.

En droit de lurbanisme et de lenvironnement, la participation du public correspond aux mécanismes juridiques qui permettent aux particuliers dinfluer sur ladoption, le contenu et la mise en uvre des décisions administratives unilatérales relatives au cadre de vie : enquête publique, commissions consultatives, concertation, initiative, comités daccompagnement, etc. Déjà fort ancienne, mais sinscrivant, plus récemment, dans le mouvement de modification de la manière de « faire de ladministration » initié par la loi de 1991 relative à la motivation formelle des actes administratifs, la participation du public revêt un grand intérêt dans lamélioration du fonctionnement de la démocratie. Son développement quantitatif et qualitatif, réclamé à cor et à cri par les particuliers et les associations de défense de lenvironnement, est désormais imposé par des textes internationaux et communautaires. Sa mise en uvre nest cependant pas sans entraîner certains inconvénients pratiques et sans soulever de délicates questions juridiques. Dans la première partie de louvrage, lauteur dresse de manière systématique létat du droit positif wallon de la participation : les décisions et actes administratifs qui y sont soumis, les personnes qui peuvent participer, les procédures quelles doivent suivre pour le faire et les effets juridiques de leur intervention. Après avoir évoqué lobligation de restructurer cette matière, lauteur fournit, dans la seconde partie de louvrage, les règles sur la base desquelles le droit positif devrait être contrôlé et remanié : Convention dAarhus, droit communautaire dérivé, droit institutionnel et des libertés publiques, droit interne. Enfin, en guise de conclusion générale, lauteur formule, à destination du législateur et des autorités administratives compétentes, une série de propositions concrètes de modifications du droit positif de la participation.

EIA's contribution to increased environmental awareness is a posited means by which EIA's contribution to a substantive level of environmental protection can be measured. However, little research has been done to evaluate and properly contextualise this increased environmental awareness in members of the public who participate in EIA and its associated processes of public participation. Utilising a Foucauldian understanding of power and governmentality, this research has shown how this process of becoming environmentally aware takes place within a broader application of governmental power and it is within this context which the success (or otherwise) of steering towards a greater environmental awareness must be evaluated. The biopolitical intentions EIA has for managing environmental life in general draws strict boundaries of expertise and authority in governing the environment, and as products of this formation of governmental power the public become subjects of expert direction. In opposition to this, the public produced a rural environment and local community as defined and governed by forms of experiential knowledge, which although pertaining to a truth-oriented mentality of rule, exerted a similar biopolitical control over the environment and immutable form of authority and expertise within it. It is contended that for EIA to penetrate bounded environments and disrupt their totalising environmentalities, the tool must extend the meaning of uncertainty to explicitly recognise the conflict that exists between actors and their respective environments. In this way, EIA can contribute to a form of self-reflexive and -critical environmental citizenship deemed necessary for a thorough investigation into the political dimensions of the environment and its associated substantive measures of enhancement and protection. Employing a realist governmentality approach to the case-study of the 2016 public inquiry in shale energy proposals in Lancashire, this research generated discourse analyses of key policy documents and public contributions to the inquiry in addition to a 'lived experience' of the inquiry as a participatory space through participant observation. The key findings were that at the policy level, the participating member of the public is produced as both a trustee and an expert, heightening the potential for conflict. Further to this, the experiences of the public inquiry added to this potential by seeking to impose on the participant an individualised, silent identity which was directly contradicted by the public during 'non-technical' sessions who sought to participate actively and collectively. Within their contributions the public produced further internal conflicts, with aspects of this discourse relying on existing institutionalised forms of knowledge and expertise to respond to environmental problems, while in others asserting that localised and personal experiences were necessary. EIA as a technique of government can have a leading role in defining the environment in both a physical, surrounding sense and as a mentality. To do so and challenge essentialised and concrete ideas regarding the environment avoiding the acts of exclusion that underpin them becoming normalised the thesis builds on the analysis to make a proposition for a more effective agonistic EIA process.

Le présent mémoire porte sur les impacts, sur la législation québécoise, des commissions d'enquête portant sur les manques d'intégrité et d'éthique dans l'administration. Plus spécifiquement, il y est présenté une étude de la mise en oeuvre par le législateur des recommandations proposées par les commissaires dans leurs rapports depuis la Confédération. Bien que les commissions d'enquête soient mandatées par le gouvernement afin de découvrir la vérité dans une affaire particulière et ce, par le biais d'une procédure quasi-judiciaire, leurs rapports comportent des propositions pour prévenir la répétition du même problème. Durant les premières décennies des commissions d'enquête au Québec (1867‒1959), hormis quelques cas (ex. Commission Dunscomb, 1869‒1870 ; Commission Cannon, 1909), leurs rapports ne contenaient que peu de recommandations législatives, et lorsque c'était le cas, les parlementaires étaient réticents à les intégrer dans la législation (sauf pour la Commission Dunscomb). Depuis les années 1960, les rapports des commissions d'enquête rassemblent des recommandations plus complexes et les législatures successives se sont montrées davantage intéressées à les mettre en oeuvre. Elles ont réagi à la couverture médiatique étendue des commissions d'enquête (Commission Cliche, 1975; Commission Charbonneau 2015) et ont eu tendance à adopter rapidement des lois s'inspirant de leurs rapports. Dans les dernières décisions, les commissions ont proposé la création de plusieurs institutions gouvernementales politiquement indépendantes qui ont par la suite été créées (Agence du Revenu du Québec, Autorité des marchés publics, etc.). Cependant, au cours de l'histoire, le législateur a été plus réticent à suivre les recommandations visant les parlementaires ou les ministres eux-mêmes. / The subject of this master's thesis are the impacts on Quebec's legislation of inquiry commissions on the lack of integrity and ethics in public administration. More specifically, the implementation by lawmakers of recommendations proposed by commissioners’ reports since Confederation is examined. Even though public inquiry commissions are mandated by the government to discover the truth in a particular case by using a quasi-judicial proceeding, their reports contain proposals to prevent new occurrences of the same problem. During the first decades of public inquiry commissions in Québec (1867‒1959), their reports contained but few legislative recommendations, (with some exceptions, e.g. Dunscomb Commission, 1869‒1870; Cannon Commission, 1909), and when such recommendations were included, parliamentarians were reluctant to integrate them in legislation (save for Dunscomb Commission). Since the 1960s, public inquiry commissions' reports have contained more complex recommendations and the successive legislatures have proven themselves more interested in implementing them. Legislators reacted to the extended media coverage of inquiry commissions (e.g. Cliche Commission, 1975; Charbonneau Commission 2015) and the tendency has been for the rapid adoption of laws inspired by their reports. In the last decades, commissions have proposed the creation of several politically independent government institutions, leading to their creation (Agence du Revenu du Québec, Autorité des marchés publics, etc.). However, throughout history, lawmakers have been more reluctant to follow recommendations respecting parliamentarians or ministers themselves.

The imminent recognition of an inherent Aboriginal right to selfgovernment signals the beginning of the reversal of a colonization process which threatened the cultural survival of a people. The Report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba , hereinafter referred to as the Inquiry, advocates an autonomous Aboriginal criminal justice system as a significant component of this cultural revitalization. This Aboriginal criminal justice system would differ markedly from the conventional system in giving priority to collective rights over conflicting individual rights. The Inquiry rejects the Charter as alien to Aboriginal values and advocates a “tailor-made” Aboriginal charter that would incorporate “only those fundamental freedoms and civil liberties that do not violate the beliefs and paramount collective rights of the Aboriginal peoples.” The conventional justice system’s paramount concern for individual rights is premised on the potential of punishment. The Inquiry’s starkly contrasting paramount emphasis on collective rights is premised on an Aboriginal view of justice which this thesis refers to as the “harmony ethos”: The underlying philosophy in Aboriginal societies in dealing with crime was the resolution of disputes, the healing of wounds and the restoration of social harmony… Atonement and restoration of harmony were the goals - not punishment. The tension between individual and collective rights apparent in the proposal of the Inquiry is the specific focus of this thesis. The colonization process may justify a separate Aboriginal justice system. However, the harmony ethos premise, while appropriate to the mediation-reconciliation communitarian model of justice advocated by the Inquiry, blinds the Inquiry to the additional, and crucially different, adjudicative-rights imperatives of the contemporary Aboriginal society. Actually existing Indianism reveals conflict-generating fault lines in the harmony premise which challenge the sufficiency of the Inquiry’s group-based justice paradigm and indicate a need and desire for an adjudication justice component and concomitant Charter values. This adjudication hiatus in the Inquiry position is a reflection of a similar void in historical Aboriginal justice which challenges the asserted rationale of cultural survival for the paramountcy of collective rights in the contemporary Aboriginal justice system. This historical adjudication hiatus does not preclude a separate Aboriginal justice system, but favours the inclusion of Charter values to strengthen an adjudication cultural foundation which is frail relative to its reconciliation-mediation strength. This thesis is a modest attempt to address the interface between two systems; one mature, but in need of change, the other, fledging and in need of assistance. The Charter provides a ready and flexible framework to join the Aboriginal community both to the larger society and to the unlanded Aboriginal diaspora by principled standards of justice. These fundamental indicia of fairness, recognized by all civilized self-governing units, constitute no significant threat to the cultural survival of the Aboriginal mediation justice heritage, while buttressing its inherent adjudication frailty.

The imminent recognition of an inherent Aboriginal right to selfgovernment signals the beginning of the reversal of a colonization process which threatened the cultural survival of a people. The Report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba , hereinafter referred to as the Inquiry, advocates an autonomous Aboriginal criminal justice system as a significant component of this cultural revitalization. This Aboriginal criminal justice system would differ markedly from the conventional system in giving priority to collective rights over conflicting individual rights. The Inquiry rejects the Charter as alien to Aboriginal values and advocates a “tailor-made” Aboriginal charter that would incorporate “only those fundamental freedoms and civil liberties that do not violate the beliefs and paramount collective rights of the Aboriginal peoples.” The conventional justice system’s paramount concern for individual rights is premised on the potential of punishment. The Inquiry’s starkly contrasting paramount emphasis on collective rights is premised on an Aboriginal view of justice which this thesis refers to as the “harmony ethos”: The underlying philosophy in Aboriginal societies in dealing with crime was the resolution of disputes, the healing of wounds and the restoration of social harmony… Atonement and restoration of harmony were the goals - not punishment. The tension between individual and collective rights apparent in the proposal of the Inquiry is the specific focus of this thesis. The colonization process may justify a separate Aboriginal justice system. However, the harmony ethos premise, while appropriate to the mediation-reconciliation communitarian model of justice advocated by the Inquiry, blinds the Inquiry to the additional, and crucially different, adjudicative-rights imperatives of the contemporary Aboriginal society. Actually existing Indianism reveals conflict-generating fault lines in the harmony premise which challenge the sufficiency of the Inquiry’s group-based justice paradigm and indicate a need and desire for an adjudication justice component and concomitant Charter values. This adjudication hiatus in the Inquiry position is a reflection of a similar void in historical Aboriginal justice which challenges the asserted rationale of cultural survival for the paramountcy of collective rights in the contemporary Aboriginal justice system. This historical adjudication hiatus does not preclude a separate Aboriginal justice system, but favours the inclusion of Charter values to strengthen an adjudication cultural foundation which is frail relative to its reconciliation-mediation strength. This thesis is a modest attempt to address the interface between two systems; one mature, but in need of change, the other, fledging and in need of assistance. The Charter provides a ready and flexible framework to join the Aboriginal community both to the larger society and to the unlanded Aboriginal diaspora by principled standards of justice. These fundamental indicia of fairness, recognized by all civilized self-governing units, constitute no significant threat to the cultural survival of the Aboriginal mediation justice heritage, while buttressing its inherent adjudication frailty. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

Le 14 février 2022, le gouvernement fédéral du Canada déclenchait l’état d’urgence pour mettre fin aux manifestations du Convoi de la liberté qui se déroulaient principalement à Ottawa. Venus protester initialement contre les mesures sanitaires instaurées pour endiguer la pandémie de COVID-19, les manifestants ont occupé la ville avec leurs camions et autres véhicules pendant plus de deux semaines. Les revendications se sont rapidement étendues à des griefs plus larges contre le gouvernement, et le mouvement a été marqué dans l’opinion publique par des débordements physiques, matériels, mais aussi idéologiques. Après deux ans de restrictions imposées par l’urgence sanitaire, le Convoi de la liberté a constitué le point culminant de la mouvance d’opposition aux mesures sanitaires, et a connu un succès relativement inattendu alors que la majorité des Canadiens suivaient les règles de santé publique. Il est dès lors pertinent de comprendre comment ce mouvement est parvenu à prendre une telle ampleur, et de mettre en évidence les phénomènes sous-jacents à la colère des manifestants. Afin d’obtenir des éléments de réponse, les témoignages et autres documentations fournis par la Commission sur l’état d’urgence ont été analysés dans le cadre de cette étude exploratoire. Trois facteurs se sont montrés déterminants lors de cette analyse pour expliquer l’ampleur prise par le Convoi de la liberté, chacun exerçant une certaine influence sur les autres dans une dynamique de co-construction : l’efficacité de la mobilisation par la colère en temps de crise sanitaire, les défaillances de la réponse policière, et le rôle des médias sociaux qui ont transformé à la fois les codes des mouvements sociaux et l’environnement informationnel. L’étude de ces trois axes permet de révéler les problématiques plus profondes au Canada et dans la société occidentale de façon générale, témoignant d’une réelle crise de la démocratie et d’une polarisation sociale et politique croissante. / On February 14, 2022, Canada's federal government declared a state of emergency to put an end to the Freedom Convoy demonstrations, which took place mainly in Ottawa. Initially protesting the health measures introduced to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the demonstrators occupied the city with their trucks and other vehicles for over two weeks. Demands soon extended to broader grievances against the government, and the movement was marked in public opinion by physical, material, and ideological outbursts. After two years of restrictions imposed by the health emergency, the Freedom Convoy was the culmination of the opposition to health measures, and a relatively unexpected success at a time when most Canadians were following public health rules. It is therefore pertinent to understand how this movement managed to gain such momentum, and to highlight the phenomena underlying the protesters' anger. To obtain some answers, the testimonies and other documentation provided by the Public order emergency commission were analyzed as part of this exploratory study. Three factors proved decisive in this analysis to explain the scale taken by the Freedom Convoy, each exerting a certain influence on the others in a dynamic of co-construction: the effectiveness of mobilization through anger in times of health crisis, the failings of the police response, and the role of social media in transforming both the codes of social movements and the informational environment. The study of these three axes reveals deeper issues in Canada and Western society in general, reflecting a real crisis of democracy and growing social and political polarization.

La réforme de la fonction publique de 1908 constitue un moment décisif dans le développement de l’appareil étatique canadien. En effet, elle rejette un système jusque-là fondé sur le favoritisme, pour introduire les principes du mérite, de l’indépendance et de la neutralité des fonctionnaires, principes qui régissent encore aujourd'hui la fonction publique canadienne. Ces changements se produisent à la suite d’une longue réflexion sur la nature de la fonction publique, amorcée au cours de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, qui trouve largement écho dans le monde anglo-américain, mais qui s’est souvent butée à l'intérêt des politiciens pour le statu quo. Même si les grandes idées de réforme de la fonction publique sont connues, voire acceptées par certains dès les années 1870, ce n’est qu’à la suite du dépôt du rapport de la commission royale d’enquête de 1907-1908 que les politiciens y acquiescent en pratique et entreprennent des changements majeurs, en 1908. Le mémoire s’intéresse plus précisément à cette commission royale d’enquête de 1907-1908 et à la réforme législative qui s'ensuit, en 1908, épisode méconnu de l'histoire politique canadienne et assez peu documenté. L’étude cherche tout d’abord à déterminer le contexte politique et idéologique présidant à la création de cette commission d’enquête, puis en examine les travaux en profondeur afin de démontrer comment ses constats et recommandations ont poussé le gouvernement canadien à réformer la fonction publique et les principes directeurs qui en guident l'action. Cela fait, nous analyserons les différents éléments de la réforme elle-même, dans le but de voir comment elle rompt avec les conceptions qu'on entretient jusque-là et comment elle s’inscrit dans un nouveau cadre idéologique, produit d’une vision libérale de l’État. / The 1908 reform of the civil service marked a turning point in the development of the Canadian State, as it rejected a system based until then on patronage and introduced the principles of merit, independence and neutrality of civil servants, principles that remain grounding forces of today’s civil service. These changes occurred after a long reflection over the nature of the civil service. Such reflection, which resonates with the Anglo-American world, took place over the course of the latter half of the 19th century, though it was often obstructed by a politically favoured status quo. Although ideas for reforming the civil service were put forward by some as early as in the 1870s, it is only with the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry 1907-1908 that politicians were finally willing to undertake a comprehensive reform, in 1908. Our thesis focuses on this Royal Commission of Inquiry and on the legislative reform that followed, in 1908, events that have drawn little attention from political historians and are rather underdocumented. Our first aim is to explain the political and ideological context surrounding the creation of this commission. We then analyze how it came to its observations and recommendations, which in turn led the Canadian government to reform the civil service as well as its guiding principles. We then scrutinize the various elements of the reform itself, with a view to showing how it broke free from the beliefs of the time and embraced a new ideological framework, the product of a liberal vision of the State.

La réforme de la fonction publique de 1908 constitue un moment décisif dans le développement de l’appareil étatique canadien. En effet, elle rejette un système jusque-là fondé sur le favoritisme, pour introduire les principes du mérite, de l’indépendance et de la neutralité des fonctionnaires, principes qui régissent encore aujourd'hui la fonction publique canadienne. Ces changements se produisent à la suite d’une longue réflexion sur la nature de la fonction publique, amorcée au cours de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, qui trouve largement écho dans le monde anglo-américain, mais qui s’est souvent butée à l'intérêt des politiciens pour le statu quo. Même si les grandes idées de réforme de la fonction publique sont connues, voire acceptées par certains dès les années 1870, ce n’est qu’à la suite du dépôt du rapport de la commission royale d’enquête de 1907-1908 que les politiciens y acquiescent en pratique et entreprennent des changements majeurs, en 1908. Le mémoire s’intéresse plus précisément à cette commission royale d’enquête de 1907-1908 et à la réforme législative qui s'ensuit, en 1908, épisode méconnu de l'histoire politique canadienne et assez peu documenté. L’étude cherche tout d’abord à déterminer le contexte politique et idéologique présidant à la création de cette commission d’enquête, puis en examine les travaux en profondeur afin de démontrer comment ses constats et recommandations ont poussé le gouvernement canadien à réformer la fonction publique et les principes directeurs qui en guident l'action. Cela fait, nous analyserons les différents éléments de la réforme elle-même, dans le but de voir comment elle rompt avec les conceptions qu'on entretient jusque-là et comment elle s’inscrit dans un nouveau cadre idéologique, produit d’une vision libérale de l’État. / The 1908 reform of the civil service marked a turning point in the development of the Canadian State, as it rejected a system based until then on patronage and introduced the principles of merit, independence and neutrality of civil servants, principles that remain grounding forces of today’s civil service. These changes occurred after a long reflection over the nature of the civil service. Such reflection, which resonates with the Anglo-American world, took place over the course of the latter half of the 19th century, though it was often obstructed by a politically favoured status quo. Although ideas for reforming the civil service were put forward by some as early as in the 1870s, it is only with the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry 1907-1908 that politicians were finally willing to undertake a comprehensive reform, in 1908. Our thesis focuses on this Royal Commission of Inquiry and on the legislative reform that followed, in 1908, events that have drawn little attention from political historians and are rather underdocumented. Our first aim is to explain the political and ideological context surrounding the creation of this commission. We then analyze how it came to its observations and recommendations, which in turn led the Canadian government to reform the civil service as well as its guiding principles. We then scrutinize the various elements of the reform itself, with a view to showing how it broke free from the beliefs of the time and embraced a new ideological framework, the product of a liberal vision of the State.

Le décret impérial du 15 octobre 1810 a fondé la première réglementation nationale sur lesétablissements classés. Il a jeté les bases de notre droit de l’environnement industriel et a créé lapremière nomenclature. L’analyse de plus de 140 textes de nomenclature parus depuis l’origine apermis de comprendre certaines évolutions de la société, tant la nomenclature constitue, depuisplus de deux siècles, un puissant marqueur sociétal. De plus, la nomenclature conditionnefortement l’effectivité de la loi. Si le décret a initialement visé à privilégier la liberté d’entreprise, ila progressivement évolué vers un droit plus protecteur des tiers, notamment en faveur du droit depropriété. La loi du 19 décembre 1917 sur les établissements classés a renforcé ce dispositif dansun sens globalement plus favorable aux tiers, puis à l’environnement. Mais aussi, au profit del’hygiène et de la sécurité des travailleurs qui avaient été délaissées. En contrepartie, la loi a rompuavec le principe de l’autorisation préalable en introduisant le régime de la déclaration, au bénéficedes exploitants. La loi du 19 juillet 1976 relative aux installations classées pour la protection del’environnement (ICPE) a repris ces dispositions, en les modernisant mais en innovant peu. Lanomenclature a vite connu de multiples transformations, qui se sont traduites par de nombreuxdéclassements d’établissements. Ainsi, le régime déclaratif n’a pas cessé de croître, tandis que lacréation en 2009 de l’enregistrement, intermédiaire entre la déclaration et l’autorisation, a conduità une réduction drastique de ce dernier régime. La transposition de directives européennesrécentes a encore renforcé ce processus, avec l’entrée d’une nouvelle nomenclature. Rarement unetelle régression du droit de l’environnement a été atteinte, d’autant qu’elle est amplifiée par unedissociation marquée entre les installations classées et le milieu récepteur. / The imperial decree of October 15th 1810 established the first national regulation on classifiedfacilities. It laid the ground for French law on the industrial environment by creating the firstnomenclature. An analysis of over 140 nomenclature texts published since then has providedinsight into a certain number of societal developments. Indeed, the nomenclature system has beena powerful social marker for more than two centuries. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the lawhas depended greatly on the nomenclature system. While its original objective was to fosterfreedom of enterprise, it gradually evolved towards a law protecting third parties, in particularregarding property rights. The Act of December 19th 1917 on classified facilities furtherstrengthened this purpose, generally placing the focus first on third parties and then on theenvironment. The act also favored workers’ health and safety, which had been ignored until then.On the other hand, the act abolished the principle of preliminary authorization by introducing adeclaration scheme for the benefit of operators. The Act of July 19th 1976 on classified facilities forenvironmental protection took over and modernized all of these provisions but without reallyintroducing any innovation. The nomenclature system rapidly underwent a series oftransformations that generally resulted in the decommissioning of numerous facilities. Thedeclaration scheme continued to expand. However, the creation of the registration scheme in 2009,which is somewhere between the declaration and authorization schemes, has led to a dramaticreduction in the reach of the latter. The transposition of recent European directives has spurredthis process by introducing a new nomenclature. Never before has such a regression onenvironmental law been reached, especially since it is combined with a marked separation betweenclassified facilities and the receiving environment.