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48 U.B.C. L. Rev. 541 (2015)
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].