This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Morgan, E. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Mild, Mild West: Living by a Code in Canadian Law and Film

Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

Canadians live by the rules. If the overriding myth of American history is that of rugged individualism and the conquest of the frontier, the story told of Canada is one of socialized, orderly engagement with and development of the north. This article probes the national image as it appears in the popular and the legal realms. The vehicles for this exploration are Canadian constitutional law and Canadian film. A species of case law–that dealing with the division of powers and, more specifically, with federal criminal jurisdiction–will be juxtaposed with a species of movie–the Canadian NorthWestern and, more specifically, The Grey Fox (1982). The imagery and national aspirations expressed in one medium help illuminate the equivalent motifs in the other. It turns out that if Canadians live by anything it is a code of continuous dissent, since the constitutional rules that govern national life are in an evolving state of debate.

Law, Culture and the Humanities, Vol. 2, No. 1, 115-135 (2006)
DOI: 10.1191/1743872106lw039oa


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?