Ottawa Law Review (forthcoming)
This piece was written for the Ottawa Law Review’s 2012 Symposium commemorating the 25th anniversary of R. v. Oakes. It has always fascinated me that “rational connection”, the first stage of proportionality analysis under the Charter, was the deciding factor in Oakes but since then has assumed “bit player” status . In this article, I invite readers to take a fresh look at rational connection and to consider how it could be re-invigorated. The piece is part of my broader work on the doctrine of arbitrariness, itself closely related to rational connection and, I argue, subject to a similar analysis.