By Jonathan Martin ( November 19, 2021, 2:11 PM EST) -- In my previous article, I made the case that the current Oakes test (R. v. Oakes, [1986] 1 S.C.R. 103) is inadequate to meet the broad-scale threat to our rights and freedoms presented by long-term government responses to new global health problems like the COVID-19 pandemic. I explained that one of the ways to beef up the Oakes analysis would be to put content back into “free and democratic” by requiring courts to begin the analysis by looking at things like the scale, duration and importance of the infringements at issue and setting the government burden of justification accordingly. Today’s article will add two other ways to ensure that s. 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms jurisprudence remains up to the task of preventing our free and democratic society from becoming an unfree society dictated by the principles of scientific utilitarianism....