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examination of the effects of institutional change. Such a case is provided by the changing
position of the courts in the Canadian political system. Unlike the U.S., Canada did not have
a constitutionally entrenched bill of rights until 1982. Before that, judicial review was largely
confined to enforcing the division of powers between levels of government in the federal
system. On the rare occasions in which courts considered individual rights, such issues were
decided in terms of constitutional and political debates over federalism. Following the
amendment of the Canadian constitution to include the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
(Charter), however, the courts took on a new political importance. Using the Charter, the
Supreme Court of Canada – the country’s highest court -- has adjudicated important public
policy issues such as the rights of accused criminals and prisoners, tobacco advertising, DNA
collection and use, language rights, corporate ‘freedoms,’ gun control, abortion, sexual
assault laws, pornography, and lesbian and gay rights. In one generation, the Supreme Court
of Canada has become central to Canadian political life and Canadians have increasingly
become accustomed to American-style debates over judicial activism and constitutionally
guaranteed rights (Hiebert 2002). This makes Canada another case in the growth of global
judicial empowerment, that is, the widespread moves toward enhancing the role of the
judiciary in the political system and the extension of the jurisdiction of courts and legal
adjudication into new areas of public policy (Hirschl 2000; Tate, 1995).
This paper evaluates the effects of this institutional change through a case study of
the Canadian lesbian and gay rights movement and its engagement with courts before and
after the entrenchment of the Charter. The case study demonstrates the pivotal role played
by organized interests in the ‘feedback loop’ between institutional or policy change in one
time period and the effects of institutional or policy changes in subsequent time periods. The
entrenchment of the Charter opened up new political opportunities for litigation by the
Convention