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The primary axis in Canadian legislative politics has shifted, at least temporarily, in the years since the last federal election. In effect, the relationship that matters most at the moment is not the one between governing and opposition parties, but between the government in office and a series of loose coalitions of actors normally existing at the periphery of politics.

A significant segment of these coalitions normally remain not just non-partisan but in fact studiously apolitical. They enter the political arena only reluctantly, and do so only out of a sense of alarm at the implications following from particularly contentious and controversial legislation that appears destined to be passed without effective challenge within formal institutions of government, whether by opposition parties or skeptical voices within the governing caucus.

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[np_storybar title=”Open letter to Parliament: Amend C-51 or kill it” link=”http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/27/open-letter-to-parliament-amend-c-51-or-kill-it/”]The following is an open letter addressed to all members of Parliament and signed by more than 100 Canadian professors of law and related disciplines.