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Justice Grant Huscroft, who wrote the dissenting opinion when Ontario’s Court of Appeal ruled on Friday that the federal government’s carbon pricing scheme is constitutional, stands out from his colleagues for a few different reasons.

It was rare for a law professor to be named directly to the top court in Ontario, as Huscroft was by Stephen Harper in 2014, after a career at Western University and in New Zealand. The few others promoted in this way include such big legal names as Bora Laskin, later a Chief Justice of Canada, and Walter Tarnopolsky, an expert on human rights law.

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For a judge, Huscroft is also unusual as a vocal opponent of judicial activism. A judge who thinks judges ought to know their place, he has written that to respect the limits of the judicial office is sometimes more “courageous” than actually resolving a dispute. He has also spoken out against Canada’s system for choosing judges, especially at the Supreme Court, which he described as a “farce,” and “secretive, elitist and profoundly undemocratic.”