LAW 6: Introduction to Legal Studies: R. v. MacDonald Case Analysis

This assignment analyzes the case of R. v. MacDonald, focusing on a case summary and an analysis of the decision through the lens of Liberalism. The case involves a defendant, M, who was found in possession of a handgun, leading to convictions under the Criminal Code. The assignment begins with a summary of the case facts, including the police's actions, M's defense, and the court's rulings at trial and on appeal. The core of the assignment then explores the principles of Liberalism, including individual liberty, freedom of speech, and the role of government. The analysis applies these principles to the MacDonald case, examining how the court's decision aligns with or diverges from Liberal values, especially concerning the balance between individual rights and public safety, specifically focusing on the right to be free from unreasonable search. The essay considers the justification for any limitations on individual freedoms in the context of the case and how the court weighed these competing interests. The assignment concludes with a critique of the decision from a Liberal perspective, offering insights into the broader implications of the case for legal and political thought.

Running head: LAW
LAW
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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In the present case, the police got a complaint about creating noise from M's home at
Halifax. When police went there the defendant M opened the door and one of the police
officers noticed that M is carrying an object in his hand. According to the police officer the
object was hidden behind his leg. The office then asked M two times that what is he hiding.
M did not bother to respond. Therefore, the police office forcefully pushed the door to see
further what the actual scenario is. Due to that push over the door M has been disarmed from
the loaded handgun. It has been claimed by the defendant that he has a valid license issued by
the Government which authorizes him to carry and transport a gun in Alberta. However, he
was not aware that such a license of him to carry a gun is not operative in Nova Scotia.
Therefore, he was not aware of the same fact. The trial court during the trial session held that
M was unauthorized to possess such a gun in Nova Scotia. He further held that the
application of force in the form of a push by the police officer does not amount to a breach of
the right to be free from unreasonable search which is envisaged in Charter 8 Constitutional
Charter of Rights (Hogg & Bushell, 2017). Therefore, the trial Judge convicted M under
section 86 of the Criminal Code for carelessly handling such a gun. Further, M was convicted
by the trial court under section 88 of the Criminal Code for carrying a weapon for a
dangerous purpose and under section 95 of the same Act for owning a loaded forbidden
firearm (Kaye& Hastie, 2015). Their trial judge further ordered M to be on three-year
imprisonment and a ten years prohibition for possessing weapons. The court of appeal in
respect to the present case upheld the decision of the trial court that the Police officer did not
cause any breach of the right to be free from any kind of unreasonable search imposed by the
provisions of Charter 8 of the Constitutional Charter of Rights, upon M. The court also
promoted the trial court decision provided in compliance with the provision of section 86 and
88 of the Criminal Court against M for carrying a weapon for a dangerous purpose and
carelessly handing such gun. However, the court has reduced the tenure of sentencing

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provided by the trial court. The court of appeal further allowed the appellants (M) to appeal
against the conviction order by the trial court under section 95 of the Criminal Code and
replaced an acquittal [R. v. MacDonald, 2014].
Liberalism is consisting of the term liberty, which means free. Liberalism is therefore
said to be comprised of the concept of liberty, the sanction of the governed and the equality
before the law. Followers of liberalism, therefore, support this view according to their
understanding of these principles. However, they generally hold up the concept of a free
market, free deal, and individual civil, criminal and most importantly human rights,
capitalism, secularism, democracy, gender and racial equality, internationalism, freedom of
speech, freedom of the press and profess any religion (Sandel, 2017). The color yellow
defines liberalism. Therefore, the general principle of liberalism is one of honesty and
opportunity. Liberalism gives a personal right to make a decision or act freely without any
pressure of another (Ryan, 2017). Therefore, liberalism is a concept of free-living. Therefore
any breach of the concept of liberalism will need an adequate reason for doing the same.
Liberalism policy further elaborates that the Constitution is a living document and it
promotes the theory that it has been made for the people instead of people are for the
constitution.
The concept of liberalism gain popularity during the Enlightenment age. At that time
it was popular among philosophers and economists. Liberalism thrives to interchange the
rules for hereditary advantage and furthers the concepts like absolute monarchy and state
religion. The concept further refuses to accept the concept of the divine right of a king over
his citizens and their property (Reno, 2018). Further, the concept thrives to replace traditional
conservatism with delegate democracy and rule of law. Liberalism also put an end to the
policy of mercantilists, monopolies by royal authorities and other hindrances to free trade.

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According to the view of the philosopher John Locke, liberalism is a separate tradition that is
based on the social contract. This concept further argues for the natural right to life, freedom,
and governments. Further, this theory emphasizes that the government should exercise its
discretionary power over these rights. In the case of imposition of discretion, it can be
concluded as a breach of these rights. While the British liberal practice out their emphasis on
the growth of democracy, on the other hand, French liberalism has stressed rejecting the
concept of authoritarianism (Povinelli, 2016). Liberalism begins by assuming the inherent
value of individual liberty. An individual has a right to be anything according to their wish. A
further individual has a right to exercise their free will while committing an act. It is a general
rule of liberalism that no person should interfere with the right of the individual with any
strong justifiable reason. These include every action like the decision about going anywhere,
what to have for eating and drinking, what are things one should buy or sell (However one
cannot sell any stuff that has been forbidden by law from selling purpose), what to dress in,
what to pray, which religion is to profess, what should sing and so on. In cases where this
action involves other persons, the purview of liberalism extends upon those people with
whom the individual decides to interact (Mehta, 2018). It also applies to education and every
individual has a right to choose his course of study, his profession, and career, right to create
a family and such family can be created with any person according to the person's will. Every
person has a right to get married to any adult person irrespective of his caste, community,
race. Further, every person has a right to move around any place without restriction unless a
special rule is imposed upon such a place relying upon the custom (Devlin, 1994).
The assumption of the theory can be established with a liberal understanding of the
fact that an individual does not have the right to be free or to act freely without unambiguous
permission. A society with a totalitarian view runs under these concepts. However, this
concept reflects a total opposite theory of liberalism which is called illiberalism. This theory

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imposes commands and actions by the superior authority over individuals before exercising
any right and further these individuals are required to take the permission of respective
authorities before doing any act. Thus the concept of illiberalism, which talks about the
command-and-control economy where individuals are not free to enforce their schedules in
the market. On the other hand, liberalizing reforms are those where unnecessary or poorly
warranted regulations are removed.
However, the assumption of the concept of liberty can be superseded. This is possible
in such scenarios where there exist solid reasons to prohibit a person from committing
something, then the followers of liberalism have no offense to forbid those things. However,
overriding contemplations can be available in many forms, such as in the case where there is
a need to guard the freedom of others, aiding social orders for combined advantages, or
defending unpleasant ethical horror (Boesche, 2019). Perception of liberty can vary from
individual to individual but it should be within the framework of liberalism.
It can be said that, basic liberalism principles are easy to understand but there are such
principle which are hard to determine such as freedom of property, contract and so on.
Therefore, it can be said that human does not find themselves in an ahistorical state of nature.
The real state of nature is thereby defined as sociopolitical, which generally has changed
from a series of political power resistance, social factions, technological innovations, various
other democratical negotiations. Therefore, the fundamental liberties mentioned beforehand
are adequately instinctive to understand any foreign political context but other subjects such
as freedom of contracts, finance, movable, immovable and intellectual property, legal rules
and other various difficult domains are hard to understand (Fawcett, 2018). Thereafter, it can
be said that liberalism thrives for freedom of fundamental basic rights of humans so that

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while exercising the same a person does not need to take permission from others as well as no
third person can infringe such right by exercising discretion.
In the present case, the exception to the concept of liberalism which has been
promoted through Charter 8 of the Constitutional Charter of Rights, has been applied. The
charter elaborates on the right to be free from any unreasonable search, which is a clear
reflection of the basic principle of liberalism of right to life and right to be free from
improper interruption by any superior authority. The Judge while pronouncing the decision of
the case kept in mind the fact, in this case, the police did not violate any right of the
defendant M as they have a reasonable suspicion that the defendant is hiding some dangerous
weapon which might cause greater harm to him and his neighbors [R v Collins, 1987]
Therefore, the court has recognized the importance of police duty to ensure the good for the
greater public. This became necessary in this case as the officers have suspected that M is
armed and can cause danger. In the case of R v. Mann, the court held that in case of police
search over a house it is important to see the reason for conducting such a search rather than
merely seeing the infringement. Therefore, while delivering the judgment, the court took a
different approach than promoting the values of liberalism because it was necessary to follow
the opposite guidelines keeping in mind the exceptional scenario of the case.

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Reference:
Boesche, R. (2019). The strange liberalism of Alexis de Tocqueville. Cornell University
Press.
Devlin, R. F. (1994). Mapping Legal Theory. Alta. L. Rev., 32, 602.
Fawcett, E. (2018). Liberalism: the life of an idea. Princeton University Press.
Hogg, P. W., & Bushell, A. A. (2017). The Charter Dialogue Between Courts and
Legislatures©:(Or Perhaps The Charter Of Rights Isn’t Such A Bad Thing After All).
In Bills of Rights (pp. 187-236). Routledge.
Kaye, J., & Hastie, B. (2015). The Canadian Criminal Code offense of trafficking in persons:
Challenges from the field and within the law. Social Inclusion, 3(1), 88-102.
Mehta, U. S. (2018). Liberalism and Empire: A study in nineteenth-century British liberal
thought. University of Chicago Press.Flathman, R. (2018). Toward a Liberalism.
Cornell University Press.
Povinelli, E. A. (2016). Geontologies: A requiem to late liberalism. Duke University Press.
R v Collins [1987] 1 S.C.R. 265
R. v. Mann, 2004 SCC 52
R. v. MacDonald, 2014 SCC 3, [2014] 1 S.C.R. 37
Reno, R. R. (2018). Liberalism Debased by Theory. First Things: A Monthly Journal of
Religion and Public Life, (283), 65-67.
Ryan, A. (2017). Liberalism. A companion to contemporary political philosophy, 360-382.
Sandel, M. J. (2017). Political Liberalism 1. In Rawls and Law (pp. 189-218). Routledge.