This paper proposes that the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Canada (Attorney General) v PHS Community Services Society to base its decision on section 7 of the Charter rather than on federalism arguments in the case was the incorrect tactic for reaching the end result. After explaining how the section 7 reasoning was problematic and did not engage fully in the federalism analysis involved in the case, the author concludes his position with a practitioner-focused objective by offering suggestions for constitutional law argumentation and advocacy after the PHS decision.

This paper was presented at the Constitutional Law Symposium in September 2012.