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From the archives

Between Words

Anne Carson’s new book-without-a-spine, and the spiritual experience of centrelessness

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

A postmodern elegy from our most original writer

Boredom as a Political Weapon

Saul Bellow fought banality—and taught us to look hard at the world

Adam Dodek

Adam Dodek is a former dean of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law.

Articles by
Adam Dodek

Down to Crown

What did the viceregal ever do for us? June 2026
Half a century ago, the political scientist Frank MacKinnon likened the governor general to a constitutional fire extinguisher: a potent apparatus clad in bright colours, placed in a conspicuous location, and unleashed only in cases of extreme emergency. As with a fire extinguisher, one does not think much about the governor general except in a…

All in the Family

Can lawyers really run law firms? April 2017
I remember going to the offices of Heenan Blaikie in 2001, when I was an associate at another Bay Street law firm in Toronto. Heenan’s offices were not like those dour, wood-panelled offices of other law firms. They were bright, light filled—different because Heenan tried to be different. For four decades, the firm attracted a marquee list of counsel including former prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Jean…