Executive Power, Territorial Jurisdiction, and the (Non-)Protection of Human Rights in Canadian Extradition

This thesis grapples with the complexity of the relationship between the political executive, embodied in the Minister of Justice, and the individual. It examines the trajectory of individual rights under the current Extradition Act, in the context of extradition requests for prosecution of alleged criminal offences that occurred primarily, or entirely, within Canadas territorial jurisdiction. This project uses a mix of doctrinal and empirical methods to analyse both the law as it is, and the law as it is practised. I argue that the current state of rights protections in Canadian extradition law, at least where the person is sought for prosecution of alleged criminal offences committed within Canadas territory, fails to provide meaningful protection to individual constitutional rights. These failures appear to be the result of both design and implementation of the Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, by both the Minister of Justice and by provincial appellate courts.