Les juristes et la gouverne politique au Québec et au Canada Essai d'interprétation d'une surreprésentation structurelle et persistante

"Il est une question centrale que la science politique au Canada a quelque peu délaissée : qui gouverne? Ainsi, les nombreux analystes du pouvoir judiciaire, dont plusieurs n’ont pas manqué depuis 1982 de critiquer l’accroissement de son influence dans la gouverne démocratique du pays, n’ont pas vraiment cherché à enquêter sur l’emprise des juristes sur la politique au-delà des juges. La présente étude tente de combler cette lacune en livrant, d’une part, les résultats d’une enquête empirique sur la présence des juristes au sein des assemblées élues fédérale et québécoise, ainsi que dans leurs exécutifs respectifs, de 1984 à 2006 ; et d’autre part, en fournissant un jeu d’hypothèses et d’interprétations en vue de comprendre les facteurs à l’origine de la surreprésentation structurelle et persistante des juristes dans la classe politique canadienne et québécoise. Plusieurs auteurs, dont John Porter, Guy Bouthillier, Jean-Charles Falardeau et Yoland Sénécal, avaient déjà étudié le phénomène et avancé des éléments d’explication de cette surreprésentation, historiquement plus marquée parmi les parlementaires et les ministres québécois des deux capitales. La présente étude montre que la baisse tendancielle de la surreprésentation des juristes dans les assemblées élues, observée à partir des années 1960, s’est poursuivie au-delà de 1984 ­ dans le cas de la Chambre des communes ­, alors qu’elle s’est arrêtée à l’Assemblée nationale et que les juristes ont continué à être surreprésentés au sein de l’exécutif, dans une proportion plus forte encore que dans la chambre élue. La surreprésentation des juristes est plus prononcée chez certains partis (les partis libéraux fédéral et québécois) et tout indique que les candidats juristes aux élections fédérales connaissent un taux d’élection élevé, en particulier chez les deux grands partis gouvernementaux. En comparaison avec les États-Unis, le cas canadien présente des particularismes dont on ne peut rendre compte en se référant aux seules théories générales de Tocqueville et de Weber sur la « prédisposition » à gouverner des juristes en démocratie. Certains facteurs plus spécifiques semblent aussi jouer, tels que le régime fédéral et le système de partis canadien, les avantages « concurrentiels » dont jouissent les avocats par rapport à d’autres professions, la culture politique au Québec et le rôle anthropologique des juristes, dont la parole au Québec vaudrait celle d’un clerc laïque."An important question has been left out of political science in Canada: who governs? Many of the judicial power analysts, while criticizing the growth of its influence in the democratic governance of the country since 1982, have failed to focus on the influence of jurists in politics beyond the one of judges. The following study will try to do so by presenting, on one hand, the results of an empirical inquiry on the presence of jurists in the federal parliament and in Quebec’s national Assembly as well as in the cabinets of both levels of government from 1984 to 2006 and on the other hand, by providing a number of hypotheses and interpretations of factors explaining the structural and persistent overrepresentation of jurists in Canadian and Quebecer politics. Numerous authors, such as John Porter, Guy Bouthillier, Jean-Charles Falardeau et Yoland Sénécal have already studied the phenomenon and suggested a number of elements explaining this overrepresentation, historically more striking amongst the Quebecer parliamentarians and ministers of both capitals. The following study demonstrates that decrease in the overrepresentation of jurists in the elected assemblies which had started in the 1960’s continued after 1984 - in the case of the House of Commons - but stopped at the national Assembly. Jurists continued to be overrepresented among the executive, in proportions even more significant than the ones in elected chambers. The overrepresentation of jurists is more striking among certain parties (the Quebec and Canadian liberal parties). It is indicated that jurist candidates for federal elections have a high election rating, particularly among the two major governmental parties. In comparison to the United States, the Canadian case is particular and cannot be explained by simply referring to the general theories of Tocqueville and Weber on the “predisposition” of jurists to govern in a democracy. A number of more specific factors must be taken into account, such as the federal regime and the Canadian system of parties, the “competitive” advantages which benefit jurists in comparison to other professions, the political culture in Quebec and the anthropological role of jurists whose word in Quebec amounts to the one of a non-religious cleric

Le juge et la conservation du régime politique au Canada

Bien que la réforme constitutionnelle de 1982 ait apporté de nombreux changements au système politique canadien, elle a, économe de moyens, préservé dans son ensemble le régime politique, dont notamment ce dualisme organique du droit écrit et non écrit qui n’a cessé de définir le constitutionnalisme canadien. Cet article essaie de mettre en lumière la fonction de conservation et d’adaptation du « régime constitutionnel » que la Cour suprême du Canada a continué d’exercer après 1982, fonction fondamentale dans une démocratie moniste qui recourt peu souvent à la procédure d’amendement pour faire évoluer le régime. L’auteur montre comment la Cour a tenté d’enregistrer les mutations démocratiques du régime et de les accorder avec ses principes invariants, au risque toutefois de dévaloriser le droit constitutionnel écrit et de succomber à une conception essentialiste du pouvoir juridictionnel.Although many elements of the Canadian political system were changed by the 1982 constitutional reform, it has, in its limited capacity, managed on the whole to maintain the political regime. For instance, the organic duality of the written and unwritten law, which has always defined Canadian constitutionalism, was kept unaltered. This article attempts to shed some light on how the Supreme Court of Canada has continued to lean towards the preservation of the "constitutional regime", exercising a fundamental function in a democracy of a monist type where formal resort to constitutional amendment is seldom used. The author demonstrates how the Court attempted to register the democratic changes of the regime and to harmonize them with its immutable principles. In doing so, the Court nevertheless diminished the value of constitutional written law and advanced an essentialist conception of judicial power

Injectable Lyophilized Chitosan-Thrombin-Platelet-Rich Plasma (CS-FIIa-PRP) Implant to Promote Tissue Regeneration: In Vitro and Ex Vivo Solidification Properties

RÉSUMÉ: Freeze-dried chitosan formulations solubilized in platelet-rich plasma (PRP) are currently evaluated as injectable implants with the potential for augmenting the standard of care for tissue repair in different orthopedic conditions. The present study aimed to shorten the solidification time of such implants, leading to an easier application and a facilitated solidification in a wet environment, which were direct demands from orthopedic surgeons. The addition of thrombin to the formulation before lyophilization was explored. The challenge was to find a formulation that coagulated fast enough to be applied in a wet environment but not too fast, which would make handling/injection difficult. Four thrombin concentrations were analyzed (0.0, 0.25, 0.5, and 1.0 NIH/mL) in vitro (using thromboelastography, rheology, indentation, syringe injectability, and thrombin activity tests) as well as ex vivo (by assessing the implant’s adherence to tendon tissue in a wet environment). The biomaterial containing 0.5 NIH/mL of thrombin significantly increased the coagulation speed while being easy to handle up to 6 min after solubilization. Furthermore, the adherence of the biomaterial to tendon tissues was impacted by the biomaterial-tendon contact duration and increased faster when thrombin was present. These results suggest that our biomaterial has great potential for use in regenerative medicine applications

Irreversible Structural Transformation of five fold i-AlPdMn Quasicrystals after Ion Bombardment and Annealing

Five fold i-AlPdMn surface prepared under UHV by ion bombardment and annealing was so far considered to be bulk terminated. This result was substantially based on a quantitative LEED analyses [1]. Analysis of the specular rod in a X ray diffraction experiment at grazing incidence supported this result [2]. We present a new study of this surface by high resolution X ray diffraction at normal incidence. In this Bragg configuration the diffraction peak 18 – 29 for instance is at a photon energy of 2.873keV, the 72 – 116 reflection at 5.725keV. This results in an analyzed thickness of the sample surface of a few micrometers. The surface was cleaned by ion bombardment. During annealing (T≅880K), we clearly observed the progressive disappearance of the initial Bragg peak characteristic of the as cast bulk sample. Conversely a new Bragg peak grows at an energy position shifted by 1eV compared to the position of the original Bragg peak. This is a clear signature for an irreversible structural transformation which takes place on at least the micron thickness. On the transformed surface, both, a LEED pattern and a RHEED pattern, characteristic for a five fold surface were easily obtained. This high resolution experiment (the relative Bragg peak shift is 3ׁ10−4) was reproduced on samples from different initial compositions. This shows that five fold i-AlPdMn surface changes after preparation by ion bombardment and annealing at 900K on a micrometer thickness. This is not consistent with the conclusion that the surface is simply terminated by a cut of the original bulk. We conclude that a reorganization process of the quasicrystalline structure during annealing proceeds in the surface vicinity (probed depth is close to a few microns)

Morphological evolution of the fivefold surface of i-AlPdMn quasicrystals

Morphology of the fivefold symmetric quasicrystal surface of AlPdMn was investigated by x-ray reflectivity and by x-ray diffraction. X-ray experiments revealed two different morphologies depending on the surface preparation. Sputtering and annealing up to 900 K, under UHV conditions, produced a rough and facetted quasicrystal surface. These features were confirmed by atomic force microscopy and scanning tunnel microscopy measurements. We also observed that an annealing above 900 K induces a rapid and irreversible transition toward a flat surface