Public Policy Sources #38:
Clarity

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This requirement may seem obvious, but experience has shown that clarity may be traded off in order to reach agreement by way of papering over hard issues. The appearance of agreement through clever words when agreement does not in fact exist is a favour to no one (except those with short-term political interests), and stores up grief to be amplified to the detriment of future leaders and generations.

This is especially important given the recent practice of courts to stretch words beyond any point imagined in long-ago agreements. The BC Court of Appeal decision in Halfway River First Nation v. B.C. is a textbook case in such an exercise, as is R. v. Marshall (popularly known as the Atlantic lobster victory of the M'ik Maq) in the Supreme Court of Canada.

Treaty agreements must be excruciatingly clear if they are to achieve their objective.

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