Habeas Thesaurum

The right to a thesaurus has been established by the Federal Court of Canada. Or rather, the thesaurus has received official recognition as an “educational textbook or supply.”

Ken MacKay appealed successfully to the Federal Court after being denied thrice by the Correctional Service of Canada. The Honourable Mr. Justice Harrington cites A. V. Dicey, the first Edition of Roget’s, and US Supreme Court Justice Scalia and Bryan Garner (current Editor in Chief of Black’s Law Dictionary) in reaching his decision. In concluding, he writes:

According to Lewis Caroll, “[w]hen I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’ ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master – that’s all.’ In this Court, Humpty Dumpty falls.

The story was broken by the Victoria Times Colonist here.