Canada (Privacy Commissioner) v Blood Tribe Department of Health, 2008 SCC 44 [Blood Tribe], has been covered here before - twice, in fact - but the decision presents a good opportunity to return to issues raised by an administrative law classic, Shell Canada Products Ltd v Vancouver (City), [1994] 1 SCR 231 [Shell].
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court released its rulings on R v Khela, 2009 SCC 4 [Khela], and R v Smith, 2009 SCC 5 [Smith], two companion cases involving allegations of first-degree murder. In both proceedings, the Crown’s case relied on the testimony of witnesses who had a motive to lie and who were therefore considered unsavoury. As […]
In preparing to write about Shafron v KRG Insurance Brokers (Western) Inc, 2009 SCC 6, I prepared myself for a complicated analysis of restrictive covenants in employment contracts. The facts of this case were so detailed, they must have indicated a correspondingly complex legal analysis. I was pleased to discover, however, that the 10-year factual […]
On January 21, the SCC heard the case of Johanne Desbiens, et al v Wal-Mart Canada Corporation. The case involves the final appeal of several Wal-Mart employees whose efforts in forming a union at a Wal-Mart store was stifled by the closure of the store where the employees worked. The facts and issues in the […]
On January 16, 2009, the Supreme Court of Canada released judgment in R v McNeil, 2009 SCC 3, a case that looks at the Crown’s duty to disclose police records relating to findings of misconduct by police officers involved in the investigation against the accused as part of the first party disclosure package.
An application for leave to appeal has been submitted to the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") in NIL/TU,O Child and Family Services Society v. B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, 2008 BCCA 333. Though this case is a mouthful, it contemplates a relatively straightforward matter: whether the labour relations of the appellant Society are a […]
The traditional Canadian law of defamation has, itself, developed a bad reputation. While some commentators have gone so far as to call it a “mausoleum of antiquities peculiar to the common law and unknown elsewhere in the civilized world…a labyrinth of uncertainties, of false clues, blind alleys, and unexplored passages,” others have been kinder, simply […]
A Supreme Court ruling issued on Friday now requires the police to hand over records of the discipline and misconduct of its officers as part of its disclosure obligation to the defence in criminal proceedings. The ruling in R v McNeil, 2009 SCC 3 [McNeil], advances the transparency and accountability of police officers by routinely opening […]
Yesterday, the SCC denied leave to appeal in R v Rybak. On 1 November 2003, Janusz Rybak was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder following a seven-week trial. At the Ontario Court of Appeal (see 2008 ONCA 354), Rybak raised three grounds of appeal. His primary complaint was that he did not receive the full […]
My colleague Julian Ho has already provided a succinct summary of last Thursday's Supreme Court decision in Lipson v Canada, 2009 SCC 1 [Lipson], so today I thought I'd comment briefly on the general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) and the Court's adoption of a purposive approach in determining whether a transaction or series of transaction is abusive. […]