Omar Khadr Pleads Guilty In the most recent development in the Omar Khadr saga, the now twenty-two year old Canadian citizen pleaded guilty Monday to five war crimes charges. Since being caught in Afghanistan in 2002 at the age of fifteen, Khadr has spent the last eight years in the U.S. detention centre at Guantanamo […]
I love the Supreme Court of Canada. I really do. I have spent most of my career trying to defend it (at least to my first year constitutional law classes). Very few people could do the job that Supreme Court judges do. But it is sometimes hard to keep soldiering on defending the Court. How, for instance, […]
Section 10(b) of the Charter states that, “everyone has the right on arrest or detention to retain and instruct counsel without delay and to be informed of that right.” In its recent decision, R v Sinclair, [2010] 2 SCR 310, a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") held that s. 10(b) does not […]
In R v NS, 2010 ONCA 670, a unanimous Ontario Court of Appeal sets out a framework for triers of fact who that are dealing with a question that is becoming increasingly prevalent in our multicultural society: should a female Muslim witness be allowed to wear a niqab – a veil that covers the face […]
Two years ago, the Federal Appeals Court for the Ninth Circuit (the “Ninth Circuit”) in Nelson v. NASA, No. 07-56424 (9th Cir. 2008) (pdf link) decided a case that has re-opened constitutional debate about employees’ right to protect personal information – especially from the allegedly prying eyes of the government. At issue for the Ninth […]
Apple is Anti-Sexting After removing porn apps from its App Store early this year, Apple made another move to censor R-rated content – "anti-sexting" technology. This newly patented technology blocks “text-based messages” that contain “objectionable content”, placing control over sending sexually explicit text messages on cell phones. The parental control application scans all incoming and/or […]
This past summer, the Ontario Court of Appeal released their judgment on Quizno's Canada Restaurant Corporation v 2038724 Ontario Ltd, 2010 ONCA 466, which had a significant importance for those interested in Canadian class action suits. This decision marks the first time the Ontario Court of Appeal has certified a competition class action, and should be […]
On October 7, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") released its unanimous decision in Burke v Hudson’s Bay Co, [2010] 2 SCR 273. The decision pertains to the fallout from the North West Company’s (“NWC”) purchase of one of the Hudson Bay Company’s ("HBC") retail divisions in 1987. About twelve hundred HBC employees were transferred to […]
Over the summer, TheCourt.ca commented on Omar Khadr’s journey through Canada’s courts – from the Federal Court to the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") and back again. His lawyers have attempted to assert his Charter rights consistently and unrelentingly, despite constant setbacks. Nevertheless, the Canadian government has successfully appealed multiple decisions so that Mr. Khadr has […]
Every student has, at one point or another, wondered what may happen if they find themselves entangled in a dispute with their educational institution. For one York University student, that musing became reality after a dispute with the university wound up before the Ontario Court of Appeal in Jaffer v York University, 2010 ONCA 654. […]