Whatcott v Saskatchewan (Human Rights Tribunal) Part I outlined the grounds on which the tribunal’s decision was upheld at the trial level. Whatcott appealed again, and found a sympathetic ear at Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal. Here is how the rest of Whatcott’s journey to the SCC unfolds. Anti-gay demonstrator Bill Whatcott will soon learn what the […]
The oral argument in the case of US v Jones before the US Supreme Court started off with an odd imaginative exercise. Chief Justice Roberts asked the court to impose the allegedly unconstitutional actions of the police onto the justices of the Court, and mull over the implications of such an imposition. That is, Chief Justice […]
In R v Sarrazin, [2011] 3 SCR 505 [Sarrazin], the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") passed down its latest pronouncement on the availability of the curative proviso. At issue was whether the requirements for application of the curative proviso should be relaxed, and whether the proviso applied on the facts of the case to deny the […]
One necessary implication of the growth of the administrative state—and the legislative delegation of various social and economic responsibilities to the executive—is the diffusion of human rights jurisdiction over a broad cross-section of decision-makers. To the degree that a large number of actors and tribunals make decisions with either direct or incidental effects on people’s […]
This is the first part of a two-part post regarding Canada (Attorney General) v PHS Community Services Society. Part II can be found here. Facts and Judicial History Vancouver’s Downtown East Side ("DTES") has long been known for its rather unique neighbourhood makeup. 4,600 intravenous drug users, nearly half of all of those in the city are […]
Last April, the Supreme Court of Canada heard arguments regarding the constitutionality of the proposed national securities regulator. Broadly, the issue was whether the proposed Canada Securities Act [Act] was a valid exercise of the federal government’s trade and commerce power under s. 91(2) of the Constitution Act, 1867. With the Legal Post reporting that the […]
Informers who cooperate with the police in the investigation of drug-related crimes often face grave danger once they become known as “rats” by their criminal associates. The law of informer privilege is a sacrosanct protection designed to guard the identity of informers to protect them from retribution and, in doing so, encourage informers to cooperate […]
One night, you could listen to Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” with your friends, remix it with another tune and then pen a bestselling book titled Peter and the Wolf and Zombies. That would all change in 1994 with the signing of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, a trade agreement that restored the copyright […]
In R v Katigbak, [2011] 3 SCR 326, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") was called on to clarify the nature and scope of the child pornography defence in s. 163 of the Criminal Code, RSC, 1985, c C-46 [Criminal Code] that existed before and after legislative amendment in 2005. Robert Katigbak was found with […]