Yesterday, Toronto city council voted in favour—37 to 5—on a largely symbolic motion to request Mayor Rob Ford both to apologize to the people of Toronto for misleading them about the now infamous “crack video” and to take a leave of absence to sort out the personal problems that appear to plague him. Council, though, […]
In a news conference at 2:30pm today, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said that she would consult with the other party leaders on how to assist Toronto City Council with the growing Ford crisis. She laid out a path for potential provincial intervention and signaled to council that the province would act if requested: “If council […]
As yesterday's City Council proceedings were crawling towards a close, Justice Ian Nordheimer of the Ontario Superior Court ordered that certain previously redacted sections of the now infamous Project Brazen 2 ITO be unsealed. (Note: the entire ITO, which is a document filed to obtain a search warrant, with yesterday's unsealed information, can be viewed here […]
In a series of six landmark decisions on November 12th, 2013, the Court of Appeal for Ontario (ONCA) struck down the mandatory minimum sentences for possession of prohibited or restricted firearm (with ammunition either loaded or easily accessible; s. 95 of the Criminal Code). The decisions can be found as follows: R v Nur, 2013 […]
On November 15, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) will hear Peracomo Inc v Telus (“Peracomo”) a case where the sole officer and directing mind of a fishing company is trying to escape the consequences that stem from his deliberate decision to cut a telephone line cable. This case explicitly deals with Maritime Law. It […]
etucker 9.2720 Normal 0 Deaths due to occupational causes outnumber homicides in Canada by about two to one. Many of these deaths stem from negligence, and critics charge that enforcement measures are lax. In a major departure, a record fine for corporate criminal negligence was imposed in R v Metron Construction Corporation, 2013 ONCA 541, after four Toronto […]
In Arora v Whirlpool Canada LP, 2013 ONCA 657 [Whirlpool], a decision released by the Ontario Court of Appeal on October 31, 2013, the court upheld the denial of a class action certification claim by the motion judge (2012 ONSC 4642). The claim stemmed from the alleged poor design of front-loading washing machines manufactured by […]
In the wake of two recent Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decisions, the partial defence of provocation has been narrowed. The SCC grappled with the legal interpretation of particularly ‘sympathetic’ moral circumstances underlying murder charges on appeal in R v Cairney, 2013 SCC 55 (Cairney), and R v Pappas, 2013 SCC 56 (Pappas). While the […]
Rob Ford’s admission that he did in fact smoke crack cocaine on video set off a political crisis at Toronto City Hall. It did not, however, trigger a legal crisis. This is because the law is very clear on Toronto city council’s authority to remove a sitting mayor from office—it can’t. Section 6(1) of Ontario’s […]
In legal terms, evaluating the form of a statement as a threat is a somewhat complicated matter. On a daily basis, individuals interact with one another using ever evolving idiosyncratic nuances, based largely upon their lifelong experiences of engaging in those precise types of interactions. What one person might take as a compliment another might […]