On February 6, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) handed down its decision in Carter v Canada (Attorney General), [2015] 1 SCR 331 [Carter] – a historic ruling wherein the criminal prohibition on physician assisted suicide was declared unconstitutional, inconsistent with section 7 of the Charter. The declaration of invalidity was suspended by one […]
There exists within the territory of the Yukon only one French-language school, École Émilie-Tremblay, which is governed by the only school board in the Yukon, the Francophone School Board (“Board”). In 2009, this lone Board sued the Yukon government for what it claimed were deficiencies in the provision of minority language education. In 2015, the […]
The newest member in the illustrious “class of section seven” Charter jurisprudence is R v Appulonappa, 2015 SCC 59 [Appulonappa], a recent Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) ruling on the constitutionality of a federal human smuggling offence. The decision is not only noteworthy for its political significance (stemming from a refugee controversy taking place several […]
“It’s official – second class citizenship goes into effect.” - British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (“BCCLA”), regarding Bill C-24 (now law). Strong words. I am always skeptical of strong words. More than half the time, they are hyperbole intended to deceive. I was skeptical of these words, too. So I went straight to the source: […]
Murder in Shoppers Drug Mart An apparently random stabbing amid the hustle and bustle of Christmas shoppers and downtown professionals stunned the City of Toronto. Rosemarie Junor was making a quick midday stop at a Shoppers Drug Mart when she was brutally attacked by an unknown assailant who left a grave knife wound through her […]
Personal Health Information Protection in Ontario We live in a time where we are constantly bombarded with information. At the same time, more and more institutions and businesses are keeping track of our personal data. Sometimes this information is shared inappropriately and some other times, where it should be shared, it is not. In Ontario, […]
Due to a dearth of commercial appellate decisions around the holiday season, a tort decision from the Ontario Divisional Court has caught my attention. Swern v Amazon Hardwood Centre Inc, 2015 ONSC 7590 [Swern] is a Small Claims Court decision appealed by the Defendants to the Divisional Court on a number of well-reasoned points of […]
In a series of recent decisions, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) sought to clarify the proper application of the constitutional paramountcy doctrine. Part I of this two-part series looked at the implications of Alberta (Attorney General) v Moloney, 2015 SCC 51 [Moloney]. This analysis will focus on the Saskatchewan (Attorney General) v Lemare Lake Logging, […]
In MM v United States of America, 2015 SCC 62 [MM], both the public and the Bench were sharply divided on whether to extradite a mother, MM. The U.S. sought extradition of MM to face child abduction charges in the state of Georgia. MM’s numerous supporters see her as a mother that came to her children’s […]