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 […]
Limits of journalistic press freedom for qualified-privilege and fair comment are hotly debated in jurisdictions around the world as courts try to balance the public interest in freedom of information with private reputational interests battling defamation. Last year, TheCourt covered Grant v. Torstar Corp., 2009 SCC 61 ("Torstar Corp."), a decision that ranked as the top […]
The SCC is in the midst of developing a pattern of conservative decisions on s. 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In its last decision on s. 2(b), the SCC held that mandatory publication bans in the Criminal Code that interfered with the “open court principle” were constitutional. The open court principle […]
If at first you do not succeed, try, try again. These words of wisdom convey the ethos of human rights advocacy: paucities of political power, limited financial resources, public indifference (if not outright hostility), and the slow pace of social change regularly conspire to cast those who persist in the fight for justice as idealistic […]
The Supreme Court of Canada has taken big steps in the last year at making its records more accessible and its website more useful. I was reminded of the great potential of these resources last week when I got an email about one of the first questions that new U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor […]
Weighing in on the Webcasts Visitors to the Supreme Court of Canada’s website in recent months will have noticed that they can newly access webcasts of oral arguments before the bench, as first reported here by Rebecca Ross for TheCourt.ca. Since February 9, 2009, the Supreme Court has streamed all counsel’s submissions and judges’ questioning […]
On September 24, 2008, Judge Simon Noël of the Federal Court ordered the Canadian Security Intelligence Service ("CSIS") and the Ministers of Public Safety and Citizenship and Immigration to “file all information and intelligence related to Mohamed Harkat including but not limited to drafts, diagrams, recordings and photographs in CSIS’s possession or holdings with the designated […]
The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star have recently commented on reports that Governor General Michaëlle Jean advised the Prime Minister to repatriate Omar Khadr. The original story appeared in La Presse on September 26, 2008. It must be emphasized that the veracity of these reports remains to be seen. However, if true, they raise […]
Introduction This season’s Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") docket promises yet another round of exciting and potentially ground-breaking judgments. One case in particular, however, holds the promise of drastically changing the contours of Access to Information legislation in Ontario and beyond. Tucked away in the SCC’s December schedule, Ministry of Public Safety and Security (Formerly […]
Glancing through the upcoming hearings at the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") in December, I cannot help but notice a criminal appeal that had, not a person’s name as the party against the crown, but instead the name of a company. The named company, though, was not charged with a crime. On December 13, the SCC […]