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Texting Impersonations: SCC Weighs Digital Privacy in R v Campbell
In R v. Campbell, 2024 SCC 42 (“Campbell”), the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) weighed in on whether the police had lawful authority to use the cellphone of a drug dealer without a warrant to continue a text message conversation with an alleged drug distributor. In a 6-3 split, the SCC held that while there was a violation of section 8 of the Charter and Rights and Freedoms [“Charter”], the warrantless search of Mr. Campbell was justified under the exigent circumstances exception outlined in section 11(7) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (“CDSA”).
In the Acadian Society of New Brunswick v The Right Honorable Prime Minister of Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) will decide whether the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick must be bilingual [41398]. Overturning the decision by the Court of Queen’s Bench of New Brunswick (“NBQB”), the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick (“NBCA”) ruled in the Right Honourable Prime Minister of Canada et al v. La Société de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick 2024 NBCA 70 (“SANB” ) that the appointment did not contravene the Charter's language provisions.
Airline passengers in Canada recently scored an important win regarding consumer protection. In International Air Transportation Association v Canada (Transportation Agency), 2024 SCC 30 [International Air], the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) unanimously held that the Canada Transportation Agency’s (the “Agency”) Air Passenger Protection Regulations, SOR/2019-150 [Regulations] were valid regulations that did not violate the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, 2242 UNTS 309 [Montreal Convention].