Duncan instruction The Duncan instruction, originating from the 1981 decision of the English Court of Appeal in R v Duncan, 73 Cr App R 359, is a trial judge’s direction given to a jury where a mixed statement – containing both inculpatory and exculpatory parts – is admitted into evidence: [W]here appropriate, as it usually […]
On October 23, 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada announced that it granted leave to appeal to an unusual B.C. case that, despite a recognized need for refinement, is unlikely to significantly clarify the law of fiduciary duty. Perez v Galambos, 2008 BCCA 91 presents a fact scenario in which the relationship between the parties suffers […]
Last Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") released a decision that may prove to be the big catch the Canadian fishing industry was waiting for. In Saulnier v Royal Bank of Canada, [2008] 3 SCR 166, fishing licenses were held to be "property" for the purposes of the federal Banking and Insolvency Act, RSC […]
Last week former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Frank Iacobucci released the 544 page final report from his commission of inquiry into the jailing and alleged torture of three Canadians: Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin. Justice Iacobucci was charged with reviewing the nature of Canadian intelligence sharing with countries including the U.S., Syria […]
In a case that is being heralded as a major victory for anti-poverty advocates, and which may potentially redefine s. 7 Charter poverty law jurisprudence, the BC Supreme Court Ruled last week that a Victoria municipal by-law prohibiting sleeping in parks runs contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Victoria (City) v Adams, 2008 […]
The Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") has given leave to appeal to R v Dudley, 2008 ABCA 73, a curious case that turns on an murky technicality in criminal procedure: whether a Crown's invalid election for summary proceedings outside the limitation period effectively voids an information and precludes the Crown from re-electing. The accused in the […]
On Friday, October 10, 2008, abortion-rights activist Dr. Henry Morgentaler, received an Order of Canada award at a ceremony at the Citadel in Quebec City, Canada. In 1969 after immigrating to Canada from Poland, Morgentaler, a family physician, opened his first clinic in Montreal where he performed thousands of at-the-time illegal abortions. He was arrested […]
The Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") has granted leave to appeal in the matter of Trent Terrence Sinclair v Her Majesty the Queen. Given its relatively recent, high-profile decision in R v Singh, [2007] 3 SCR 405 [Singh] on a similar issue, it will be quite surprising if the SCC chooses to deviate from its holding in that […]
Almost twenty-five years ago, Chief Justice Dickson famously proclaimed in Hunter v Southam, [1984] 2 SCR 145 [Hunter], that s. 8 of the Charter “protects people not places.” In so doing, Dickson CJ dislodged property as the primary safeguard against unlawful search and seizure, supplanting it with a vaguely defined notion of a “reasonable expectation of […]
Civil cases involving allegations of criminal or morally blameworthy conduct, such as sexual assault against minors, carry social stigma that go beyond other types of civil disputes. Until very recently, the approaches of U.K. and Canadian courts in addressing the burden of proof in such cases have varied; in general, they tended to apply the […]