Last week I walked the R v Hutchinson 2011 NSSC 361 decision through the context of sexual assault, informed consent and the use of contraception. For a briefing of the facts, judicial history and decision, please read here. This week, I will apply the case to the murky waters of aggravated assault and the out […]
Linda Gibbons is no stranger to the law, and to the fact that it can be a harsh teacher, given that she has spent a fair amount of time in prison for her anti-abortion picketing activities. Labeled by the media as "peaceful but relentless," Gibbons has served a total of nearly nine years behind bars, […]
Late last week, the Supreme Court of Canada heard the arguments in R v Ryan [2011 NSCA 30], which is shaping up to be a pivotal spousal abuse case in Canada. At the centre of this case is a former high school teacher, Nicole Patricia Ryan (née Doucet), who hired a hit man to kill […]
At some point, we’ve all been there. Be it on Facebook, Twitter, or as the case was for John Baglow and Roger Smith, on a blog, many could quite easily recall an instance in which he or she took to the Internet to discuss the issues of the day. Surely, one need not spend hours […]
Supreme Court Hears Appeal from First Man Convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Law This week, the Supreme Court of Canada is hearing an appeal from Momin Khawaja, the first man to be convicted under the country's anti-terror law (Anti-terrorism Act, SC 2011, c 41). This case has drawn much attention from media in Canada as well […]
Why Yes, A Dingo Stole Her Baby That was the argument that the distraught mother of Azaria Chamberlain has been making for the last thirty-two years. Azaria Chamberlain was only nine weeks old when she disappeared from a campsite in central Australia. Initially, police and the public-at-large pointed their fingers at her parents, particularly her […]
Up here in Canada, the issue of the legalization of same-sex marriage, with full benefits under provincial and federal laws, has been more or less a non-issue for quite some time now. Down south, however, the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA,” 1 U.S.C. §7, 28 U.S.C. 1738C), a controversial piece of legislation signed and ratified […]
If used properly, a male condom is up to 98% effective in preventing pregnancy. If a man makes pinpricks in a condom in order to secretly get his girlfriend pregnant, as was done by Mr. Craig Jaret Hutchinson (Hutchinson), unsurprisingly, that number drops dramatically. Last Monday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal (NSCA) heard arguments […]
When a four-year old boy gets hit by a school bus, and suffers “catastrophic injuries,” questions need to be asked. The most important question is whether that driver was negligent, insofar as he caused or contributed to the boy’s damages: was the driver under the influence of alcohol? Was he driving above the speed limit? […]
In last week’s blog post, I covered the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) v Ontario, 2012 ONCA 342 (“CAMH”), a decision that has managed to intensify the debate on Ontario’s, and on a more sweeping scale, Canada’s policy on the treatment of the mentally ill in our justice system. Since then, my thoughts have turned […]