A Long-Awaited Departure Twenty years after arriving in Canada, and seventeen years after his initial deportation order, Leon Mugesera is back in Rwanda to face a slew of charges stemming from comments he made that allegedly sparked the beginning of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Mugesera sought refuge in Canada in 1992 after being charged […]
In many ways, to ask a question is to answer it. That is to say, by framing a problem in one way instead of another, an adjudicator sets out on a line of inquiry that from the outset cannot be ideologically neutral, conditions the scope of possible answers, and defines the realm of possible results. […]
Mrs. Penner was on trial for the weighty offense of not properly displaying two valid license plates. Mr. Penner, her husband and the appellant in a juicy case before the SCC this month, sat in the very back of the courthouse, wearing sunglasses and chewing gum. Cst. Koscinski sat directly behind Mr. Penner, awaiting an […]
Between 2000 and 2008, under Chief Justice McLachlin's oversight, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC"), was unanimous in its disposition of division of powers issues in 25 rulings or reference opinions. Then, after the 2009 division in Consolidated Fastfrate Inc v Western Canada Council of Teamsters, [2009] 3 SCR 407, the SCC divided sharply in […]
Appeal Watch is a new feature that profiles cases that have been recently granted or denied leave to appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada. SCC Refuses to Revisit Murder Mens Rea Standard In the years following the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the courts in Canada used their new-found power […]
Gay Marriage Blame Game In a very quick turn of events, the same sex marriage debate closed just about as quickly as it was reopened last week. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a legal argument stating that a lesbian couple who married in Canada in 2004 could not get the divorce they were seeking […]
The patentability of business methods has been a major source of controversy in Canadian patent law. While the Federal Court of Appeal ("FCA") had the opportunity to clarify the patentability of business methods in Canada (Attorney General) v Amazon.com, Inc, 2011 FCA 328, it left many questions unanswered, only affirming that business methods were not […]
If you’ve read a newspaper in the past two months, you’ll know that Canada’s right-to-die debate has come back to life. Leading the revival is B.C. resident Gloria Taylor, a 63-year-old grandmother - and reported motorcycle enthusiast - who was diagnosed with ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2009. As is often the case for […]
Only two weeks into the New Year, 2012 is already shaping up to be a watershed year for corporate citizenship in Canada. This week, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice will hear the case of the biggest corporate flameout in Canadian history, starring Nortel Networks Corp [Nortel]. Pre-trial motions started last week in the criminal […]
In the Supreme Court of Canada’s ("SCC") recent opinion on the federal government’s proposed Securities Act, the Court held that the proposed Act was not a valid exercise of federal power under the general branch of the trade and commerce power in section 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867 (see Reference Re Securities Act, 2011 SCC […]