Back in June, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") dealt with the issue of whether Crown prosecutors are constitutionally required to consider the Aboriginal status of accused persons when deciding to pursue a mandatory minimum sentence in R v Anderson, 2014 SCC 41 [Anderson]. The respondent, Frederick Anderson, was charged with impaired driving pursuant to section […]
In R v Mian, [2014] 2 SCR 689 [Mian], the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") attempted to strike a balance between two competing roles for appellate courts – of neutral arbiter and of justice-doer. In the process, the SCC set a new precedent for determining when an appellate court can raise a novel legal issue.
R v Clarke, [2014] 1 SCR 612 is part of the trilogy of cases recently released by the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) addressing the issue of the Conservative government’s tough-on-crime policy expressed in the Truth in Sentencing Act, SC 2009, c 29 [Act]. As discussed in previous commentary from TheCourt.ca on R v Summers, [2014] 1 SCR 575 [Summers], the Act amends […]
This past March, the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") issued a unanimous 8-0 decision on Canada (Attorney General) v Whaling, [2014] 1 SCR 392. This ruling upholds the Charter right of prisoners not to be punished twice for the same offence. History In 1992, Parliament brought in a simplified process for accelerated parole review (“APR”) that […]
From ex-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin being found guilty of corruption in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, to a report finding that the owners of Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza were responsible for a building collapse, to Canadian Senators wrongfully claiming various travel expenses and expenditures, the problems of public and private corruption are a reality in […]
Canada has used the process of issuing a "certificate of inadmissibility," also known as a "security certificate," to detain and remove foreign nationals suspected of being involved with terrorist activity. That process is legislated under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, SC 2001, c 27 [IRPA], which has been the subject of several Charter challenges […]
Since the passage of the Railway Act, 1868, the Governor in Council ("Cabinet") has played an important administrative role in areas of the economy regulated by federal legislation. Currently, Cabinet functions as an appeal body with authority to vary or rescind decisions made by administrative tribunals established under a cluster of statutes including the Telecommunications […]
In its ruling in Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia v British Columbia (Attorney General), [2014] 3 SCR 31, the Supreme Court of Canada found that court hearing fees imposed by regulation in British Columbia were unconstitutional because they interfered with access to the constitutionally protected core jurisdiction of the provincial superior courts and the rule of law […]
Last month, TheCourt.ca senior contributing editor Jordan Casey analyzed R v Spencer, 2014 SCC 43, a case that clarifies the Supreme Court of Canada’s ("SCC") position on what constitutes a reasonable expectation of privacy in the digital age. This post further explores one of the themes touched on by Jordan – the nature and significance of […]
In late March of this year, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) held a hearing for Febles v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration). The case will determine how Article 1F(b) of the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (the Convention), July 28, 1951, [1969] Can. T.S. No 6 should be interpreted […]