When a contract was signed almost 100 years ago and the original parties have been amalgamated into or become new entities, who are the parties to that contract, and can they act on it? In a nutshell, this is what was at issue in Resolute FP Canada Inc v Hydro-Québec, 2020 SCC 43 [Resolute v […]
As state actors, police officers “must respect the rights and freedoms” of the public that they serve, including when conducting criminal investigations that are in the public interest (R v Ahmad, 2020 SCC 11, para 1) [Ahmad]. As a result, police methods of investigation, while broad, are imposed with necessary constraints to ensure the public’s […]
Last Monday, the Ontario Court of Appeal (“ONCA”) released two decisions back-to-back involving the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s (CBC) controversial investigative report on the chicken content of chicken sandwiches manufactured by Subway Franchise Systems of Canada Inc. This post focuses on Subway Franchise Systems of Canada Inc. v Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 2021 ONCA 25 [Subway]. The […]
An anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers points investigators toward a potential suspect that was involved in an armed robbery. However, what is the outcome when the robber was masked and the witnesses who testify are not, in the eyes of the trial judge, credible?
In the Supreme Court of Canada’s (“SCC”) recent decision, C.M. Callow Inc. v. Zollinger, 2020 SCC 45 [Callow SCC], the Court expanded their holding from Bhasin v. Hrynew, 2014 SCC 71 [Bhasin]. Bhasin clarified the principle of good faith in contract law and introduced the duty of honest performance — the requirement not to lie […]
You are scrolling on your phone, making your daily social media rounds. You see something you would like to share with a friend, so you take a screenshot. This has become a habit in our social media consumption, as constant as “likes” and “shares.” However, imagine that those screenshots were to be used as evidence […]
[Content warning: this article contains discussion of sexual violence against women with disabilities]. When hearing the appeal in R v Slatter, 2019 ONCA 807 [Slatter (ONCA)], the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) was presented with an opportunity to further the substantive equality rights of women with intellectual disabilities in the criminal justice system, and to […]
In December, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC” or “The Court”) granted the Crown leave to appeal the Ontario Court of Appeal’s (“ONCA”) ruling in R v Sullivan, 2020 ONCA 333 [Sullivan]. In this jointly-heard case, the ONCA ruled that s. 33.1 of the Criminal Code, RSC, 1985 c C-46 [the Code]—which prohibits self-induced intoxication […]
Content warning: mention of slavery, torture, false confinement, murder, and rape Can Canadian courts adjudicate international human rights violations committed by Canadian companies abroad? Usually, the spectre of limited corporate liability within an asymmetrical transnational legal regime precludes this and allows such abuses to continue. However, in an unprecedented decision released in February 2020, a […]
UPDATE: The SCC ruled on this case from the bench, allowing the appeal for the reasons of Justice van Rensburg at the Ontario Court of Appeal. How does a patient who suffered an unforeseen injury during surgery prove that their surgeon was negligent? Can the injury itself provide circumstantial evidence that the standard of care […]