On February 22, 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”, or the “Court”) granted the Crown’s application for leave to appeal [40990] R v Wilson, 2023 SKCA 106 [Wilson]. The SCC’s decision will set a national standard regarding the limits of police powers to arrest and search a person who reports or remains at the […]
In R v Zacharias, 2023 SCC 30 [Zacharias], a divided Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC” or the “Court”) held that evidence obtained through an unlawful detention cannot be used to ground a lawful arrest. Although Zacharias set a uniform national standard on this point, the SCC was anything but uniform in addressing the issue and […]
The Ontario Court of Appeal (“ONCA”) applied the rapidly developing law surrounding the expectation of privacy in cell phones and police operations in R v Campbell, 2022 ONCA 666 [Campbell, ONCA]. The ONCA affirmed that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their text messages when the police legally seize any cell phone containing […]
On May 15, 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada [“SCC” or “the Court”] will hear the appeal of R. v. Zacharias, 2022 ABCA 112 [“Zacharias”]. The appeal is from the Alberta Court of Appeal [“ABCA”] and relates to alleged breaches of the accused’s rights under ss. 8 and 9 of the Canadian Charter of Rights […]
On February 2, 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) granted leave to appeal from the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada (“CMAC”) in the case of R v Christmas, 2020 CM 3009 [Christmas]. In this case, the CMAC considers whether a military officer’s s. 11(d) Charter right “to be presumed innocent until proven guilty […]
Introduction On September 1st 2022, after nearly eleven years of service, the Honourable Michael Moldaver retired from his post as Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”). This article will take a look at the illustrious career of Justice Moldaver, including his most noteworthy contributions to the SCC’s jurisprudence, while also applying a critical […]
Last year, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) heard three cases in relation to the constitutionality of certain firearm offences with mandatory minimums in the Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46 (the “CC”). This line of cases included: R v Hills, 2023 SCC 2 [Hills], R v Hilbach, 2023 SCC 3 [Hilbach], and R v […]
There have been a number of landmark cases where the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") considered and provided guidance on "the limits on informational privacy in the digital age" (Bykovets, para 1). In particular, in R v Spencer, 2014 SCC 43 [Spencer], the SCC established that police must obtain judicial authorization through a search warrant […]
In R v Tim, 2022 SCC 12 [Tim], the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC” or “the Court”) affirmed convictions for drug and firearm offences despite the initial arrest having been made by a police officer who mistakenly identified the prescription drug gabapentin as a controlled substance. The dissent would have acquitted the accused, finding that […]
In R v JJ (2022 SCC 28) (“JJ”), the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) considered the scope and legality of Bill C-51, which attempts to remove some of the hurdles that prevent victims of sexual assault (hereinafter referred to as “complainants”) from coming forward. The Bill was enacted in 2018, as An Act to amend […]