Note: February is Black History Month and as a Black contributor for TheCourt.ca, I value the opportunity to explore jurisprudence that deals with an issue of Black identity in Canada So often, conversations about race and justice occur within the context of criminal law. However, the systemic nature of anti-Black racism and the discrimination that […]
On February 11, 2021, the Ontario Court of Appeal (“ONCA”) will hear the Crown’s appeal to Justice Shaun Nakatsuru’s decision in R v Morris, 2018 ONSC 5186 [Morris]. In his decision, Justice Nakatsuru used pre-sentencing reports on anti-Black racism and the social history of the defendant to account for the factor of systemic racism in […]
In Ontario, one invalid termination clause in an employment contract will now render all of the contract’s termination provisions void.
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 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 […]
2020 was an unprecedented year. The COVID-19 pandemic overtook the world, influencing nearly all aspects of everyday life across the globe. At the time of writing, over 1.8 million people have died from COVID-19, including over 15,000 in Canada, with case numbers continuing to rise. It is impossible to reflect on the events of 2020, […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has shocked the country in its revelation of the systemic frailties plaguing Canada’s long-term care (“LTC”) system. Individuals over the age of 70 have made up almost 90% of the country’s deaths from COVID-19, and in the first wave of the pandemic, deaths in Canadian LTC facilities accounted for 80% of the […]
The Court of Appeal’s (“CA”) decision in Bissonnette c. R., 2020 QCCA 1585 (“Bissonnette”), illuminated the importance of respecting Parliament’s authority to re-write legislation when a court declares a statute unconstitutional.