In R v Greater Sudbury (City) 2023 SCC 28, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) decided the “belt and braces” theory for workplace safety warrants treating project owners as employers under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, RSO 1990, c O1 (“OHSA” or “Act”) when they hire a constructor, resulting in the duties for owners […]
It has been common practice in Ontario for an owner of a construction project to pass off most or all of the responsibility of following workplace health and safety requirements to a third party hired to direct the project (R v Greater Sudbury (City), 2019 ONSC 3285 [Greater Sudbury], para 34). However, the Ontario Court […]
In recent years, mandatory minimum sentencing legislation for people convicted of criminal offences has often been ruled unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment contrary to Section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [Charter] (R v Nur, 2015 SCC 15; R v Loyd, 2016 SCC 13; R v Boudreault, 2018 SCC 58). However, […]
This is the second of a two-part post outlining the constitutional issues in R v Gerard Comeau, an interprovincial trade case to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada on 6 - 7 December 2017. In anticipation of the hearing, the posts offer a brief overview and analysis of the constitutional issues likely to be raised. Part […]
Can government officials rely on their own officially induced errors? The answer is no and for good reason. This topic was recently addressed by the Supreme Court in the case R v Bédard, 2017 SCC 4. Delivering their short judgment from the bench, the Court unanimously agreed that it would seriously undermine the defence of […]
Nearly three years after the Supreme Court (“the Court”) issued its ground-breaking judgment in Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford, 2013 SCC 72 [Bedford] and two years since the federal government passed Bill C-36, the Canadian polity remains mired in philosophic, moral, and political debate surrounding the acceptability of sex work. The Protection of Communities and […]
On July 8, 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada released R v Jordan, 2016 SCC 27 [Jordan], a decision that fundamentally changed the framework that determines whether an accused has been tried within a reasonable time under s 11(b) of the Charter. While the impact of explicitly overthrowing a well-established framework with years of precedent remains […]
In December of 2013, a damning Ontario Auditor General report zeroed in on Ontario Power Generator (“OPG”) and its executive compensation packages. The report accused OPG of unnecessarily driving up electricity prices through nepotism, high labour costs, and one of the province’s most generous public-sector pension plans in comparison to the Ontario Public Service as […]
