For an overview of the judicial history of this case, please see the first installment of this contribution. In this second contribution, I focus on the two underlying legal questions before the SCC.
Content Warning: The facts of this case involve the mention of serious violence and sexual assault. The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) has granted leave [40956] to appeal the Court of Appeal for Ontario’s (“ONCA”) decision in R v J.W., 2023 ONCA 552 (“J.W”). The case revolves around the complex web of jurisprudence informing […]
In Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform v Attorney General, 2023 ONSC 5197 (“CASWLR”), Goldstein J of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (“OSCJ”) dismissed a Charter application challenging the constitutional validity of various sex work laws arising out of Bill C-36, also known as the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (the […]
For an overview of the legislative and judicial history of the case, please see the first installment of this contribution. In this second contribution, I focus my analysis on key takeaways relating to Goldstein J's holding that the PCEPA passes constitutional muster. Given the multiple thorny Charter issues arising out of the CASWLR decision, this […]
In a rare unanimous judgement, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) has ruled in R v Haevischer, 2023 SCC 11 (Haevischer) that only “manifestly frivolous” applications can be summarily dismissed in the criminal law context. The decision is significant for two reasons: (1) it arises out of the notorious “Surrey Six” case; and (2) it […]
Content Warning: The facts of the case involve the mention of child sexual abuse. In R v Chatillon, 2023 SCC 7 [Chatillon], the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") delivered a brief oral judgment re-visiting a case-by-case privilege in the context where a patient makes criminal admissions during the course of therapeutic treatment. A 6-1 […]