In R v Sharma, 2022 SCC 29 [“Sharma”], the Supreme Court of Canada [“SCC”/”the Court"] upheld the constitutionality of provisions that restricted the availability of conditional sentences. This decision marks a break from the SCC’s recent trend of overturning amendments to the Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46 [“Code”] made during the Harper era. Conditional […]
Ontario Teacher Candidates’ Council v The Queen, 2021 ONSC 7386 [Ontario Teachers] has made headlines as Premier Doug Ford’s provincial government continues their education reform plan—this time, to the detriment of teacher aspirants.
In July 2020, the Ontario Court of Appeal ("ONCA") ruled that two provisions of the Criminal Code are unconstitutional, ultimately making conditional sentences available to more offenders. In particular, the ONCA ruled that s.742.1(c) and s.742.1(e)(ii) of the Code violated Cheyenne Sharma’s section 15 right to equality on the basis of race and section 7 […]
Content warning: sexual violence, murder, bipolar disorder, policing Despite the ongoing pandemic, this fall has been a notable season for advancing the Section 15 substantive equality rights provision of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms [Charter] at the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”). In October, the SCC found the Royal Mounted Canadian Police pension plan […]
At the brink of the neighbouring United States presidential election where the recurring public versus private debate healthcare continues to wage on, the Canadian universal healthcare system figures in as either an affordable haven or a wait time nightmare—depending on who you ask. However, contrary to its popular characterization, Canada does not have a completely […]
Until late March 2019, when Justice Keith Boswell struck down s.112(2)(b.1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, SC 2001, c 27 [IRPA], refugee claimants from certain “designated” countries were required to wait for two years longer compared to all other refugee claimants for a risk assessment of their removal from Canada. Two weeks ago in Feher v […]
