Canada Assists Other Democracies by Sharing Its Judicial TalentThe rule of law is often described as the rule of laws and not individuals. Amidst the roar of debate about this simplistic description, some basic ideas are commonly understood…
SCC Uses Charter Values to Essentially Expand a Defined Class of Rights HoldersCharter values that subtend Charter rights have been assigned various roles in adjudicating disputes from developing the common law to resolving genuine ambiguities in statutory interpretation.
What’s in a Name (Or Pronoun)?I recently noticed headlines that the Federal Court of Appeal had set aside an interim Order staying the removal of Colin Ewen because the Motions Judge had raised an issue about gender pronouns…
SCC Cases and Business EthicsI want to examine a couple of cases from the Supreme Court of Canada that demonstrate a growth of ethical principles in contracts that underpin much of the economy…
Extraterritorial Investigations and the CharterRecently, the Supreme Court of Canada was faced with two interlocking issues in McGregor. They arose from a charge of voyeurism against a member of the Canadian Armed Forces attached to the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC…
A View of the Charter Methodology BattlefieldIt’s not often that a Justice in a senior appellate court characterizes an inflection point in Charter methodology as a “battlefield” between two approaches to its interpretation…
The Effect of an Arrest Warrant Issued by the International Criminal CourtIn this piece, CIAJ’s collaborator James Hendry considers the effect of the arrest warrants issued last March by the ICC for Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
Interpreting the Exemption of Creditors’ Remedies on ReservesThe Ontario Court of Appeal recently had to choose between interpreting a provision of the Indian Act protecting Indian reserve property from creditors’ remedies, and one that might have opened up more commercial possibilities for Indigenous entrepreneurs though putting Indian property at greater risk.
Mandatory Minimum Sentences and s. 12 of the CharterThe Supreme Court of Canada recently struck down a four-year mandatory minimum sentence for discharging a firearm into a home in Hills (here). Though Hills admitted that the mandatory minimum was warranted in his case, he argued that the law might be applied to someone who did not deserve it.
Prejudice, Bias and Laws Prohibiting DiscriminationThe Supreme Court of Canada has recognized that subjective assumptions, prejudice, ignorance and biases about individuals’ personal characteristics have historically structured the distribution of many important public and private benefits. […]
