Former juror Mark Farrant has observed that jury service is the last mandatory form of service since the abolition of military subscription. Each year thousands of Canadians are called to perform this last mandatory form of civic duty.Jurors play an integral role in the administration of … [Read more...]
Juries as the Great Democratic Hope of the Criminal Trial
The greatest lawyer of the ancient world, Cicero, proclaimed that where there is life, there is hope. It seems to me that one can adapt that saying to the inspiration for retaining the right to a jury trial in the modern world, despite all the potential hazards that individual juries might present … [Read more...]
43-3: Juries in Canada
Full PDF of this issue Volume 43-3 Jan/Feb 2019Table of ContentsFeatured Articles: Juries in CanadaSpecial Report: Emergencies and the LawDepartmentsColumns The jury system is an important part of our criminal justice system. This issue … [Read more...]
BenchPress – Vol 43-3
The Supreme Court of Canada has released a number of interesting cases over the last few months. This issue of BenchPress will look at four of them. Two are of national significance, and two reveal the profoundly personal situations that cause Canadians to access the justice systemA Deal is a … [Read more...]
Why do We Have Jury Trials?
Juries. To some, it may seem bizarre that 12 laypersons, untrained in the law, would be asked – required – to come into a courtroom and listen to the recounting of events about which they know nothing, involving people with whom they have no familiarity, and then make a decision about whether … [Read more...]
Important Concepts in Environmental Law – The “Precautionary Principle”.
Last issue we talked about sustainable development. This time the topic is the precautionary principle.Most human activity has risk. When we are deciding whether we should do something, we balance the risks against the possible rewards. Risk has two parts. First, there is the probability that … [Read more...]
Important Concepts in Environmental Law – the Idea of “Sustainable Development”
In the next few columns I am going to talk about some concepts that are important to understanding environmental law. The first is the idea of sustainable development. A quick search of the CANLII website shows the phrase appears in Canadian federal and provincial legislation 359 times and in … [Read more...]
Much of the Criticism of Bill C-69 is Demonstrably False
“So destructive … (it) must die,” claims Licia Corbella (“Corbella: Bill C-69 is Trudeau’s bookend to his father’s disastrous NEP,” Calgary Herald, Sept. 14).A “grave danger to the Trans Mountain pipeline … This beast should be ritually slaughtered,” implores Don Braid (“Braid: Liberals’ own … [Read more...]
Taxing Weed
On October 17, 2018, the federal government of Canada legalized the sale and recreational use of cannabis. Here is a brief summary of how sales and excise taxes are being applied to the various cannabis products sold in Canada.The federal government along with the provincial and territorial … [Read more...]
Words Matter
Introduction Several decades ago, in my first summer job during university, I washed dishes and performed other unskilled labours in the kitchen of a large government seniors’ nursing home in rural Alberta. While the work itself was not particularly memorable, I observed in that workplace of 15 … [Read more...]
