“… a myriad of important interests, such as the integrity of our health care system, (is) at stake.” - Cuthbertson v. Rasouli, [2013] 3 SCR 341 Introduction In October 2010, Mr. Rasouli underwent surgery at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario to remove a benign brain tumour. … [Read more...]
Changes to Child Support Applications
Exchanging financial information is crucial to determine child support. John-Paul Boyd gave a great overview of child support in LawNow Issues 38-4 and 38-5. I covered the general duty to disclose financial information in family law cases in LawNow Issue 39-5. There have been some recent changes in … [Read more...]
40-6: Medical Assistance in Dying
Canada has joined a small group of countries and U.S. states with an assisted dying law. This issue looks at the new law and how Canada came to this enormous change in social, health and legal policy. Volume 40-6 July / Aug. 2016 Full PDF of this issue Table of … [Read more...]
BenchPress – Vol 40-6
1. CRA loses out to Solicitor-Client Privilege The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) sent a lawyer a request to produce documents about his personal finances and also his current accounts receivable. The lawyer provided some material but refused to produce his current accounts, claiming that to do so … [Read more...]
Stranger Than We Can Imagine
Stranger Than We Can Imagine – John Higgs’s intriguing and unique tour of the 20th Century. I recommend to readers trying to make sense of the tumultuous twentieth century a fresh historical take – John Higgs’s Stranger Than We Can Imagine: An Alternative History of the Twentieth Century. Its … [Read more...]
Critiques of Assisted Suicide
A terminal illness is any disease that curtails life even for a day. - Jack Kevorkian, National Press Club in 1992 Introduction The Carter decision of the Supreme Court of Canada appears to have been generally well received by most Canadians. Yet the decision and new implementing legislation … [Read more...]
Global Perspective: A cross-jurisdictional look at medical assistance in dying
On February 6th 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada delivered the landmark decision of Carter v Canada (Attorney General) 2015 SCC 5, [2015] 1 SCR 331. The Court unanimously ruled to overturn the legal ban on medical assistance in dying in Canada. The Court declared that sections 14 and 241 of the … [Read more...]
Taxation for Students
Going to university can be a big change for a lot of students. They are finally adults, they might move away and there are a lot more responsibilities. One of these responsibilities that might seem a bit muddy is filing a personal tax return. Why file? Many students think that because they … [Read more...]
Medically Assisted Death Offers Options
In 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada issued a decision in the case of a B.C. woman who wanted the right to be able to determine the timing and circumstances of her own death; what was termed at the time “doctor-assisted suicide”, and what has now become referred to as medical assistance in dying or … [Read more...]
Same-Sex Families in some Canadian Provinces still Face Discrimination Challenges
Across Canada we have seen many developments in GLBT rights in the past few years. With the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, we might have thought that true equality for same-sex families had been reached. However, some of our provincial family laws have not kept up to these legal changes. In … [Read more...]
