In Ipeelee, the Supreme Court of Canada again considered the Gladue Principles. Over a decade has passed since this Court issued its judgment in Gladue. As the statistics indicate, s. 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code has not had a discernible impact on the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in … [Read more...]
SCC Rules on Intellectual Disabilities and Equality
A recent Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) case, R v Slatter, 2020 SCC 36, provided a strong statement about the treatment of evidence provided by witnesses who have intellectual or developmental disabilities. Thomas Slatter was convicted at trial of sexually assaulting an intellectually disabled … [Read more...]
Supreme Court of Canada Addresses Jury Composition and Aboriginal Equality
A few months ago, this human rights column was about the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in R v Kokopenace, 2013 ONCA. The major issues in Kokopenace were the scope of the right to representativeness on the jury roll (a list of persons who are eligible to serve on a jury) under sections 11(d), … [Read more...]
The Supreme Court of Canada: A History
The leading role of the Supreme Court of Canada is no longer in dispute, but there was a time when it had to struggle to establish its authority. The history of the Court began with section 101 of the Constitution Act, 1867, which allowed Parliament to establish a “General Court of Appeal for … [Read more...]
The Nadon Reference: A Unique Challenge
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in the “Nadon Reference,” more elegantly known as Reference re Supreme Court Act, ss. 5 and 6, [2014] 1 SCR 433 is one of the more controversial decisions of the Court in the fairly long list of defeats for the federal government in recent years. Can … [Read more...]
Top Courts in the U.S. and Canada: A Comparison
Knowledge of Canada or the United States is the best way to gain insight into the other North American country. Nations can be understood only in comparative perspective. And the more similar the units being compared, the more possible it should be to isolate the factors responsible for … [Read more...]
BenchPress 39-5: Private Use Doesn’t Apply
Two Edmonton men were acquitted of offences of making and possessing child pornography because the trial judge accepted that the material, involving two runaway teenage girls, was made for the men’s private use. The Supreme Court of Canada ordered new trials for the men, ruling that s. 153 of the … [Read more...]
BenchPress 39-5: A Jury of Your Peers?
An Ontario Aboriginal man has had his conviction for manslaughter re-instated by the Supreme Court of Canada. Clifford Kokopenace was originally convicted in 2008. However, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned his conviction because the jury at his trial did not have any Aboriginal members. It … [Read more...]
Essential Services and the Right to Strike
On January 30, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada decided Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v Saskatchewan (“SFL”). In a 5-2 decision, the Court determined that the Public Service Essential Services Act (“PSESA”), in restricting certain public sector workers’ rights to strike, violated freedom of … [Read more...]
Bench Press 39-3: New Duty of Honest Performance
The Supreme Court of Canada issued an interesting decision recently in the area of contract law. It began by stating: “Canadian common law in relation to good faith performance of contracts is piecemeal, unsettled and unclear.” Clearly, this was an unsatisfactory state of affairs that the Court was … [Read more...]
