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), 11(f) and/or […]
Supreme Court of Canada Addresses Jury Composition and Aboriginal Equality
June 30, 2015 By Linda McKay-Panos
The Supreme Court of Canada: A History
June 30, 2015 By Hugo Vaillancourt
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 Canada”. …if […]
The Nadon Reference: A Unique Challenge
June 30, 2015 By John Edmond
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 Justice […]
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 differences between them. Looking intensively at Canada […]
BenchPress 39-5: Private Use Doesn’t Apply
June 23, 2015 By Teresa Mitchell
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 Criminal Code, which makes sexual […]
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