Canada’s Notwithstanding Clause: An Overlooked Threat to Minority Rights
The notwithstanding clause, also referred to as section 33 of Canada’s Constitution, has been described as a ‘uniquely Canadian invention’. This clause provides provincial and federal legislatures the ability to...
Prorogation: A View from Canada
Just over a decade ago, large numbers of Canadians turned to Google’s search engine’s algorithm to shed light on a political crisis named after a parliamentary procedure most people had...
Canadian Children have a Reasonable Expectation of Privacy at School
In R. v. Jarvis, the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed that children can reasonably expect that they will not be the subject of surreptitious recording by their teachers at school....
Should Canadian Citizens Abroad have an Unfettered Right to Vote?
Canadian citizens who have resided abroad for five years or more did not have the right to vote in a federal election unless and until they resumed residence in Canada....
Canadian Supreme Court Deeply Divided on Religious Freedom in Faith-Based Law School Cases
Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) wrote the final chapter of a years-long saga concerning the fate of a proposed law school at Trinity Western University (TWU),...
The Supreme Court of Canada Expands the Scope of Employment Discrimination
In December 2017 the Supreme Court of Canada released an important decision regarding the scope of discrimination “regarding employment” under provincial human rights legislation, in British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal...
Landmark human rights decision to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada
Next week, a longstanding dispute pitting fundamental freedoms against one another is set to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC). Trinity Western University (TWU) is a private,...
A New Ground Of Discrimination: Rural Remoteness?
The latest intended use of the notwithstanding clause in Good Spirit School Division v Christ the Teacher Roman Catholic Separate School Division No. 212 and The Government of Saskatchewan on...
Retrospective Punishment: A Reasonable Limit on Charter Rights (R v. KRJ)
In KRJ, the Supreme Court of Canada tackled the retrospective application of criminal sanctions on certain sexual offenders. In particular, whether or not sentencing legislation could be applied to an...
Canada to Hold National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
On August 3, 2016, the government of Canada announced a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (the “Inquiry”). The Commission’s mandate is “to examine and report...
The Mandatory Costs of Mandatory Minimum Sentences in Canada
Another day another mandatory minimum struck down. In Lloyd, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a one-year mandatory minimum sentence that applied to drug trafficking offenders with a prior...
Telling the Whole Truth: Post-Assault Contact in Sexual Violence Cases
For the last 16 months, Canadians have been engaged in extraordinary conversations connected to the sexual assault allegations leveled against one of Canada’s most charming and charismatic talk show hosts,...
