Weighing in on the Webcasts Visitors to the Supreme Court of Canada’s website in recent months will have noticed that they can newly access webcasts of oral arguments before the bench, as first reported here by Rebecca Ross for TheCourt.ca. Since February 9, 2009, the Supreme Court has streamed all counsel’s submissions and judges’ questioning [...]

Imagine this scenario: It’s 3:00 am. Unable to sleep, you sit at the desktop computer in your living room and begin surfing the internet. Out of a mixture of personal interest and plain curiosity, you explore a number of publicly accessible webpages, including that of a controversial religious leader, a sexual fetish discussion board and [...]

On May 22, 2009, the SCC is scheduled to hear National Post, et al. v. Her Majesty the Queen 32601, a case which should answer a question of grave concern to investigative journalists across Canada. At issue in National Post is whether the police can obtain a warrant for the production a document which may [...]

TheCourt.ca is but one of several Canadian legal blogs that publishes daily. Today I’d like to draw your attention to another: Michel-Adrien Sheppard’s personal blog Library Boy, of which I’ve been a longtime reader. Mr. Sheppard is a reference librarian at the Supreme Court of Canada. Since 2005, his blog has been providing news and [...]

Leave to appeal has been granted by the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Bobby Singh Virk et al. This appeal will answer the question of whether counsel for the accused may be present at an in camera hearing to determine the application of informer privilege. More specifically, the SCC will consider whether a [...]

On September 24, 2008, Judge Simon Noël of the Federal Court (FCC DES-5-08) the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Ministers of Public Safety and Citizenship and Immigration to “file all information and intelligence related to Mohamed Harkat including but not limited to drafts, diagrams, recordings and photographs in CSIS’s possession or holdings with [...]

The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star have recently commented on reports that Governor General Michaëlle Jean advised the Prime Minister to repatriate Omar Khadr. The original story appeared in La Presse on September 26, 2008. It must be emphasized that the veracity of these reports remains to be seen. However, if true, they raise [...]

Introduction: This season’s SCC docket promises yet another round of exciting and potentially ground-breaking judgments. One case in particular, however, holds the promise of drastically changing the contours of Access to Information legislation in Ontario and beyond. Tucked away in the SCC’s December schedule, Ministry of Public Safety and Security (Formerly Solicitor General), et al. [...]

Glancing through the upcoming hearings at the SCC in December, I couldn’t help but notice a criminal appeal that had, not a person’s name as the party against the crown, but instead the name of a company. The named company, though, was not charged with a crime. On December 13, the SCC will listen to [...]

Omar Khadr is the only Canadian citizen detained at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Last week, the Supreme Court decided to hear the Crown’s appeal of a Federal Court of Appeal ruling that may provide Mr. Khadr with access to documents held by the Canadian government regarding the charges he faces before [...]