Last week my colleague Benjy Radcliffe commented on the Supreme Court’s decision in R. v. Cunningham (2010 SCC 10) as being one where the Court, “in considering the scope of [its] jurisdiction, bites off its nose to spite its face.” I would argue that this is too hasty and critical a view of the Court’s [...]

On November 17, 2009 the Supreme Court of Canada will hear argument in R. v. Cunningham, an appeal of a judgment by the Yukon Territory Court of Appeal released June 25, 2008. If the Court upholds the YKCA decision in Cunningham it would change the law in many other Canadian provinces, including Alberta (R. v. [...]

The ongoing judicial-parliamentary dialogue over the constitutionality of Canada’s security certificates regime came to a halt this week when the Federal Court refused to consider the latest constitutional challenge on its merits. The Almrei case is the first constitutional challenge to the new amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, enacted in the wake [...]

Strother v. 3464920 Canada Inc., 2007 SCC 24 is an important decision which clarifies the obligations of law firms to their clients, as well as former clients. This appeal from the British Columbia Court of Appeal was released by the SCC on Friday, June 1, 2007 and has generated discussion in newspapers, among the legal [...]

The Facts 3464920 Canada Inc. (formerly, Monarch Entertainment Corporation) marketed tax-shelter investments related to the film industry in Canada. Monarch engaged tax lawyer Robert Strother and the law firm of Davis & Company (“Davis”). The written retainer (the “Initial Retainer”) expressly prohibited Davis from acting for others in relation to these tax-sheltered schemes. In November [...]

When I graduate, I want to be a lawyer like Sheldon Blank (who, incidentally, is not a lawyer and has no legal training.) He has represented himself as defendant, petitioner and plaintiff, and has done so in the criminal, civil and appellate courts. His ten year legal saga began when environmental and then criminal charges [...]

Imagine the legal principles of solicitor client privilege and access to information embodied by two boxers entering into the ring. The two principles were set against each other in Goodis v. Ontario (Ministry of Correctional Services) 2006 SCC 31, and solicitor client privilege won by technical knock out on July 7, 2006. To give access [...]