The Supreme Court of Canada has recently announced it will hear Craig Bartholomew Legare v. Her Majesty the Queen on October 15, a week from today. The case concerns a 32 year old male who was charged with luring a child by means of a computer system and of an invitation to sexual touching. The [...]

The SCC’s recent decision in A.C. v. Manitoba, 2009 SCC 30, further makes clear that where children’s self-determination rights under the Charter are concerned, age limits to activate those rights are at least in some cases constitutionally valid. Unfortunately, that is about all it makes clear: A.C. is a decision that avoids confrontation with any [...]

The Constitutionality of Compelling Medical Treatment of Children On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada released judgment in A.C. v. Manitoba (Director of Child and Family Services), 2009 SCC 30, a case which navigates the complicated interplay of a mature minor’s right to autonomous decision-making and the state’s responsibility to keep vulnerable children from harm. [...]

The respondents in R. v. S.J.L.-G., 2009 SCC 14,, S and L (16 and 17 years of age respectively), were arrested along with 16 adults after a five-month long investigation into drug trafficking activities by a criminal organization. S and L were charged with numerous offences including criminal organization offences. The Crown filed for a [...]

The Supreme Court’s ruling in R. v. L.T.H., 2008 SCC 49, while a welcome one for defenders of criminal justice rights of young offenders, is one that invites comment upon the Supreme Court of Canada’s continuing interest in promoting objectivity in decision of law – even where an objective standard may not reasonably exist. L.T.H. [...]

In addition to the safeguards available to adult detainees, section 146 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act 2002, c.1 imposes certain requirements that must be met in order for a statement made by a young person in custody to be admissible against him or her in trial. Specifically, (1) the statement must be voluntary, (2) [...]

A decision to be rendered today by the Supreme Court of Canada may help clarify another vague area of the law as it pertains to youth justice. The decision impacts police procedures when it comes to explaining a detained young person’s rights and waiver thereof, before any statement they make is admissible. The issues presented [...]

Some jurisprudential issues are relatively unique to Canada. Canada’s legal tradition of bilingualism is notable in this regard; very few countries are required to render laws in more than one language, regardless of how many languages might be spoken in the country or even how many the government might officially recognize. (This writer’s favorite multilingual [...]

The Supreme Court’s division in R. v. D.B. 2008 SCC 25 epitomizes the decades-long scholarly debate on the appropriate limits of judicial policy-making. On its face, R. v. D.B. is about the different ways in which young offenders can be treated compared to adults, the real-world effects of an overly punitive criminal justice system, and [...]

In the field of Criminal Justice, the Supreme Court of Canada — once amorphously centrist in its politics — is beginning to show signs of right/left divisions that are more commonly found in its American counterpart. In R. v. D.B. 2008 SCC 25 the Supreme Court divided sharply along political lines on the hot button [...]