In R. v. Katigbak, 2011 SCC 48, the Supreme Court was called on to clarify the nature and scope of the child pornography defence in s.163 of the Criminal Code of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46 that existed before and after legislative amendment in 2005. Robert Katigbak was found with 628 images and 30 video [...]

In early October the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom [‘UKSC’] was asked to determine whether evidence with an independent life of its own, obtained from an individual without a lawyer, is admissible in light of the respective guarantees to a fair trial and to legal advice in Articles 6(1) and 6(3) of the European [...]

After much wrangling in cases such as R. v. Collins [1987 SCC 11] and R. v. Stillman [1997 SCC 32], the Supreme Court of Canada finally recognized the full purpose of Section 9 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the landmark decision of R. v. Grant [2009 SCC 32] two years ago. In [...]

Before being born again, Bill Whatcott had it rough: by 14 he was living on the streets, selling himself to older men to survive, sniffing glue to get by. His religious rebirth transformed him into an outspoken member of the Christian Truth Activists. The religious teachings he chooses to preach in this new life do [...]

It all started at around the time of the terrorist attacks in New York City. He was a prominent dentist. She was an attractive blonde woman. Sitting the dentist’s chair in Dr. Jeffrey R. Burkes’ office in midtown Manhattan, Shari Perl Herman was getting her wisdom teeth removed by Dr. Burkes. It was supposed to [...]

In what has been described as a “medieval-style attack on science,” Italian prosecutors have charged six seismologists and one public official with manslaughter for their role in an earthquake that devastated the town of L’Aquila. The 6.3-magnitude earthquake took the town by surprise on April 9, 2009, resulting in over 300 deaths. The prosecution’s case [...]

June 2011 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the first reported cases of HIV/AIDS in the United States, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton commemorated the sombre occasion by recalling the disease’s history. In her remarks on June 5, Clinton noted that in the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, “the world was shocked [...]

The justices on the Court of Appeal for Ontario diligently erect an architectural analogy to better understand the legal issues at hand in R. v. Campbell. At the centre of the case is the question of whether the accused’s Charter right was violated when the police searched his rented room. Before the case reached the [...]

As the story goes, Mr. Salmon became involved with a 17-year-old woman, induced her to become a prostitute, and proceeded to claim the majority of her earnings. After approximately two weeks, the woman walked into a Peel Regional Police Service (PRPS) office to file her complaint. She told the officers where Mr. Salmon was staying, and [...]

Few issues have the power to invoke a more potent and severely personal response than that of sexual assault. It is, at its core, an indefensible act. It should follow, one would like to believe, that the Canadian justice system – whether it be Parliament or the Judiciary – would have the law surrounding sexual [...]