As it stands, 2010 has been an interesting year for members of the media and media lawyers who are interested in the legal dimensions of the relationship between a journalist and her source. In particular, the Supreme Court of Canada has weighed in on two different issues related to journalist-source privilege. Earlier this year, in [...]

On September 17, the Court of Appeal for Ontario (“OCA”) released its decision for Société Air France v. NAV Canada, 2010 ONCA 598, ordering production of the Air France Flight 358 aircraft’s “cockpit voice recorder” (“CVR”) to the litigation parties. The CVR was previously held under statutory privilege. The decision confirmed the order made by [...]

R. v. Cornell 2010 SCC 31 is a Supreme Court case released on July 31st 2010 concerning the appropriateness and reasonableness of police conduct during a search of a private dwelling. This post is a new take on the judgment which was first reviewed here. The regulation of police powers is, unfortunately, a concern for [...]

This month the SCC denied leave to appeal in the case of R. v. Carpenter, 2010 BCCA 27. This was an appeal of the British Columbia Supreme Court decision in R. v. Carpenter, 2006 BCSC 1936. The primary issue was whether or not a judge, before admitting similar fact evidence, must be convinced beyond a [...]

Aptly described by Fish J. as the “third chapter in a tale of two statements,” the SCC’s recent decision in R. v. S.G.T., 2010 SCC 20, provides clarity on the confessions and derived confessions rules. The plot of the “tale” involved  a stepfather, S.G.T., accused of allegedly sexually assaulting his teenage stepdaughter A. S.G.T. was [...]

TheCourt.ca commented recently on the SCC decision in R. v. National Post, 2010 SCC 16 where it was affirmed that the use of the Wigmore criteria was a practical method to judicially approve a promise of journalist-source confidentiality on a case-by-case basis. The purpose of this post is to briefly comment on Wigmore and a [...]

On May 14, 2010 the SCC released its judgment in R. v. Hurley, 2010 SCC 18, which addresses the current state of the law with respect to Vetrovec warnings. In the proceeding, the prosecution relied on the testimony of a jailhouse informant who had a motive to lie and was thus considered to be lacking [...]

Background and Facts R. v. National Post, 2010 SCC 16 is a case stemming directly from the “Shawinigate” scandal involving former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. According to a timeline provided by the National Post, the genesis of “Shawinigate” was the sale of a golf course and adjacent hotel by the former PM and his [...]

Introduction In light of the extraordinary staying power of the SCC’s decision in Grant—the continuous discussions, winning the title of “Judgment of the Year”, and nearly sweeping the “Ozzys”—we’ve decided to revisit the case again and ask the question: Does it even matter? Two months after Grant was released, my colleague Soloman Lam surveyed the [...]