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 [...]

In R. v. Morelli (2010 SCC 8) the Supreme Court of Canada was faced with a number of complex and intertwined legal issues. The child pornography case turned on the validity of a search warrant obtained on a faulty and problematic ITO (Information to Obtain a Search Warrant). The majority and the dissent had dueling [...]

Introduction This past Monday (March 1, 2010), the Ontario Court of Appeal heard arguments from Rob Ramage’s lawyers in the appeal of their client’s convictions and sentence for dangerous driving and impaired driving. What is of note in this case, beyond the former Toronto Maple Leaf captain’s public image, is the application of the recent Grant decision [...]

On December 17 of last year, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision in R. v. Dudley, 2009 SCC 58, which dealt with some of the finer points of criminal procedure; specifically, in the case of “hybrid” or “dual procedure” offences, whether the Crown’s invalid election to proceed summarily outside of the limitation period voids [...]

Introduction This past Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Canada heard the appeal from R. v. J.Z.S., 2008 BCCA 401, a case involving the validity of several provisions of the Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46, concerning testimony by children. After hearing the appellant’s argument, the Court cut off the hearing and unanimously rejected the appeal. Chief [...]

Despite TheCourt.ca having visited R. v. Grant several times, commenting on the appellate decision, its application in R. v. Harrison, and post-Grant jurisprudence, there has been little discussion of the actual decision itself, other than my colleague’s excellent critique of the majority’s new test. As the facts of Grant have been laid out before, we [...]

(I) The Sanctity of Informer Privilege “Informer Privilege” or “Informant Privilege”—the protection of the identity of a confidential informant—is one of the most prohibitive and absolute privileges in the Canadian legal system. The Supreme Court of Canada reiterated its importance last week by unanimously overturning both lower court decisions in R. v. Basi, 2009 SCC [...]