On May 26, 2011, the international publication The Economist featured an article about moose in Canada. In particular, they focused on moose in Newfoundland and Labrador. These “lumbering giants” are wreaking havoc on the roads, resulting in over 700 collisions every year, many of which are fatal. Having no natural predators, their population has soared [...]

January 14, 2011 marked the ten-year anniversary of the first same-sex marriages registered in Canada. In 2001, two couples were the first to marry at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto (MCCT), but the Ontario and Canadian governments refused to recognize the marriages as legal. What followed was a legal challenge to the definition of [...]

Two years ago, the Federal Appeals Court for the Ninth Circuit (the “Ninth Circuit”) in Nelson v. NASA, No. 07-56424 (9th Cir. 2008) (pdf link) decided a case that has re-opened constitutional debate about employees’ right to protect personal information – especially from the allegedly prying eyes of the government. At issue for the Ninth [...]

Honest services fraud, pursuant to section 1346 of Title 18 – Crimes and Criminal Procedure, 63 U.S.C., is mail or wire fraud occurring within “a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.” In Skilling v. United States 554 F. 3d 529 (2010) the USSC vacated the conviction of former [...]

(The Court returns after a week transitioning from our 2009-2010 academic-year editorial team to our summer editors. We thank our readers for their patience during this break. From May 3 through to the end of August, we move to our summer publication schedule of three postings per week [usually Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays] with occasional [...]

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear relatively few appeals this November, although one of the most closely watched is certain to be Hardy Broome et. al. v. Government of PEI and PEI Protestant Children’s Trust, 2009 PECA 01. The case considers the controversial possibility that governments may owe a duty of care to orphans [...]

Ricci v. DeStefano, a case concerning reverse discrimination in the form of a denial of promotions to a group of white firefighters who did disproportionately well on qualifying exams, is the United States Supreme Court’s latest decision and arguably its most important of the year. The decision sought to resolve the conflict between eradicating intentional [...]

On July 13, 2006 the Supreme Court of Canada handed down a unanimous judgement in the criminal breach of trust (s. 122) case R. v. Boulanger and entered an acquittal. The facts of the case were relatively simple: the accused was a police officer whose daughter was involved in a car accident. Mr. Boulanger asked [...]