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 [...]

The Court had a busy semester covering cases appearing at various levels of courts in Canada and abroad. You might have noticed that we’ve covered fewer major SCC decisions appearing on the docket (aside from a quick burst over the holidays) and more decisions at the appeal and Federal court levels. There is a fairly [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

A while back, we promised we would compile a list of our top judgments from 2009 in a number of categories. And so, at the risk of diverting the nation’s attention from our top athletes at the Olympics, we present to you the First Annual Ozzy Awards (named in recognition both of our school and [...]

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 [...]

It’s no secret that we at TheCourt.ca are enthusiastic about s. 24(2) jurisprudence, having written a number of impassioned articles on the subject. Some of us on the staff waited with bated breach for the SCC’s decisions in Grant, Suberu and Harrison, which were finally released last July over a year after oral arguments were [...]

Rewriting the Rules on the Exclusion of Evidence under S. 24(2) In a long-awaited and much-anticipated move, the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent decision in R. v. Grant, 2009 SCC 32 revised the framework for determining whether evidence obtained in breach of the Charter must be excluded under s. 24(2), or else risk bringing the [...]