“Don’t work for money, work for justice—you will make money anyway but the focus is quite different.” Between 2:00pm and 4:30pm on Monday, March 11, some variation of this quote reverberated throughout Osgoode via Twitter and Facebook. Osgoode’s Distinguished Speaker Series welcomed Justice L’Heureux-Dubé, and her presence was both captivating and refreshing. It was inspiring [...]

As a general rule, individuals should be free from interference by the state unless the law specifically authorizes such interference (see e.g., R v Wong [1990] 3 SCR 36, para 28).  In the context of investigating crimes, this means that the police, again, as a general rule, may only search a person or place likely [...]

As Simmons and LaForme JJA point out at the beginning of this decision, R v Mernagh 2013 ONCA 67 represents the third time in just over ten years that the Ontario Court of Appeal (ONCA) has been asked to rule on the constitutionality of the government’s attempts to restrict the use of medical marihuana. In [...]

In a decision handed down on January 25th, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada dealt with a Charter challenge to certain spousal support and property division articles in the Québec Civil Code. These provisions only applied to married or civil union spouses and it was argued that these provisions were unconstitutional under section 15(1) of [...]

On December 20th, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in R v NS, 2012 SCC 72. As Osgoode’s Professor Faisal Bhabha stated in an article written for the Globe & Mail: “The key question for the judges was: Can religious ritual and observance trump the right of defendants to a fair trial? [...]