In this case, the Ontario Court of Appeal addresses a civil suit brought by a former policeman against the Niagara Regional Police Department (NRPD), several individual police officers and a former employee. The appellant alleged the torts of negligent investigation and malicious prosecution following the NRPD’s criminal investigation of the appellant.

“This appeal raises a novel question,” Justices LeBel and Cromwell’s majority decision starts out: “[M]ay a wife, whose life is threatened by her abusive husband, rely on the defence of duress when she tries to have him murdered? While the lower courts took a more expansive view of the defence of duress—as being available to [...]

In R v Carvery 2012 NSCA 107 the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal (“NSCA”) considered section 719 of the Criminal Code, a provision which establishes credit given for time served pre-sentencing.  Section 719 was amended in 2009 to limit the amount of credit judges could award offenders for time spent in custody prior to sentencing. The [...]

On August 7, 2012, Marvin Wilson, a mentally disabled man, was executed in the state of Texas. This execution took place despite a 2002 Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruling that said otherwise. Wilson’s IQ was at 61, which is below the first percentile of functioning; he had the mental capacity of a [...]

Statutory interpretation is undoubtedly one of the basic tenets of the judiciary in most, if not all, legal systems. Often, much thought and expression is spent on pinpointing the intent of lawmakers; this is to ensure that the courts can enforce law to reflect Parliament’s concerns, as well as to balance the interests of the [...]

As the most recent Amici Curae post stated, this summer has definitely been the summer of the gun. In Edmonton, three armoured car guards were killed by a lone gunman on the University of Alberta campus. A daytime shooting at the Toronto Eaton Centre sent shockwaves through the city. And last week, two people were fatally [...]

Congress Wants the Last Word on Health Care Reform The celebrations did not last long. Before you even finish saying, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Congress has already started jostling to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision. Less than two weeks ago, the Supreme Court of the United States kept the Act intact, thereby allowing [...]

Linda Gibbons is no stranger to the law, and to the fact that it can be a harsh teacher, given that she has spent a fair amount of time in prison for her anti-abortion picketing activities.  Labeled by the media as “peaceful but relentless,” Gibbons has served a total of nearly nine years behind bars, [...]

Late last week, the Supreme Court of Canada heard the arguments in R v Ryan [2011 NSCA 30], which is shaping up to be a pivotal spousal abuse case in Canada. At the centre of this case is a former high school teacher, Nicole Patricia Ryan (née Doucet), who hired a hit man to kill [...]

In last week’s blog post, I covered the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) v Ontario, 2012 ONCA 342 (“CAMH”), a decision that has managed to intensify the debate on Ontario’s, and on a more sweeping scale, Canada’s policy on the treatment of the mentally ill in our justice system. Since then, my thoughts have turned [...]