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October 20, 2026
The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree to Lesley Jacobs at its Oct. 19 Call to the Bar ceremony.
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October 20, 2026
The Law Foundation of Ontario, a founding partner of the Law Commission of Ontario (LCO), has appointed Ramani Nadarajah as its representative on the commission’s board of governors, effective Oct. 1.
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October 20, 2026
An open letter, titled “Reconciliation and Reintegration Cannot Mean Exclusion,” challenges McGill University’s decision to exclude Jeffrey G. Ewert from campus after concerns about his presence were raised. The letter, addressed to the leadership of McGill University, notes that Ewert is an Indigenous man serving a life sentence, a survivor of the Sixties Scoop and was admitted to first-year law at McGill. The university’s Oct. 6, 2026, exclusion order barred him from campus until Oct. 28 and prohibited him from communicating with female students during that period.
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October 20, 2026
Outside of defence procurement, the Ontario Superior Court is perhaps the most dysfunctional government entity in Canada. Given that responsibility for the court is divided between the federal and provincial governments, that judges have decreed themselves above transparency or accountability, and that the system lacks meaningful feedback mechanisms, that result is largely to be expected. Still, watching this dysfunction play out in a small claims sheriff’s sale demonstrates a system plumbing new lows.
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October 19, 2026
Law students should learn from the difficult realities of rehabilitation. A controversy at McGill University law school raises questions about campus safety, reintegration and the educational value of confronting the criminal justice system.
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October 16, 2026
The Manitoba Court of Appeal has upheld a sentence of two years less a day to be served in the community for a man convicted of criminal harassment, unlawfully entering a dwelling house, sexual assault and assault against his former intimate partner (R. v. B.S.H., 2026 MBCA 70). The decision recognizes the seriousness of domestic and sexual violence while reaffirming the deference owed to sentencing judges.
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October 15, 2026
The Alberta Court of Appeal has partially allowed Christopher John Barron’s sentence appeal, reducing his global sentence after finding that the sentencing judge had punished him twice for the same conduct (R. v. Barron, 2026 ABCA 270).
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October 15, 2026
Segregation is seen as a necessary and justifiable punishment for maintaining safety and order in a prison. But as I presided over more than 900 disciplinary hearings in B.C. provincial prisons, it became clear that the practice failed to achieve its purpose. Rather than rehabilitating, it made prisoners worse, creating a revolving door.
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October 14, 2026
Keeping up with the speed of money, working with limited resources and assisting judges with gaps in their technical knowledge were among the challenges under the spotlight at a recent legal conference about cybercrime and crypto fraud.
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October 14, 2026
The 1939 film adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz includes this famous scene.
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October 09, 2026
Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser has announced the appointment of Justice Thomas Rothwell to the Court of Appeal of Alberta and Malcolm M. Lavoie to the Court of King’s Bench.
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October 09, 2026
Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser has announced the appointment of Paul J. Mongenais and Peter D. Ruby to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
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October 09, 2026
For lawyers, some issues extend beyond protecting rights and freedoms. A core concern is the risk of letting a rigid rule determine an outcome before examining the matter’s substance.
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October 08, 2026
Just weeks after Canada’s government created a chief firearms officer for the country’s northern territories, the Yukon has tabled legislation that would allow for the creation of its own “firearms advocate.” On Oct. 7, Yukon’s government introduced the Yukon Firearms Act — a law being proposed in a bid “to support responsible firearm owners” in the territory.
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October 08, 2026
British Columbia Chief Judge Melissa Gillespie has announced the appointment of Matthew Turnell, Manpreet Mand and David Jenkins as provincial court judges.
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October 08, 2026
When governments confront crime, a familiar political response is to build more jails, put more people behind bars and keep them there longer. It sounds reassuring, but it also confuses punishment with public safety.
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October 07, 2026
The Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in R. v. Gauthier, 2026 ONCA 569 significantly clarifies the proper application of s. 24(2) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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October 06, 2026
Manitoba is looking to remove limitation periods for civil claims stemming from intimate partner violence involving “coercive control.” According to an Oct. 5 news release, the province has introduced legislative amendments to its Limitations Act that “would allow survivors to pursue civil action regardless of when the abuse occurred.”
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October 06, 2026
A recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision illustrates the difficulty of overturning a jury verdict where the trial judge carefully addressed potentially problematic evidence and the sentence, although unusually severe, remains within the broad discretion afforded to sentencing judges.
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October 05, 2026
For close to three years, I served as an external independent decision-maker for B.C. provincial correctional facilities. I decided if a prisoner was guilty of breaking a rule, and I handed down the penalty. My job was to maintain institutional safety and rehabilitate behaviour. The reality is, it didn’t work.
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October 05, 2026
Saskatchewan has appointed its first associate judges to the Court of King’s Bench following legislation that came into force Oct. 1.
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October 05, 2026
An Ontario paralegal is pledging to continue the fight after the province’s top court dealt him a blow in his attempts to argue that he has a larger scope of practice in immigration matters than the law society allows.
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October 01, 2026
New Saskatchewan legislation reflecting the digital age and protecting residents against “online misinformation” have come into force.
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October 01, 2026
A recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision warns about the risks of delivering a bare criminal verdict and leaving the reasons for judgment for many months. In R. v. Qita, 2026 ONCA 554, the court ordered a new trial after concluding that the extraordinary delay between the announcement of guilty verdicts and the delivery of written reasons rebutted the presumption that the reasons accurately reflected the trial judge’s actual reasoning.
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September 30, 2026
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree has appointed David Paradiso as Correctional Investigator of Canada, effective Oct. 13, 2026.