Access to Justice
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March 19, 2025
Case illustrates why sentencing can include consideration of future harm
Should our criminal law be proactive in preventing future wrongdoing, or should it simply apply to wrongs that have been proven to have been committed? The Ontario Court of Justice was implicitly presented with this question.
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March 18, 2025
Federal Court dismisses $2.5B class action alleging anti-Black discrimination in public service
The Federal Court has dismissed a proposed $2.5 billion class action commenced by Black public servants who alleged systemic discrimination in hiring and promotions in the public service.
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March 18, 2025
Quebec, Ontario courts approve $14.7M settlement in antipsychotic drug class action
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Quebec have approved a class action settlement of over $14 million for those who suffered adverse reactions to aripiprazole, an atypical antipsychotic drug that sells under the brand names Abilify and Abilify Maintena.
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March 18, 2025
Distinction between factual, legal causation at heart of Mennonite-buggy-car crash appeal
Dayton Kelly was 19 years old on Oct. 24, 2021, when the Honda Civic he was driving collided with a horse-drawn buggy, killing its driver, Daniel Martin, 76, and his wife Ester, 79. They were described in court as Mennonites. It was dark when the accident occurred; the buggy was without lights and there were no streetlights at about 8:46 p.m. The Civic slammed into the passenger side of the buggy as Martin was crossing Highway 86. Martin died at the scene and his wife died two weeks later.
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March 17, 2025
Federal Court of Appeal decision keeps class action alive involving Indigenous women inmates
Indigenous female inmates in Canada’s federal prison system have gained a partial legal victory in their quest to certify a class action against the government over discrimination by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC).
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March 17, 2025
Are we seriously tackling anti-Black racism? | Hodine Williams
Canada loves to tell the world — and itself — that it’s a model of diversity and inclusion. We point to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, our multicultural policies, and our reputation as a welcoming nation. We feign and dance around the issue so often as if pretending it doesn’t exist will somehow make it magically disappear.
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March 17, 2025
Life as a prisoner | David Dorson
I wrote a few months ago about some of the differences between minimum security and higher security levels. Minimum is definitely an easier place to be, where, unlike medium or maximum, you can actually have a kind of life.
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March 14, 2025
SCC extends Charter-guaranteed presumption of innocence to inmate discipline proceedings
Overruling its own 35-year-old precedent while expanding the Charter’s protections for the presumption of innocence into new legal territory, the Supreme Court of Canada split 6-3 to strike down a Saskatchewan regulation that authorized inmate segregation or loss of earned remission to be imposed on those found to have committed a prison disciplinary offence, based only on proof on a “balance of probabilities” standard rather than on the heightened standard of proof “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
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March 14, 2025
Nunavut to consult residents on new health privacy laws
Nunavut’s government is seeking residents’ input on the planning of new “health specific” privacy laws. According to a March 13 news release, Nunavut’s department of health will be conducting territory-wide consultations “to gain community feedback on laws related to personal health information.”
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March 13, 2025
Veteran’s conditional class action certification set aside for lack of identifiable class
The Ontario Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal of an injured veteran’s conditional class action certification, finding that the motion judge made a procedural error that was “central to the certification process.” However, the court rejected arguments that there was no proximity with Canada in administering veterans’ benefits.