Access to Justice
-
March 25, 2024
Parole and dangerous offenders, part one | Michael Crowley
The definition of a dangerous offender in Canada is found in s. 753 (1) of the Criminal Code.
-
March 21, 2024
Embracing innovation: Nonlawyers should be allowed to own Ontario law firms | Jacob Murad
Alternative business structures for law firms were researched and debated back in 2014. Many lawyers were advocating to reform the current structural limitations of law firm ownership. Currently, law firms in Ontario can only be owned 100 per cent by licensed lawyers, but there was hope that the law society of Ontario (LSO) would provide for flexible ownership arrangements. It has been 10 years since the initial debate and it is important to review the changes that have occurred in the legal industry since then.
-
March 21, 2024
Case for amending Nova Scotia’s Fatal Injuries Act | Sean Davidson
Nova Scotia has the most stringent limitation period for fatal injury claims in Canada. Among the 10 provinces and three territories, Nova Scotia and the Yukon are the only jurisdictions with a 12-month limitation period for fatal injury claims.
-
March 21, 2024
Politicization of tribunal appointments worse than that of judicial appointments | Brian Cook
Recent moves by the current government to politicize the process of appointing judges have caused significant concern. The process for appointing adjudicators who sit on Ontario’s adjudicative tribunals is much worse. The government has been criticized for making political appointments to the committee responsible for making judicial appointment recommendations. There is no such committee, and virtually no other form of oversight for appointments to adjudicative tribunals.
-
March 20, 2024
Do prisoners deserve harsh treatment? | David Dorson
I’ve now written 25 columns for this publication about my experience with the criminal justice system, most of them about being in prison. If there is one overall conclusion I would like people to take away, it is that our prisons are ugly places. You lose your liberty, which is the official reason for imprisonment, but you lose much more than that. Prisons are full of deprivation of many kinds: physical, emotional, financial and more. The fact that so many prison staff end up with PTSD is pretty good evidence that these are bad place for humans — and they are a lot worse for prisoners than for staff.
-
March 20, 2024
Cherished Mulroney memory | Bruce Baker
In the past few weeks, many tributes have been paid to former prime minister Brian Mulroney. As a lifelong New Democrat, one might think that I have little or no time for him. Nothing could be further from the truth. Brian Mulroney came from an era in Canadian politics that was far more civil in its nature compared to today's mass polarization to the right and left, with no room to build consensus or listen to or respect others' opinions on matters of public policy.
-
March 20, 2024
Take this job and keep it
Telling your boss to take their job and shove it sure may be satisfying in the heat of the moment but it likely comes with unexpected consequences.
-
March 19, 2024
AI: A time to embrace | Connie L. Braun
Recently, I rediscovered Pete Seeger’s song, Turn, Turn, Turn which features the lyrics, “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.” Viewing various performances via YouTube (this one is my favourite), I have found myself considering how a time and place for everything applies in this day and age with so many questions about and distrust of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Of particular note in the lyrics, especially as it relates to the effect AI is having and will continue to have on our lives is,“ A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing.” I am thinking that it is a time to embrace.
-
March 19, 2024
Ottawa appeals declaration of constitutional requirement for timely federal judicial appointments
“Stay in your lane” — those words might encapsulate the thrust of the federal government’s message to the Federal Court in Ottawa's appeal of a recent groundbreaking judgment, which declared that the prime minister and federal justice minister are constitutionally obliged to fix the lengthy federal judicial appointment delays that have for years bedeviled litigants, lawyers and judges.
-
March 18, 2024
Appeal and judicial review of a tribunal decision | Sara Blake
The Supreme Court of Canada has breathed life into an Ontario statutory provision that has been mostly ignored since it came into effect in 1972. Section 2(1) of the Judicial Review Procedure Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. J.1 (JRPA), authorizes the Divisional Court to grant relief on judicial review “despite any right of appeal.” For 40 years, Ontario courts consistently overlooked this provision, instead preferring to exercise their discretion to deny a remedy on judicial review because it regards a right of appeal to the court as an adequate alternative remedy.