Access to Justice
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August 01, 2025
N.W.T. airport joins national group against human trafficking
The main airport serving the Northwest Territories has partnered with a national movement aimed at eradicating human trafficking.
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August 01, 2025
Why judge’s sentencing error breeds public distrust of system
According to a CBC report, a Hamilton Superior Court judge has been reprimanded for failing to correct a sentencing mistake.
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July 31, 2025
Appeal court rightly strikes down controversial phallometric testing order
Baba Ouedraogo was found guilty of a vicious sexual assault of a 15-year-old on Nov. 2, 2019.
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July 30, 2025
Expert panel recommends 24 pre-1970 Supreme Court precedents for priority translation
The Supreme Court of Canada — which drew fire last year for its posting, and then removal, of some 6,000 pre-1970 untranslated (mostly English) judgments from its website — says it has started to translate some of the court’s “most significant” decisions rendered before the 1970 Official Languages Act (OLA) required all new judgments to be issued simultaneously in both official languages.
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July 30, 2025
Provocation unproven in Manitoba murder appeal
Justin Patrick Monro, then 27, killed 37-year-old Derek Scott Sutton, but was it murder? Munro was charged with second-degree murder. A June 24, 2021, edition of the Winnipeg Free Press called it a bloody few weeks in Winnipeg, with 11 homicides in just 33 days.
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July 29, 2025
Trudeau Liberals increased diversity of federal benches; female jurists made big gains: report
The former Trudeau government’s nine-year push for diversity in federal appointments since 2016 saw big progress for female jurists — who now make up 49 per cent of all federally appointed judges — along with significant gains for jurists who self-identify as Indigenous, racialized, ethnic, 2SLGBTQI+ or as having a disability, according to the latest information from the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs.
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July 29, 2025
N.B. funding programs for victims of gender-based violence
As part of its ongoing efforts to tackle an epidemic of gender-based violence, New Brunswick is spending millions on emergency transition programs, outreach initiatives and “second-stage” housing.
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July 29, 2025
Applications open for Alberta Restorative Justice Grant
Applications are now open for the Alberta Restorative Justice Grant program. The province is investing $720,000 through the grant to support communities delivering restorative justice programs. This grant program supports initiatives that seek to hold offenders accountable and repair relationships damaged by crime outside the formal court system.
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July 29, 2025
Strongly worded dissent in impaired driving case presages Supreme Court appeal
When a Court of Appeal justice dissents on a case involving a constitutional issue, it is reasonable to expect a referral to the Supreme Court of Canada. A dissent in the judgment in R. v. Westgard, 2025 SKCA 53 may lead to a consideration of whether the Criminal Code provisions requiring a motorist to provide a breath sample violate s. 8 of the Charter, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.
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July 28, 2025
Navigating Ontario’s strong mayor powers: Practical and strategic insights
In November 2022, Ontario introduced a significant shift in municipal governance through amendments to the Municipal Act, 2001, empowering select mayors with new executive authorities known as strong mayor powers. These powers, designed to expedite provincial priorities such as housing and infrastructure, offer municipalities an important tool, albeit one that carries substantial governance implications.
Access to justice: The language of the litigant counts | Ruphine Djuissi
Access to justice in French is a critical issue for Francophones across Canada, particularly with respect to the availability of legal services in French, the quality of interpretation and translation, and equal language rights. It also includes access to French-speaking lawyers and court documents written in French. It is important to ensure that Francophones have access to legal services in their mother tongue or first official language.
Ontario committed to expanding Unified Family Courts but Toronto still lacking
Ontario’s government is vowing to continue working towards the expansion of Unified Family Courts across the province. But a local lawyer says that until a UFC is placed in the Toronto area, millions are being left to navigate a confusing, “two-tiered” family court system.