Access to Justice

  • June 12, 2026

    Juridogenic harm: Why Canada’s justice system must radically reimagine sexual assault proceedings

    When a survivor of sexual violence steps forward to engage with the criminal justice system, they do so under the comforting myth of state neutrality — the belief that the law exists to heal a breach, discover the truth and deliver accountability. Yet, for decades, feminist legal scholarship and the lived realities of survivors have told a radically different story.

  • June 11, 2026

    Appeal Court in St. Catharines shooting case rejects claims of reasonable doubt

    There was a late-night gunfight outside Karma Nightclub in St. Catharines, Ont., on Sept. 29, 2019. The Crown had to prove that Jamar Stephens was one of the shooters. It did. A jury convicted Stephens on a multi-count indictment charging him with various offences arising from the shooting.

  • June 11, 2026

    Supreme Court of Canada says it’s business as usual while judges & staff move to temporary facilities

    The Supreme Court of Canada says it will continue to provide the bar, litigants and the public with all its usual services from its historic courthouse in Ottawa while its judges and registry staff undertake a phased move to the court’s temporary facilities across the street during the months of July and August.

  • June 11, 2026

    B.C. Appeal Court finds $472K restitution order was imposed without proper consideration

    Restitution orders are often imposed to require a convicted offender to compensate a victim for the victim’s direct, quantifiable loss caused by the crime. Restitution is often considered a rehabilitative sentencing tool, providing the victim with a swifter, more direct path to compensation rather than relying on a civil judgment.

  • June 11, 2026

    Recognizing homelessness as a ground of discrimination advances justice

    A recent judicial ruling recognizing homelessness as an analogous ground of discrimination under s. 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has come under fire as “judicial activism.” (Waterloo (Regional Municipality) v. Dugas, 2026 ONSC 2971.)

  • June 10, 2026

    Top judge backs Jordan juggernaut, warns bar against filing fake AI-generated precedents in court

    The Supreme Court’s controversial Jordan decision, which has sparked the dismissal of thousands of cases due to unconstitutional trial delay, is still good law, but stays of proceedings are not a cure for undue systemic trial delay, Canada’s top judge says. “One stay of proceedings is too many,” Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner stressed at his annual press conference in Ottawa June 9.

  • June 10, 2026

    Court approves $1.95M settlement with cy-près payment to charity, not class members

    The Ontario Superior Court has approved a $1.95-million settlement of a proposed class action alleging BMO overwithheld taxes on withdrawals from registered retirement income fund (RRIF) accounts, finding that a cy-près payment to charity was justified because direct compensation to class members was impractical.

  • June 10, 2026

    Why AI search is creating a new visibility gap for Canadian law firms

    The legal profession spent more than two decades adapting to search engines with algorithms that continually evolved. Law firms focused on websites, search engine optimization (SEO), online directories and content marketing because their audience turned to Google when looking for information and representation.

  • June 09, 2026

    N.L. giving greater powers to province’s seniors’ advocate

    Newfoundland and Labrador has passed legislation giving its seniors’ advocate the powers of “individual advocacy and investigation.” According to a June 5 news release, the move aligns the role of the province’s seniors’ advocate with that of “similar statutory officers,” such as the citizens’ representative and the child and youth advocate.

  • June 09, 2026

    Saskatchewan Court of Appeal: Trial judge instruction to jury cause enough to order new trial

    The adage that “the devil is in the details” may remind criminal defence counsel that a successful appeal may hinge on examining inferences rather than hard facts. A Saskatchewan man, Jeffrey Leonard Stark, was convicted by a jury of unlawfully confining and sexually assaulting a female complainant. He appealed his conviction. The appeal in R. v. Stark, 2026 SKCA 48 centred on the trial judge’s instructions to the jury rather than on denying the facts as alleged.