Criminal

  • July 06, 2026

    Prime minister appoints new chief justices of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice & Federal Court

    Prime Minister Mark Carney has appointed new leaders to head two of Canada’s major trial courts. On July 6, Justice Alan Diner was appointed chief justice of the Federal Court, the national superior trial court that decides disputes in the federal domain. He succeeds Paul Crampton, who retired from the post Oct. 31, 2025.

  • July 06, 2026

    Ottawa appoints 4 judges in Ontario

    The federal government has made four judicial appointments across Ontario, the Department of Justice has announced.

  • July 06, 2026

    Convictions quashed, acquittal entered in reminder that convictions cannot rest on suspicion alone

    The Alberta Court of Appeal has delivered a powerful reminder that criminal convictions cannot rest on suspicion alone, acquitting Jatinder Singh after finding that the evidence left too many unanswered questions to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The decision in R. v. Singh, 2026 ABCA 219 held that the trial judge failed to apply the Supreme Court of Canada’s guidance on reasonable inferences in criminal cases.

  • July 06, 2026

    SENTENCING - Sexual interference - Child pornography - Prohibition orders - Non-contact orders

    Appeal by S.C.W. from an order largely dismissing his application under s. 161(3) of the Criminal Code (Code) to vary a sex offender prohibition order. The order was imposed when he was sentenced for sexual interference and making child pornography involving his young stepdaughter.

  • July 03, 2026

    Advisory board chair defends failure to shortlist at least 3 bilingual jurists for western SCC seat

    The chair of the advisory board that recommended ex-Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal and one other unnamed jurist for appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada defended the board’s decision not to shortlist three to five names, which was contrary to the mandate from Prime Minister Mark Carney.

  • July 03, 2026

    CRA enforcement, non-resident obligations and voluntary disclosure path: The tax lawyer’s World Cup endgame

    This article addresses the enforcement architecture through which the CRA will identify and pursue non-compliance, the cross-border and non-resident tax obligations that arise from the World Cup’s international character, and the remediation pathways available to tax clients who did not report correctly, and what Canadian tax lawyers and accountants need to know before advising them on those pathways.

  • July 03, 2026

    Ontario Appeal Court focuses on convictions based on circumstantial evidence and witness ID

    The fatal stabbing of 20-year-old Justin Turnbull-Greenwood on a Windsor, Ont., sidewalk in October 2019 left a young family shattered and a community searching for answers. The Windsor Star reported that after hearing emotional victim impact statements describing lives “ruined forever,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Kirk Munroe sentenced Mustafa Al-Qaysi to the mandatory life sentence for second-degree murder and ordered that he serve 15 years before becoming eligible for parole.

  • July 03, 2026

    Milestones and practice: Commentary on the IBA’s Canada report on women and equality

    The International Bar Association’s (IBA) recent report marks a meaningful demographic milestone: women now form a majority of the Canadian legal profession. Combined with the historic female majority on the Supreme Court of Canada, it signals progress that deserves recognition.

  • July 03, 2026

    APPEALS - Misapprehension of or failure to consider evidence - Mixed question of law and fact

    Appeal by the Crown against Herman’s acquittal of second-degree murder; appeal by Herman against his conviction and sentence for manslaughter. Herman was charged with the first-degree murder of the victim, who he was in an intimate relationship with. At trial, Herman put forward two defences: self-defence and provocation.

  • July 03, 2026

    Bill C-16 and the long road to protecting elder abuse victims

    Eleven years ago, elder law scholar Israel Doron described the movement for a United Nations convention on the rights of older persons as a journey to Ithaka, borrowing from C.P. Cavafy’s famous poem. The destination matters, but so too does the path toward it — one marked by setbacks, detours and incremental progress. At the time, an international treaty remained largely aspirational. Yet this year, the United Nations took a historic step forward when a working group began the drafting process. After years of debate about whether older persons required a dedicated human rights instrument, the conversation has shifted to what it might contain.