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October 08, 2026
The federal government has released two “What We Heard” reports on forced labour, outlining feedback received on newly proposed measures to strengthen the forced labour import ban in Bill C‑35, An Act respecting the prohibition of the importation of goods produced by forced labour, and on supply chain due diligence and civil liability measures.
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October 08, 2026
Under the rubric of supporting “economic growth and competitiveness,” the federal Liberal government says its newly introduced “red tape reduction” bill (S-7) will “reduce unnecessary regulatory burden under 31 individual pieces of legislation and their corresponding regulations administered by 11 federal departments and agencies.”
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October 08, 2026
Just weeks after Canada’s government created a chief firearms officer for the country’s northern territories, the Yukon has tabled legislation that would allow for the creation of its own “firearms advocate.” On Oct. 7, Yukon’s government introduced the Yukon Firearms Act — a law being proposed in a bid “to support responsible firearm owners” in the territory.
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October 08, 2026
British Columbia Chief Judge Melissa Gillespie has announced the appointment of Matthew Turnell, Manpreet Mand and David Jenkins as provincial court judges.
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October 08, 2026
Speech about Israel and Zionism can become antisemitic without treating opposition to Zionism as inherently antisemitic. In that respect, the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism and the Nexus Document offer a more legally workable approach. They do not attempt to settle contested questions about Zionism in advance. Instead, they leave room to examine what was actually said, whom it targeted and the context in which it occurred.
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October 08, 2026
When governments confront crime, a familiar political response is to build more jails, put more people behind bars and keep them there longer. It sounds reassuring, but it also confuses punishment with public safety.
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October 07, 2026
Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser says the Liberal majority government will introduce “in weeks” groundbreaking legislation to permit persons with serious medical conditions to consent in advance to medical assistance in dying (MAID), i.e. before they lose their capacity to consent to the procedure. The planned bill would also bar MAID access on an “indeterminate basis” to persons whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness, he said.
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October 07, 2026
Appeal by appellant from convictions for accessing, making available and making child sexual abuse and exploitation material (CSAEM). Police obtained a warrant for the appellant’s home after receiving a tip that an IP address uploaded a CSAEM image.
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October 07, 2026
Courts have confronted the problem of anti-Zionism vs. antisemitism.
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October 07, 2026
The Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in R. v. Gauthier, 2026 ONCA 569 significantly clarifies the proper application of s. 24(2) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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October 06, 2026
Manitoba is looking to remove limitation periods for civil claims stemming from intimate partner violence involving “coercive control.” According to an Oct. 5 news release, the province has introduced legislative amendments to its Limitations Act that “would allow survivors to pursue civil action regardless of when the abuse occurred.”
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October 06, 2026
Criminal court judges must remember that instructing a jury about evidence of fabrication is to be done only for the accused — not a complainant, says the lawyer of a man who maintains his ex-wife trumped up assault claims against him to gain an edge in their divorce.
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October 06, 2026
B.C. Chief Judge Melissa Gillespie has announced the appointment of Rose Dattilo as a judicial justice.
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October 06, 2026
Antisemitism is real and dangerous. Jewish Canadians should not have to conceal their identity, fear entering a synagogue or endure harassment because they are Jewish. Governments have an obligation to confront it.
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October 06, 2026
A recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision illustrates the difficulty of overturning a jury verdict where the trial judge carefully addressed potentially problematic evidence and the sentence, although unusually severe, remains within the broad discretion afforded to sentencing judges.
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October 05, 2026
Canada needs to find new ways to sustain and strengthen its democratic institutions, especially to drive home to Canadians how much their independent justice system benefits them in their daily lives, top jurists say. At the Oct. 5 ceremonial opening of the Supreme Court of Canada’s judicial year in Ottawa, Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner told the audience of lawyers and judges he appreciated that “across the country, I’ve seen many of you speak out publicly to reiterate the importance of the rule of law and of an independent judiciary.”
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October 05, 2026
Although general damages in a defamation action are not subject to a fixed ceiling or are “at-large,” courts rarely award a plaintiff significant damages for their loss of reputation. The Canadian cases in which general damages in the amounts of hundreds of thousands have been awarded are confined to circumstances where the plaintiff is a professional, such as lawyer, whose career is dependant on having a good reputation or where the defendant has been noted in default and the court is asked to assess damages based only on the representations of the defamed plaintiff.
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October 05, 2026
For close to three years, I served as an external independent decision-maker for B.C. provincial correctional facilities. I decided if a prisoner was guilty of breaking a rule, and I handed down the penalty. My job was to maintain institutional safety and rehabilitate behaviour. The reality is, it didn’t work.
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October 05, 2026
Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser has announced the appointment of eight judges in Ontario.
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October 02, 2026
The Supreme Court’s fall session is packed with interesting appeals in diverse areas of law including class actions, contracts, Crown immunity and Charter rights. The top court’s session begins Oct. 5 with an “opening of the court” ceremony in the West Memorial Building at 344 Wellington Street in Ottawa.
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October 02, 2026
A Sarnia, Ont.-area man who was acquitted of first-degree murder of his common-law spouse by a jury following a six-week trial in 2023 will face a new trial for the downgraded charge of manslaughter, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in a landmark decision released on Sept. 25.
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October 02, 2026
A single underscore sent an innocent man to prison. In a child sexual abuse material investigation, police were looking for “fus__ro_dah.” But they sought records for “fus_ro_dah.” That was Brandon Klayme’s username. One missing underscore sent the investigation to the wrong person. The discrepancy went unnoticed at trial. Klayme was wrongfully convicted and spent 18 months in custody before the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal declared him factually innocent in R. v. Klayme, 2026 NSCA 59.
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October 01, 2026
Hafeez A. Khan has been appointed a judge of the Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba, Family Division, in Winnipeg.
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October 01, 2026
Mental health, job stress and keeping up with AI remain “front of mind” for the new president of Manitoba’s law society.
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October 01, 2026
There is a growing tendency within parts of the legal profession to portray the criminal justice system as complainant-unfriendly, if not outright complainant-hostile.