Criminal
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January 16, 2026
SCC’s packed winter session features momentous appeal on Charter s. 33 override provision
The Supreme Court of Canada began hearings in its very busy winter session this week, which features a potentially watershed constitutional appeal and the surprise announcement that Justice Sheila Martin, the court’s senior western judge, will retire next spring.
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January 16, 2026
N.B. opening anti-racism office, launching website
New Brunswick’s Liberal government is opening an anti-racism office to promote “equity and inclusion” in the province — and is now stating it has completed a little more than half the recommendations made in a commissioner’s report on the prevalence of systemic racism.
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January 16, 2026
Privacy commissioner investigates social media company due to reports of sexualized deepfake images
Canada’s privacy commissioner is expanding a current investigation into X Corp., the company that operates social media platform X, after reports that the platform’s chatbot is “being used to create explicit images of individuals without their consent.”
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January 16, 2026
N.B. adopts ‘standardized’ discharge planning for all provincial prisons
New Brunswick has introduced a “standardized discharge-planning process” for all its provincial correctional centres. According to a Jan. 14 news release, the new discharge planning system will better connect all departing inmates to housing, identification, health care and community supports.
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January 16, 2026
Accused’s eloquence, good intentions insufficient to hit appeal target
The cynical remark “No good deed goes unpunished” will be remembered by Joacquin Rowe. He did a good deed, but he was punished for it.
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January 15, 2026
Ontario protection order regime in need of urgent reform: law commission
A major law reform agency is saying that Ontario’s system for protection orders needs urgent reform to better prevent intimate partner and family violence in the province.
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January 15, 2026
A few words on prison lawyers
In response to Kurt Suss’s column Prison lawyers: Contraband smugglers or misunderstood advocates? and as a prison lawyer since 1975, let me add the following observations:
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January 15, 2026
GAMING AND BETTING - Lotteries - Sports betting - Online gambling and lotteries
Reference by the Lieutenant Governor in Council of Ontario. The reference asked whether legal online gaming and sports betting would remain lawful under the Criminal Code if users in Ontario were permitted to participate in games and betting involving individuals outside of Canada, as described in the Proposed Model.
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January 14, 2026
Federal, provincial and local leaders commit to targeting extortion in Peel Region
On Jan. 13, federal, provincial and municipal leaders came together for a summit on combatting extortion and other emerging threats in Ontario’s Peel Region, with the federal government committing up to $1 million to support Peel Regional Police, alongside several other initiatives.
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January 14, 2026
Alberta Court of Appeal delivers lesson in legal history, upholds conviction in 1981 cold case
Cold cases dredge up years of history. In a review of a finding of guilt in a cold case, the Alberta Court of Appeal delivered a lesson in legal history through its own dredging up of legal precedents.