Access to Justice
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January 09, 2025
StatsCan report finds significant drop in court-ordered monetary penalties in criminal cases
Monetary penalties and fines ordered by criminal courts in Canada dropped from 31 per cent of guilty cases between 2011 and 2019 to 23 per cent from 2020 to 2023, according to a Jan. 9 report from Statistics Canada.
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January 09, 2025
Should harsh pretrial conditions play a role in sentencing?
In one of its first judgments of 2025, the Ontario Court of Appeal has given direction on two perplexing issues: (1) How much weight should be placed upon an accused’s prior convictions as a youth when that person is later convicted as an adult, and (2) what are the considerations to be applied when credit is requested for pretrial custody and credit for serving that time under harsh conditions?
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January 08, 2025
Trudeau faces court challenges for Parliament prorogation, parties urged to continue work on bills
Ottawa-based non-profit Democracy Watch and two lawyers are launching separate legal challenges to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to prorogue Parliament, which they argue was unconstitutional and “clearly in the Liberal Party’s self-interest."
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January 08, 2025
37 is not enough: Biden needs to commute all on federal, military death rows | Aubrey Harris
On Sept. 21, 2011, in the face of global outcry, the U.S. state of Georgia executed Troy Anthony Davis, a 42-year-old Black man. What made this execution stand out was the global awareness that the entire state case against Davis had fallen apart since the trial. With no physical evidence connecting him to the murder of off-duty white policeman Mark MacPhail, the state relied on the testimony of nine witnesses. Following the 1991 trial, seven of the nine witnesses either recanted their testimony, citing police coercion, or contradicted their statements. Of the remaining two witnesses, one could not be located and the other was the prime alternative suspect, whom others have claimed was the killer.
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January 08, 2025
The strange rules and restrictions of parole | David Dorson
Some time ago I wrote a column about my initial time on parole in a halfway house and promised to return to that topic — which I am now finally doing. To recap, after my release on parole, about 40 per cent of the way through my sentence, I had to spend several months in a halfway house. This is “day parole.” As I wrote last time, day parole made very little sense for me, who was considered very low risk and could live in my own home. My being required to stay in a halfway house took up a space that meant another prisoner had to wait for weeks or months longer than necessary to begin his parole. There was a big backlog in releases on parole because there were no halfway house places available, yet places were being taken by people who did not need them.
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January 07, 2025
Yukon wanting feedback on changes to health profession laws
Yukon’s government is looking for feedback on updating legislation governing the territory’s health-care professionals.
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January 07, 2025
Federal Court decreases class counsel fees in $1.9B Indigenous boarding home class action settlement
The Federal Court has decreased requested class counsel fees of $50 million to $32.5 million in relation to the $1.9 billion settlement regarding the class action for Indigenous boarding home survivors, citing significantly less risk as compared to previous settlements.
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January 06, 2025
Manitoba moving to heighten teacher accountability, strengthen student safety
Manitoba is making moves to increase teacher accountability and transparency by having an online registry for the public and an independent commissioner to investigate complaints.
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January 03, 2025
Dozens of Indigenous governments working to run their own child and family services
In the five years since enabling federal legislation came into force, 85 Indigenous governments, representing more than 110 communities across Canada, have given notice to exercise their jurisdiction over child and family services or have made requests to enter into discussions about entering coordination agreements with the federal government, according to Indigenous Services Canada (ISC).
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January 03, 2025
'Precedential' Ontario Court of Appeal decision clarifies steps required to advance a class action
In what one lawyer describes as a "precedential" decision, the Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld the dismissal of a class action for delay, finding that the plaintiffs failed to establish a timetable for completing the necessary steps to advance the proceeding within one year, as required under section 29.1 of the Class Proceedings Act (CPA).