Monday’s Mix
Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.
This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Le Blogue du CRL 2. Precedent: The New Rules of Law and Style 3. Robichaud’s Criminal Law Blog 4. Administrative Law Matters 5. Double Aspect
Le Blogue du CRL
Arrêt Fox : Un avocat peut-il se servir de communications privilégiées dans sa propre défense ?
Dans l’arrêt Fox[1], rendu le 6 février 2026, la Cour suprême du Canada réaffirme que les droits fondamentaux des accusés prévalent sur le privilège du secret professionnel de l’avocat. Elle rejette ainsi la vision absolutiste du secret professionnel que la juge de la première instance et la majorité de la Cour d’appel de la Saskatchewan avaient adoptée. De ce fait, la Cour est d’avis que les personnes associées au système de justice ne doivent pas bénéficier d’un traitement de faveur. Les critères établis dans l’arrêt McClure[2]concernant la communication de renseignements privilégiéssont les mêmes que l’accusé soit avocat ou non. …
Precedent: The New Rules of Law and Style
LinkedIn is Tinder. Tinder is LinkedIn
The internet was once a collection of neat little app silos. Now, it’s more like a giant, lukewarm bowl of connectivity soup in which everything is touching everything else. Popular websites and apps of all kinds have officially broken containment. Frankly, it’s getting weird out there—especially if you look at the bizarre identity swap happening between LinkedIn and your average dating platform. Let’s begin with a look at LinkedIn. It used to be the digital equivalent of a stiff suit, a place to park your CV and hope that someone with a hiring budget would notice you. Now? It’s a chaotic mashup of hustle-culture fan fiction and boasts about pre-dawn green-juice routines. It’s gone so far off the rails that it’s even started to function like a stealth dating site. A 2024 study found that 52 percent of singles have managed to land a date on a networking platform, LinkedIn included. …
Robichaud’s Criminal Law Blog
Can I Change by Bail Conditions?
Most accused charged with criminal offences will have some sort of conditions they must comply with while they are waiting for their criminal matter to make its way through the system. The two most common forms of release are an Undertaking to a Peace Officer (a Form 10) or a Recognizance of Bail Release Order by a Judge or Justice of the Peace (Form 11). Both contain conditions the person must comply with. In both cases, conditions can be varied in certain circumstances. …
Administrative Law Matters
The Notwithstanding Clause as a Constitutional Safety Valve
This week, the Supreme Court of Canada heard argument in the appeal from the decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal in Organisation mondiale sikhe du Canada c. Procureur général du Québec, 2024 QCCA 254. One of the issues in this sprawling and complex case, is whether the Quebec legislature’s use of the notwithstanding clause in relation to Bill 21, which outlaws the wearing of religious symbols by public employees (and contractors engaged by the government), is constitutionally valid. …
Double Aspect
Nothing Matters Still
The Supreme Court’s recent pronouncements on constitutional interpretation are inconsistent with precedent, but the Court doesn’t care. I return briefly to the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Taylor v Newfoundland and Labrador, 2026 SCC 5, which I summarized here and whose discussion of constitutional interpretation I criticized here. There is something about that discussion that I hadn’t noticed until now, and which bears mentioning because it is yet another instance of a very unfortunate trend that has been affecting the Supreme Court for years: departures from or indeed blatant contradictions of precedent, without any apparent acknowledgment, let alone explanation. …
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*Randomness here is created by Random.org and its list randomizing function.
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