Afflicted with a “culture of complacency[1],” the Ontario Superior Court has long struggled to timely advance cases to trial. Variously described by its leading jurists as ‘broken[2]’ and ‘antiquated[3],’ it has fallen further into disrepute as gun cases[4], a sexual assault case[5] (and another[6] and another[7]) and human trafficking[8] cases have been thrown out due to “excessive delay.” This continues the sordid state of affairs that existed prior to the pandemic, where hundreds of criminal cases were being dismissed annually for delay[9]. . . . [more]

A refreshing aspect of Slaw.ca is that professionals from various backgrounds contribute to this content. Outside this space, the vast majority of my scrolling is focused on caselaw, commentary, and news related to immigration laws and policies. Extremely limited, I admit. Slaw.ca exposes me (and you, I suppose, as another reader) to think about areas of law outside my silo, possibly to our benefit.

Would it be an overstatement to assert that silo thinking has undermined our advocacy? Have our resources & energy become so focused within our specialized little areas of expertise that we have neglected developments in other . . . [more]

As the cost of living rises in communities throughout BC (like everywhere in Canada), more and more British Columbians find themselves contending with acute forms of financial strain, housing insecurity, relationship breakdown, and other poverty-rooted hardships. The demand for pro bono and legal aid services has never been higher.

Pro Bono Going Public is Access Pro Bono BC’s big annual service and fundraising event that helps the organization serve as much client demand as possible. The free legal “advice-a-thon” event runs for three weeks (Monday to Friday) from September 5 to 29. Volunteer lawyers provide free legal advice in hour-long . . . [more]

I am happy to share a newly created dashboard to facilitate navigation of the results from the Canadian Legal Problems Survey. You can access the dashboard here. It is designed to allow you to explore the data to better understand what legal problems Canadians experience, how they respond, and how demographic variables correspond to legal problems. The data is pulled from the Canadian Legal Problems Survey Public Use Microdata File (PUMF), which is available from the Statistics Canada website.

There is also an auxiliary app to assist in navigating the code book, which provides supporting materials on . . . [more]

Preamble This post is the sixth of a series considering three major issues under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: the impact of how the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has defined rights; the relationship between rights; and the relationship between guarantees of rights and freedoms and section 1 of the Charter. . . . [more]

Preamble This post is the fifth of a series considering three major issues under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: the impact of how the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has defined rights; the relationship between rights; and the relationship between guarantees of rights and freedoms and section 1 of the Charter. It is the Conclusion to the previous discussions. . . . [more]

Preamble This post is the fourth of a series considering three major issues under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: the impact of how the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has defined rights; the relationship between rights; and the relationship between guarantees of rights and freedoms and section 1 of the Charter. I focus the discussion of these issues through the lens of section 3, which guarantees the right to vote and to be eligible to sit in the legislature. Following the exploration of the SCC jurisprudence relating to each of the three issues in relation to section . . . [more]

Preamble This post is the third of a series considering three major issues under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: the impact of how the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has defined rights; the relationship between rights; and the relationship between guarantees of rights and freedoms and section 1 of the Charter. I focus the discussion of these issues through the lens of section 3, which guarantees the right to vote and to be eligible to sit in the legislature. Following the exploration of the SCC jurisprudence relating to each of the three issues in relation to . . . [more]

Preamble This post is the second of a series considering three major issues under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: the impact of how the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has defined rights; the relationship between rights; and the relationship between guarantees of rights and freedoms and section 1 of the Charter. I focus the discussion of these issues through the lens of section 3, which guarantees the right to vote and to be eligible to sit in the legislature. Following the exploration of the SCC jurisprudence relating to each of the three issues in relation to . . . [more]

Preamble This post is the first of a series considering three major issues under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: the impact of how the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has defined rights; the relationship between rights; and the relationship between guarantees of rights and freedoms and section 1 of the Charter. I focus the discussion of these issues through the lens of section 3, which guarantees the right to vote and to be eligible to sit in the legislature. Following the exploration of the SCC jurisprudence relating to each of the three issues in relation to . . . [more]

Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner has been clear about wanting to bolster his Court’s public outreach. Since he assumed the top role, his Court has held highly-publicized sittings in Winnipeg and Québec City and begun issuing glossy “Year in Review” recaps. Another sign of this outreach is the 56 conferences the justices attended last year – more than the actual number of decisions they authored during the same period. Given the Court generally grants leave to appeal in only 6-9% of leave applications, this emphasis on public outreach begs an important question about . . . [more]

On April 4, 2023, I published an article in the Canadian Bar Association’s National magazine titled “Are 80% of legal problems in Canada really going unmet?” It explores the question of whether people’s needs are being me in Canada’s legal system based on the data in the Canadian Legal Problems Survey. One topic I wanted more insight on was what the sources of costs for people with legal problems that caused financial hardship are. Here is a visualization of the proportion of people reporting costs associated with each category for the 2.6 million Canadians who have financial difficulties . . . [more]