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Criminal Procedure Commons

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Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University

Series

Section 9

Discipline
Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Criminal Procedure

Great Strides In Section 9 Jurisprudence, Steve Coughlan Jan 2009

Great Strides In Section 9 Jurisprudence, Steve Coughlan

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The perfect is the enemy of the good. Could the approach to section 9 laid out in Grant have been constructed differently? Yes. But are we, because of that decision, magnitudes of order clearer on how to approach section 9? Also yes. The Supreme Court's decision in Grant, seemingly the product of careful negotiation given the time it has taken for the judgment to be handed down in a fashion having a clear majority, has created what has for over 25 years been lacking with regard to arbitrary detention. Where before we had very few decisions, those decisions not easily …


Arbitrary Detention: Whither - Or Wither? - Section 9, Steve Coughlan Jan 2008

Arbitrary Detention: Whither - Or Wither? - Section 9, Steve Coughlan

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

It is a remarkable fact that more than 25 years after the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into effect, we still have no section 9 jurisprudence. It is not that there have been no decisions at all concerning the right not to be arbitrarily detained, of course, but taken in total they do not come anywhere near setting out an analytical framework. This stands in contrast to most other legal rights in the Charter. Section 7 jurisprudence has established the two-step approach to take in assessing claims under that section, including a three-step test for determining whether a …