Law Commons^™

Electronic Evidence In Canada, Robert Currie, Steve Coughlan

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This chapter discusses the issues surrounding electronic evidence in Canada. Topics discussed include the best evidence rule, electronic signatures, web-based evidence, and video-tape and security camera evidence. In addition rules around protection of privacy, discovery, and confidentiality are pursued. Finally the chapter also considers the many issues which arise around gathering electronic evidence in the criminal context, including wiretaps, general warrants, and searches of computers and cell phones.

Prosecutorial Discretion In Assisted Dying In Canada: A Proposal For Charging Guidelines, Jocelyn Downie, Ben White

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

English Abstract: An Expert Panel of the Royal Society of Canada and a Select Committee of the Québec National Assembly both recently recommended the issuance of permissive guidelines for the exercise of prosecutorial discretion on voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide and “medical aid in dying” respectively. It seems timely, therefore, to propose a set of offence-specific guidelines for how prosecutorial discretion should be exercised in cases of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canadian provinces and territories. We take as our starting point the only existing guidelines of this sort currently in force in the world (i.e. the British Columbia …

Ontario’S Administrative Tribunal Clusters: A Glass Half-Full Or Half-Empty For Administrative Justice?, Lorne Sossin, Jamie Baxter

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Claimants who come to administrative tribunals in Canada, as elsewhere, expecting a convenient forum to resolve their problems may discover that institutional resources and expertise, their own knowledge of the system, and their statutory entitlements and legal rights are fragmented between agencies with diverse norms and mandates. The provincial government of Ontario in Canada has recently enacted a novel strategy called tribunal clustering to confront these challenges. This paper explores the structure and rationales behind Ontario’s new tribunal clusters and compares these with reform models in Australia and the United Kingdom. The authors argue that tribunal clusters offer a flexible …

Criminal Justice Models: Canadian Experience In European And Islamic Comparative Perspective, Bruce P. Archibald

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper examines Canadian models of criminal justice in a European and Islamic comparative perspective. The traditional model of Canadian criminal justice is a state centred adversarial one intended to punish, deter and/or rehabilitate offenders who are accorded formal due process protections embedded in a liberal constitutional and procedural rights. This model has been transformed recently into an ambiguously tripartite adversarial model through an overlay of victims’ rights at all stages. However, Canadian law also recognizes alternative processes through various forms of problem solving courts and sometimes comprehensive restorative justice approaches, the latter rooted in relational notions of rights. Meanwhile, …

Pereira's Attack On Legalizing Euthanasia Or Assisted Suicide: Smoke And Mirrors, Jocelyn Downie, Kenneth Chambaere, Jan L. Bernheim

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In a paper published in Current Oncology, University of Ottawa palliative care physician Jose Pereira states that the, “laws and safeguards [in countries in which euthanasia or assisted suicide have been legalized] are regularly ignored and transgressed in all the jurisdictions, and that transgressions are not prosecuted.” He purports to demonstrate that the safeguards and controls put in place in the permissive jurisdictions are an “illusion.”

In the present paper, we expose problems with the evidence base provided and relied upon by Pereira. It should be noted that we provide only examples of each of the categories of mistakes made …

Recent Crime Legislation: The Challenge For Prison Health Care, Adelina Iftene, Allan Manson

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article reviews the potential effects of Bill C-10 and related legislation that provide for more legal minimum sentences and reduce the possibility of conditional release. Without more resources overcrowding - an already pressing issue in Canadian corrections - will increase. We further review the potential effects of overcrowding as exemplified in other jurisdiction.

Unlocking Health Canada’S Cache Of Trade Secrets: Mandatory Disclosure Of Clinical Trial Results, Matthew Herder

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Health Canada should publicly disclose information about the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals, biologics and medical devices, and should especially disclose the designs and results of clinical trials. This disclosure is necessary to preserve public trust, address weaknesses in the evidence base, and protect Canadians from harm.

A prime example of the need for this disclosure involves selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Health Canada did not authorize SSRIs for sale to people younger than 19 years because of data from clinical trials showing risks of harm, including self-harm, associated with use of SSRIs in that age group. But Health Canada …

Recent Crime Legislation: The Challenge For Prison Health Care, Adelina Iftene, Allan Manson

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article reviews the potential effects of Bill C-10 and related legislation that provide for more legal minimum sentences and reduce the possibility of conditional release. Without more resources overcrowding - an already pressing issue in Canadian corrections - will increase. We further review the potential effects of overcrowding as exemplified in other jurisdiction.

Book Review: Gary Botting, Extradition Between Canada And The United States (Ardsley: Transnational Publishers, 2005), Robert Currie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Both domestic and international laws regarding the extradition of fugitive criminal offenders are in a state of flux throughout the world. The current legal landscape reflects tension between the interest of state authorities in promoting “security,” on the one hand, and increasing recognition that human rights obligations are at play, on the other. Gary Botting’s book, Extradition Between Canada and the United States, successfully addresses this tension by way of a detailed examination of what is probably the most integrated extradition partnership outside the European Union.