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Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University

Journal

2015

Supreme Court of Canada

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Law

Inequality And Identity At Work, Jennifer Koshan Oct 2015

Inequality And Identity At Work, Jennifer Koshan

Dalhousie Law Journal

A clinic at the University of Calgary law school in 2014 worked with unions and workers'rights groups to develop constitutionalchallenges to the historic exclusion of farm workers from labour and employment legislation in Alberta. After exploring arguments under sections 2(d), 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we concluded that, based on the existing jurisprudence, the equality rights arguments under section 15 were the weakest. This article explores what is lost when we fail to recognize the identity-based harms that flow from government violations of equality rights. It considers the nature of these harms, why they …


The Contract Of Employment At The Supreme Court Of Canada: Employee Protection And The Presumption Of Employer Freedom, Gillian Demeyere Apr 2015

The Contract Of Employment At The Supreme Court Of Canada: Employee Protection And The Presumption Of Employer Freedom, Gillian Demeyere

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article critically examines the Supreme Court of Canada's treatment of the contract of employment in its wrongful dismissal jurisprudence over the last 25 years, with the aim of challenging the view that only by exempting the contract of employment from the ordinary workings of contract doctrine or by resorting to public policy considerations can the common law of dismissal provide adequate protection for employees. The Court's jurisprudence reveals a commitment to what this paper calls the presumption of employer freedom, a view of the contract of employment which has its origins in the status-based master and servant relationship and …


Environmental Assessment As Planning And Disclosure Tool: Greenpeace Canada V. Canada (Attorney General), Martin Zp Olszynski Apr 2015

Environmental Assessment As Planning And Disclosure Tool: Greenpeace Canada V. Canada (Attorney General), Martin Zp Olszynski

Dalhousie Law Journal

In Greenpeace Canada v. Canada (2014), the applicants successfully challenged the adequacy of the environmental assessment report prepared in relation to a proposed nuclear power plant. In assessing that report, the Federal Court described environmental assessment as an "evidence-based and democratically accountable" decision-making process. In this comment I suggest that this characterization represents the most significant-if perhaps also long overdue development in Canadian environmental assessment law since the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Friends of the Oldman River Society v. Canada. I also discuss some of the implications of this characterization, including the extent to which environmental effects must be …


Judgment And Opportunity: Decision Assignment On The Mclachlin Court, Peter Mccormick Apr 2015

Judgment And Opportunity: Decision Assignment On The Mclachlin Court, Peter Mccormick

Dalhousie Law Journal

The workload of the Supreme Court of Canada is shared among the Court's nine members, but is this sharing equal with respect to the writing of judgments? A simple count does not provide an answer because not all cases are equally important. This paper develops an objective measure of case importance-the Legal Complexity Index-and applies it to the cases decided by the McLachlin Court. It demonstrates that judgment-delivery opportunities for significant cases have not been shared equally, either overall or with respect to any of the major subdivisions of the caseload. Some judges enjoy the spotlight, while others are relegated …