The Duty to Inform and its Impact on Fairness: R v Tessier and R v Tayo Tompouba
Judges and police officers are held to a higher standard, expected to uphold fairness and apply discretion with integrity. Yet, when they fail to inform individuals of their rights, the fairness of the entire judicial process is called into question.
This tension lies at the core of R v Tessier (2022 SCC 35) and R v Tayo Tompouba (2024 SCC 16).
Reassessing Principal Exception of Hearsay: The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) Clarifies the Threshold of Reliability in R v Charles
Truth in a criminal court is often delivered second-hand. Truth is mentioned through stories, vague statements, whispers, and recollections. But what happens when those second-hand truths are considered admissible without ever being tested? R v Charles compelled the courts to confront this question. The case examines whether a witness’s out-of-court statement possessed indicia of reliability and whether the evidence is considered admissible if the witness cannot recall the st
The Art of the Self-Snitch: Rap Lyrics, Admissibility, and the Hearsay Rule
Gangsta Rap’s tendency to exaggerate criminal activity leads to issues of reliability. How truthful are these stories? Can we reliably take these lyrics as fact? In the context of prosecution, a key question arises: can rap lyrics be used to establish criminal liability notwithstanding the reliability issues from exaggeration?
The discussion focuses on when rap lyrics are admissible as evidence within the context of hearsay, and the balance between artistic expression and cr
Stay Away from the Grey: Rethinking How Courts Should Approach the Issue of Consent in Sports
As entertaining as sports can be, it comes as no surprise that the world of sports can be gruesome and violent. Of course, this toughness and violence can be ingrained in sports culture, but what complications arise when it intersects with criminal liability? This can lead to issues of balancing the violent nature of sports with criminal liability and the implications that may arise from it.
The ICC's Jurisdictional Tightrope and the Limits of Accountability in Myanmar
Since 2016, more than 700,000 Rohingya have been forcibly displaced from Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh following a coordinated campaign of violence by the armed forces of Myanmar, the Tatmadaw.[i] The situation therefore poses a central challenge for international criminal law: how far can the International Criminal Court stretch jurisdiction in pursuit of justice when state consent is absent and enforcement is elusive?
