Civil Courts Introducing a New Intimate Partner Violence Tort: Coercive and Controlling Behaviour and the Potential Benefits to Victims for Access to Justice [ Part 1 ]
Intimate partner violence is a serious issue in Canada. This discussion will examine how Canadian courts recognize coercive and controlling behaviour within civil law, regarding the new intimate partner violence tort, and whether the tort will improve access to justice for survivors. The important questions are: how are the courts recognizing the harms of CCB? And what are the potential positives of the courts recognizing and providing legal consequences for this type of abus
Anti-South Asian Hate Online in Canada
Canada on the international stage has always portrayed itself to be welcoming to newcomers. However, this is not the reality for many Indians and other South Asians living in Canada. Anti-South Asian sentiment on social media has become increasingly visible. Every person in Canada has the right to free speech. However, this right is subject to certain restrictions. So, one could ask: How far can a joke go before someone is offended? And can that offence be criminalized?
Confession by Design: Mr. Big Operations and the Exploitation of Vulnerability
Confessions carry significant weight in this system. They are intuitively persuasive and often treated by triers of fact as powerful admissions of guilt, even where contextual or coercive factors may be present. Given the natural inclination toward guilty verdicts in the face of such admissions, judicial actors have paid considerable attention to developing safeguards to regulate how confessions are obtained. These protections, Mr. Big Operations (MBO) skillfully evade any sa
The Scope of Confidential Informer Privilege: When Does Informer Privilege Protect Information?
Privileges in Canadian law are aimed at preventing the disclosure of certain information during trials and hearings that could affect their outcome. Confidential informer privilege is a type of privilege that, as outlined in R v Basi, “prohibits disclosure of the identity of confidential informants.”[i] Cases like Basi expanded on the common law principles of informer privilege. Informer privilege is possibly the most protected privilege in Canadian law that is subject to a s
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).
