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Supreme Court sends signal to appellate courts on sexual assault rulings

Monday, December 14th, 2020

… the Supreme Court has sent a message to appellate courts that they should listen to lower-court judges who believe the complainant… Assessments of credibility (honesty) and reliability (accuracy) are central to the trial judge’s job. Appeal courts generally defer to these assessments because it is the trial judge who sits in court and hears directly from the witnesses. Witnesses do not testify at appeal courts.

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Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »


Ontario using new law to suppress suits alleging negligent government conduct, lawyers say

Monday, December 9th, 2019

By making the government immune from lawsuits for negligence… the law sets a dangerous precedent: it harms the individual right to hold government accountable, and permits government “to circumvent the rule of law and deny access to justice.”

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Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »


Supreme Court rules voting restrictions on expatriate citizens are unconstitutional

Friday, January 11th, 2019

A lower-court judge had found the voting prohibition unconstitutional. But the Ontario Court of Appeal then ruled 2-1 that the law could stand, saying that non-residents do not live with the consequences of their votes on a daily basis. The dissenting judge said the restrictions had the effect of making non-resident Canadians second-class citizens… The 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms says without qualification that every Canadian citizen has the right to vote.

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Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »


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