Posts Tagged ‘Supreme Court of Canada’

Voluntary organizations and member disputes take another trip to the Supreme Court

September 30th, 2020 by Ted Hyland

According to a June 2020 Statistics Canada study, in 2018 more than 12.7 million people in Canada volunteered for charities, non-profits and community organizations, contributing more than 1.6 billion hours. While not all are members of the organizations for which they volunteer, many are.

Under what circumstances does their membership have the legal status that will attract a judge’s jurisdiction and oversight, particularly when there are disputes leading to the expulsion or other discipline of members? This question is again headed to the Supreme Court of Canada for an answer later this fall.

The question is not an abstract one. It involves the interplay between the rights of the members and the discretion of those in charge of the organizations to make decisions that affect their members’ rights. If a member is dissatisfied with the decision, can they go to court?

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Supreme Court’s Jarvis decision re-examines privacy in public places

March 5th, 2019 by Brynn Leger

This article was first published on rabble.ca

In R v Jarvis, an Ontario high school teacher was charged with voyeurism after secretly taking videos of his female students’ chests with a camera pen. Intuitively, Jarvis’ actions seem wrong. But the trial court and Court of Appeal acquitted him. The Supreme Court overturned those decisions and convicted Jarvis, updating the analysis of “reasonable expectation of privacy” in the process. Continue reading “Supreme Court’s Jarvis decision re-examines privacy in public places”

When there’s a will, there is a way!
Supreme Court declares Henson Trusts not to be considered assets… for now

January 28th, 2019 by Celia Chandler

On Friday, January 25, 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada released a very important decision for:

  1. people with disabilities who have or will inherit money;
  2. people who are leaving money to people with disabilities; and
  3. housing providers which calculate rent subsidies.

In a decision referred to as S.A. v. Metro Vancouver Housing, the Supreme Court decided that the money left for SA in a Henson Trust is not considered an asset for the purposes of determining eligibility for Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation (MVHC) rental subsidy.

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Freeze on overdose prevention sites engages Charter rights

August 30th, 2018 by Brynn Leger

This article was first published on rabble.ca

On August 10, 2018, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long‑Term Care announced a freeze on new overdose prevention sites (OPS) in the province. The freeze was effectively immediately, meaning it has impacted three OPS slated to open in Thunder Bay, St. Catharines and Toronto.

A new OPS in Toronto was scheduled to open on August 13, 2018 in the city’s Parkdale neighbourhood, just days after the freeze. Activists, organizers and members of the community were outraged by the news, especially in light of a safety warning issued by Toronto Police on August 14, 2018 about a spike in overdose deaths. The opioid crisis is a national public health emergency, and the Government of Canada supports supervised consumption sites, including OPS, as part of its national strategy to address the crisis.

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The Supreme Court of Canada extends protections from employment discrimination by non‑employers

February 6th, 2018 by Elliot Fonarev

The Supreme Court of Canada has recently released a decision regarding workplace discrimination that has important implications for employers and employees alike. In British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal v. Schrenk, the 6‑3 majority of the court ruled that a co‑worker can be held liable under BC’s Human Rights Code for workplace discrimination against another co‑worker. While this case was about the jurisdiction of the BC Human Rights Tribunal and interpretation of BC’s Human Rights Code, it sends a message to other provincial tribunals about how to approach discrimination in the employment context differently – and leaves many questions for employers. Continue reading “The Supreme Court of Canada extends protections from employment discrimination by non‑employers”

Carter & Assisted Suicide: Where We Stand One Year Later

March 2nd, 2016 by Safia Lakhani

This article was first published on the Ontario Bar Association’s website. It is an update to an earlier article which was first published on Rabble.ca.

February 6, 2016 marked one year since the Supreme Court released its ruling in Carter v. Canada, 2015 SCC 5. That decision struck down the constitutionality of Sections 14 and 241(b) of the Criminal Code, which prohibit assisted suicide, on the basis that they infringed on the individual’s right to life, liberty and security, and the right to equal protection under the law, in a manner that could not be justified under Section 1 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Carter was a departure from the Court’s earlier ruling in Rodriguez, in which the provisions prohibiting assisted suicide were found to violate the individuals’ right to life, liberty and security, but in a manner that was justified under Section 1 of the Charter.

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