appellate litigation

September 22, 2014

Not Too Late

Back in February, I wrote about the Court of Québec’s judgment in R. v. Cloud, 2014 QCCQ 464, in which Justice Patrick Healy sharply criticized the “victim surcharge” which recent amendments to the Criminal Code require courts to impose in all criminal cases on top of any other sentence. Mr. Cloud, the accused, had not challenged Continue reading

Constitutional law, Criminal Law/Policy

appellate litigation, Charter, new issues, tough on crime, victim surcharge
September 17, 2014

Raising Issues

Normally, a common law court decides a case brought before it on the issues raised by the parties. But sometimes it can ― and occasionally even has to ― raise an issue on its own. When it can do so, and how it must go about doing this are the main topics discussed in R. Continue reading

The Justice System

appellate litigation, bias, impartiality, judicial power, new issues