Access to Justice
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September 16, 2024
Ontario Court of Appeal to hear appeals concerning major junior hockey abuse class action
The Ontario Court of Appeal has rejected a motion to quash an appeal related to a proposed class action concerning allegations of systemic hazing, bullying and sexual and physical abuse in major junior hockey.
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September 12, 2024
Sentence over? Now the punishment really starts | David Dorson
The title of this column comes from a poster I saw many years ago; the caption appeared over a picture of an empty jail cell with a barred door standing open. It accurately captures the experience of many people after release from prison. Most people think that when a prison sentence is over, the person goes back to a normal life. Almost everyone who serves time is immensely grateful at first to be released — and then you realize that your sentence is not over at all and that in many ways it will never be over.
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September 12, 2024
Nova Scotia moving to strengthen services for French population
Nova Scotia is proposing legislative changes in efforts to strengthen its commitment to the province’s growing number of French residents.
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September 12, 2024
Minimizing bias in GenAI interactions | Connie L. Braun
During our lifetimes, every one of us has developed propensities and biases toward life, people, institutions and organizations — pretty much everything. These biases shape how we interact with technology and can be particularly apparent in our interactions with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Since the humans who make AI are biased, it may be natural to conclude that AI also is likely to be biased.
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September 12, 2024
Rape exemptions to abortion laws, or why women shouldn’t have sex for fun | Abby Hafer
The issues of abortion and rape are frequently intertwined. There is something viscerally disgusting about the idea of a woman being forced to carry to term a fetus caused by her rapist. For this reason, advocates for abortion rights often use this as an example of why abortions should be legal.
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September 12, 2024
Charge of evidence inadmissibility fails to persuade appeal court in sex assault decision
The modus operandi of sexual predators has become all too familiar. In the United States, there was Jeffrey Epstein, and in Canada, there was Selva Subbiah.
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September 11, 2024
Judicial review of federal support for B.C. coastal protections is premature, rules Federal Court
The Federal Court has rejected an application by British Columbia’s third-largest Indigenous community for judicial review of the federal government’s decision to endorse a plan to protect sensitive marine habitat along the province’s northwest coast.
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September 11, 2024
Saskatchewan investing in bylaw courts, safer neighbourhoods
In a bid to create safer communities throughout the province, Saskatchewan is planning to set up more bylaw courts and is investing millions in additional police and better officer training.
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September 11, 2024
Appeal court agrees harsh sentence inapplicable in some fentanyl cases
We now hear frequently of drug overdose cases. Increasingly, fentanyl results in deaths. The fallback position whenever substances (be it alcohol, cannabis or cocaine) are involved is to increase the criminal penalty.
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September 09, 2024
Manitoba court approves $530M settlement involving special allowances for children in care
The Manitoba Court of King’s Bench has approved three class action settlements totalling $530 million related to the province’s withholding or clawing back of the children’s special allowance (CSA) for kids in the care of provincially funded Indigenous and non-Indigenous child and family services (CFS) agencies.