James C Morton
Firefighters and cancer
When you consider the chemicals firefighters are forced to inhale it's hardly a surprise they have a significantly increased risk: http://www.thestar.com/mobile/NEWS/article/1175316 "Research has found firefighters are more likely to develop…
Gun registry: Vic Toews orders RCMP to flag efforts to track long-gun sales
I guess defiant provincial firearms officers who engage in what he calls "unauthorized data collection" should do other things like trying to find marijuana plants — after all, cannabis is…
Reasonableness of convictions
R. v. N.M., 2012 ONCA 296 gives a useful treatment of an appeal court’s review of a conviction for reasonableness: This court has the obligation to review the reasonableness of…
Freedom of Association and Trade Unions
Freedom of Association is a constitutionally protected right. Trade Unions benefit from the right and, as today’s decision in Independent Electricity System Operator v. Canadian Union of Skilled Workers, 2012…
Diversity in judicial appointments; let’s not overstate the record
A well-known lawyer was quoted in the Law Times saying: "… of the last 100 judicial appointments by the Tories, 98 per cent of them have been white men. "…
Providing parts of instructions to jury is dangerous
R. v. Li, 2012 ONCA 291 deals with providing parts of jury instructions to jury. The Court holds: In R. v. Poitras (2002), 57 O.R. (3d) 538, Doherty J.A. approved the possibility…
Procedural rights exception to the presumption against the retrospectivity of legislation
Peel (Police) v. Ontario (Special Investigations Unit), 2012 ONCA 292 deals with the well-established presumption against the retrospective application of legislation and an exception to the presumption – the "procedural…
Duty of disclosure in an administrative context
Sackville Trenching Ltd. v. Nova Scotia, 2012 NSCA 39 is a useful case dealing with the duty of disclosure in an administrative context. Sackville Trenching was issued an Administrative Penalty…
Morton’s Musings 2012-05-06 22:05:00
And while God had work for Paul, he found him friends both in court and prison. Let persecutors send saints to prison, God can provide a keeper for their turn…
Legislation would prohibit masks during riots: it’s already a crime. Doesn’t anyone read the Criminal Code?
Sometimes you have to wonder if MP's read the Criminal Code. My sense is they don't. And no one else does either. It is already against the law to wear…
François Hollande defeats Nicolas Sarkozy to become French president
http://www.thestar.com/mobile/NEWS/article/1173954 PARIS—François Hollande swept to victory on Sunday, becoming the first socialist to become president of France since François Mitterrand left office in 1995. Hollande campaigned on a kinder,…
Quebec really is different from ROC: Violent protests continue
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/11-injured-including-4-police-officers-as-quebec-student-protest-turns-violent/article2423712/?service=mobile "More than 3,000 demonstrators disrupted Friday's Quebec Liberal Party meeting in Victoriaville with a violent protest that sent at least 11 people to hospital. Protesters reported being hit by…
Swallowing evidence amounts to obstruct just
Destroying evidence so it cannot be used by the justice system is an obstruction of justice — I've never heard of swallowing evidence before but if done to destroy evidence…