Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer
This has often been attributed to Sun Tzu and sometimes to Niccolò Machiavelli or Petrarch, but there are no published sources yet found which predate its use by “Michael Corleone”…
James C Morton
Once again a failure to apply W(D) leads to a retrial
R. v. Jeffrey Lea Hogg 2013 PECA 11 holds: In failing to properly apply the burden of proof, the trial judge made two errors in law: 1. After deciding that…
Fifty years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a dream" speech; here’s the text
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years…
Quebec Values? No, just politics of separatism.
Newspaper reports suggest that planned legislation in Quebec will forbid the wearing of religious garb in government facilities. It is unclear if there would be exceptions for religious hospitals or…
Civil contempt is the intentional doing of an act which is prohibited by court order
Sabourin and Sun Group of Companies v. Laiken, 2013 ONCA 530 holds that, to constitute civil contempt, it is not necessary to show that an act was deliberately contumacious; civil…
The trier of fact should not consider the accused’s evidence in isolation
R. v. Menow, 2013 MBCA 72 is a good source for the proposition that an accused’s evidence at trial is not to be considered in isolation: Every person is presumed…
In Ontario, as a general proposition, a vendor is, apart from express contract, under no general duty to disclose defects relating to title or to quality
Outaouais Synergest Inc. v. Lang Michener LLP, 2013 ONCA 526: The trial judge found, at paras. 106-107, that the cost recovery clause could be said to be a defect relating…
Quiet Enjoyment is not limited to breaches of title or possession but it must be a breach made by the lessor or of those lawfully claiming under the lessor
In Kenny v Preen 1 QB 499, Pearson LJ in the Court of Appeal said (at 511): The implied covenant for quiet enjoyment is not an absolute covenant protecting a…
"Les homes construisent trop de murs et pas assez de ponts." (Men build too many walls and not enough bridges.)
Commonly attributed to Isaac Newton and usually presented as “we built too many walls and not enough bridges”. As even a cursory knowledge of Isaac Newton’s thinking would suggest, this…
Why didn’t Hitler use poison gas against Allied forces?
During the Second German War both sides expected the other to use poison gas. And both sides were ready to retaliate in kind for the first use of such gas.…
Misapprehension of evidence
R. v. Vokurka, 2013 NLCA 51: In R. v. MacIsaac, 2013 NLCA 26 (CanLII), 2013 NLCA 26, Rowe J.A. summarized the law relating to misapprehension of evidence: The test for…
Justice and Justices of the Peace
From the current edition of the Law Times, an Ontario newspaper for the legal profession: Judges and justices of the peace have their remuneration determined in a peculiar way. Contract…
Do appeals need transcripts? Courts say yes!
Most appeals do not really need the transcripts; the appeal is argued and the dusty red books of transcripts remain unopened. This is especially true in civil cases. The appeal…