Canada Case Law

Xu v. Ndax Canada

Court

British Columbia Court of Appeal

Appeal dismissed: trial judge's factual findings and credibility assessments were supported by the evidence and not palpably overriding; Ndax met any applicable standard of care by providing multiple warnings, personal inquiries and independent risk analysis, and appellant failed to prove causation; fresh evidence excluded for lack of due diligence and lack of material bearing on decisive issues.

Source excerpt

• Duty of care
• Standard of care
• Causation
• Fresh evidence (palmer criteria)
• Trial fairness and interpreter rights
• Credibility findings

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British Columbia (Director of Civil Forfeiture) v. Norgan

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

La Cour a interdit la découverte sur la question de la qualité pour agir de M. Norgan en contexte de confiscation civile, en appliquant Jones à la phase Charte.

• Standing to raise charter challenges
• Examination for discovery
• Severance of issues
• Search and seizure
• Exclusion of evidence
• Compounding charter breaches

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Mi’Kmaw (Family and Children’s Services) v. Sipekne’katik First Nation

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia courts will permit supplementation of an adverse party's discovery evidence where the tendered supplemental excerpts are clearly and directly connected to the impugned portions and are necessary to preserve the accuracy and integrity of the evidence; applying that test here, the Court allowed MFCS to tender narrow supplemental discovery from its witnesses because the additional material was directly connected, corrective, and necessary to avoid a misleading impression about ownership/control of funds used to construct the Building.

Source excerpt

• Use of discovery transcripts
• Supplementing discovery evidence
• Implied duty of good faith
• Ownership of funds and accounting treatment
• Indian act and reserve land jurisdiction

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R. v. Alexander

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court convicted Peter Anthony Alexander of four CDSA trafficking-possession counts, finding he constructively possessed drugs in a Nanaimo living room and intended trafficking.

• Possession
• Constructive possession
• Joint possession
• Trafficking
• Credibility assessment
• Circumstantial evidence

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Chow v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank

Court

Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

The Tribunal allowed this disclosure motion in part, ordering TD to produce the in-branch authentication policy plus Requests 8 and 9, but denying the remaining requests and refusing costs.

• Document disclosure
• Confidentiality
• Relevance
• Proportionality
• Legal costs
• Document-disclosure

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Zawilski v. Cogeco Connexion Inc.

Court

Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

The Tribunal granted Cogeco’s confidentiality motion and sealed five specified business documents, finding disclosure would risk confidential commercial interests.

• Confidentiality orders
• Open court principle
• Trade secrets
• Section 52 chra
• Sherman (estate) test
• In camera proceedings

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R. v. Drake

Court

Supreme Court of Nova Scotia

A Charter breach of the applicant's fair trial rights cannot be found prospectively on the basis of the impugned social media posts before jury selection; the application is premature as the capacity to empanel an impartial jury must be assessed at voir dire, but the court may grant non-Charter prospective remedies including strengthening challenge for cause questions, directing police to seek removal of offending material, and excluding identified individuals from attending under s.486(1); a broad prohibition on family members publishing is overbroad and unjustified.

Source excerpt

• Charter s.7
• Charter s.11(d)
• Publication bans
• Contempt of court
• Jury selection and challenges for cause
• Pre-trial publicity

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Xu v. Jin

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The Court found the RTB process procedurally unfair because the landlord could not properly see and answer the tenant’s evidence, set aside the merits decision, and remitted the matter.

• Procedural fairness
• Bias (reasonable apprehension)
• Service and exchange of evidence
• Remedy: rehearing
• Judicial review
• Procedural-fairness

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Richards v. Correctional Service Canada

Court

Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

The Tribunal requires more detailed will-say statements for the two objected-to witnesses (Ferrier and Williams) identifying specific events, names, locations and timeframes and requires the Commission to disclose any additional lines of questioning it intends to pursue; failure to comply may preclude examination at the hearing.

Source excerpt

• Witness disclosure
• Systemic discrimination
• Racial discrimination
• Religion
• Retaliation
• Sexual harassment

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R. v. Polemidiotis

Court

Court of Appeal for Ontario

The trial judge did not err: cross-count similar act evidence was admissible and properly used to establish a situation-specific propensity supporting the actus reus; the oral reasons, read in context, were sufficient; credibility findings were reasonable and entitled to deference; absence of evidence of motive and the prior consistent statement were properly considered (the latter to rebut recent fabrication); and the global 3.5 year sentence met the totality principle and was not unfit.

Source excerpt

• Similar act evidence
• Credibility and reliability
• Reasons for judgment
• Motive to fabricate
• Prior consistent statements
• Totality principle

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