Canada Case Law

R. v. White

Court

Nova Scotia Court of Appeal

The sentencing judge erred as a matter of law by relying on Bratzer, an exceptional and materially distinguishable precedent, which led to a failure to apply the proportionality principle and the primacy of denunciation and deterrence; the Court allowed the Crown appeals, set aside the conditional sentence and substituted a fit global sentence of four years' imprisonment with specified surrender and credit directions.

Source excerpt

• Sentencing principles
• Proportionality
• Denunciation
• Deterrence
• Conditional sentence
• Irca/social context evidence

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Bilin v. Sidhu

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Applying Rule 14-1(3) and related authority, the registrar concluded that defendant Hardip's repeated disclosure failures, lack of candour and fabricated/reconstructed evidence unjustifiably lengthened the litigation and warranted special costs. The registrar allowed special costs for the action through assessment but applied a small reduction to the amount claimed to account for fees potentially attributable to appearances for which costs were not awarded or for appeals. The proper award after assessment was $260,000 inclusive of disbursements, taxes and assessment costs, and the registrar d…

Source excerpt

• Promissory note
• Resulting trust
• Special costs
• Disclosure and discovery
• Certificate of pending litigation
• Costs assessment

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Jewish National Fund of Canada Inc. v. Canada (National Revenue)

Court

Federal Court of Appeal

The Court held that a party seeking a Rule 317 search and production order must show an air of reality to allegations of maladministration and that any order must be proportionate; on the evidence before it the Fund established that the Minister had not fully complied with the June 10, 2025 Order, and the appropriate remedy was not to allow the appeal but to order further searches, a supplemental affidavit detailing the nature and scope of searches and who conducted them, and to allow limited cross‑examination, with short timelines and costs in the cause; the appeal remains for the merits pan…

Source excerpt

• Bias
• Search and production orders
• Disclosure
• Proportionality
• Abuse of process

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R. v. Van Dyke

Court

British Columbia Court of Appeal

The trial judge correctly applied s.35, considered the totality of the evidence (including video), found the appellant's final push disproportionate and not reasonable in the circumstances, and the Crown disproved the defence beyond a reasonable doubt; therefore the conviction and sentence stand.

Source excerpt

• S.35 criminal code defence of property
• Manslaughter (unlawful act)
• Objective reasonableness
• Proportionality
• Standard of review (correctness)

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First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and Assembly of First Nations v. Attorney General of Canada (representing the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada)

Court

Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

The Tribunal granted the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, the Southern Chiefs’ Organization Inc. and Our Children, Our Way Society limited interested-party status subject to strict conditions.

• First nations child and family services
• Jordan's principle
• Interested party status
• Proportionality
• Systemic discrimination
• Remedies

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R. v. Farac

Court

British Columbia Court of Appeal

The sentencing judge lawfully considered collateral immigration consequences but reasonably concluded that given the gravity of the firearms and threatening offences, the appellant's high moral culpability, lack of remorse and limited rehabilitative information, there was no principled, proportionate way to impose a conditional or artificially reduced sentence to avoid deportation; the judge did not err in declining a CSO nor in the aggregate sentence, and the appeal is dismissed.

Source excerpt

• Firearms offences
• Uttering threats
• Conditional sentence orders
• Collateral immigration consequences (deportation)
• Totality principle
• Proportionality

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R. v. Knight

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

A 21-month custodial sentence is fit and proportionate for mid-level trafficking of 817.44 grams of methamphetamine, but on the facts—including entrenched addiction, chronic pain treated by OAT, significant post-offence rehabilitation, stability and five years without new convictions, and the risk that institutional incarceration would undermine rehabilitation—a conditional sentence order (21 months served in the community under strict, punitive conditions) is available, consistent with s.742.1 and the objectives of denunciation, deterrence, rehabilitation and community protection; ancillary…

Source excerpt

• Possession for purpose of trafficking
• Conditional sentence order
• Denunciation
• General deterrence
• Proportionality
• Community safety

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Ontario Public Service Employees Union v. Ontario (Attorney General)

Court

Court of Appeal for Ontario

Bill 178 ended an Ontario college strike and sent unresolved issues to binding arbitration. The Court of Appeal held the law limited s. 2(d) but was justified under s. 1.

• Charter s.2(d) freedom of association
• Section 1 justification (oakes)
• Back-to-work legislation
• Interest arbitration
• Right to strike
• Minimal impairment

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Temate v. Public Health Agency of Canada

Court

Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

The Tribunal found abuse of process after the Complainant concealed a fictitious retraction letter, but it declined to dismiss the complaint at this stage.

• Abuse of process
• Disclosure obligations
• Dismissal of proceedings
• Procedural fairness
• Proportionality
• Abuse-of-process

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R. v. Batisse

Court

Court of Appeal for Ontario

The Court of Appeal for Ontario dismissed Amanda Lee Batisse’s sentence appeal, holding that the five-year sentence was fit and effectively the statutory minimum.

• Sentencing
• Proportionality
• Attempted murder
• Firearms offences
• Gladue factors
• Joint submission

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