Stereo Decisis

On this long overdue episode of the pod, Professor Hilary Young and Robert Danay discuss the apparent new trend in which judges in Canada have been creating new common law torts. Some of the cases discussed include: Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia, 2022 ONSC 1303 in which Mandhane J. created the new tort of family violence; Caplan v. Atas, 2021 ONSC 670 in which Corbett J. created the new tort of cyber harassment; Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya, 2020 SCC 5, in which the Supreme Court of Canada declined to strike a claim rooted in the new tort of breaching customary international law; Merrifield v. Canada (Attorney General), 2019 ONCA 205, in which the Ontario Court of Appeal rejected a new tort of harassment; Crookes v. Newton, 2011 SCC 47 in which the Supreme Court described the circumstances under which the republication of a hyperlink may be considered defamatory (and also cited Rob's paper called “The Medium is not the Message: Reconciling Reputation and Free Expression in Cases of Internet Defamation” (2010), 56 McGill L.J. 1); and Barrick Gold Corp. v. Lopehandia, 2004 CanLII 12938 (ON CA), in which the Ontario Court of Appeal found the fact that a defamatory statement was published on the internet increased the quantum of damages and vitiated the availability of the qualified privilege defence. In Obiter Dicta: Hilary recommended "The World of Yousuf Karsh: A Private Essence" a photography exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Rob recommended Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha's performance on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert Series. If you have comments or questions you can find us on Twitter or Facebook.

In this inaugural Stereo Decisis "Shorts" episode, we pay tribute to the legacy of Joseph Arvay, QC, who passed away on December 7, 2020 at the age of 71. Cases of Arvay's mentioned in the episode include: Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford2013 SCC 72Carter v. Canada (Attorney General)2015 SCC 5Canada (Attorney General) v. PHS Community Services Society2011 SCC 4 Donations in honour of Arvay's memory can be made to the Hope Centre in Welland, Ontario. Find us on Twitter and Facebook

In this episode of Stereo Decisis, Hilary Young and Robert Danay are joined by the former Dean of the University of Calgary's Faculty of Law, Patricia Hughes. The discussion focuses on the appeal of R. v. Sears, 2019 ONCJ 104 in which James Sears and Leroy St. Germaine were convicted of wilful promotion of hatred contrary to s. 319 of the Criminal Code. The basis for their conviction was the publication of Your Ward News, a local periodical distributed in Toronto (and online), which contained messages that were found by the Court to promote hatred of Jewish people and women. On appeal, Mr. Sears suggested that his lawyer did not afford him competent representation. The basis for this argument was the fact that Sears' lawyer had refused to adduce evidence and make arguments to the effect that the hateful messages in the impugned periodical did not violate the Criminal Code because they were true. In a recent article on Slaw.ca, Patricia pointed out some of the ethical issues that arose for Sears' lawyer under such circumstances. In obiter dicta, Patricia recommends the Marshal Guarnaccia detective novels by Magdalen Nabb, Hilary recommends the "Buy Nothing" facebook pages and Rob recommends chihuahua puppies as pets. Find us on Twitter and Facebook.

On this episode of the podcast, Hilary Young and Robert Danay are joined by constitutional litigator and self-styled "Blackademic," Joshua Sealy-Harrington. The discussion primarily centred on the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Chouhan, which was a constitutional challenge to Bill C-75, a law that removed the ability of an accused (or a prosecutor) to remove potential jurors peremptorily. This law was passed in the aftermath of Gerald Stanley's controversial acquittal in the murder of Colton Boushie, a 22-year old Indigenous man in Saskatchewan. Joshua represented the intervener BC Civil Liberties Association in Chouhan. The discussion also touched on the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Fraser v. Canada (Attorney General), 2020 SCC 28, which was a constitutional challenge to an aspect of the RCMP's statutory pension scheme that disproportionately affected women. It was the first decision in which the Court found an unjustifiable breach of the right to equality in s. 15 of the Charter on the basis of "adverse impact" discrimination. In obiter dicta, Hilary recommended the songs of Tom Lehrer, which the math professor/satirical musician recently released into the public domain. Rob recommended the CBC show You Can't Ask That! and Joshua recommended The Alchemy of Race and Rights by Patricia J. Williams. Find us on Twitter and Facebook!

On this episode of Stereo Decisis, Oliver Pulleyblank, Hilary Young and Robert Danay are joined by Angela Swan, who was recently described as "nothing short of a venerated celebrity in both Canadian contract law and the Canadian legal community at large." Angela brings her decades of experience and expertise to discuss COVID-19 and contractual clauses such as force majeure and material adverse event/change. In so doing, she mentions Akorn, Inc. v. Fresenius Kabi AG - No. 2018-0300-JTL, 2018 Del. Ch. LEXIS 325 (Ch. Oct. 1, 2018), which is one of the only cases in which a court actually found that a material adverse change clause was properly invoked by a party to a contract. In obiter dicta, Hilary recommends a podcast called My Dad Wrote a Porno, Oliver recommends the Raven DeBriefs podcast and Rob recommends a Netflix documentary called Circus of Books. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Find us on Twitter and Facebook!

On this episode of Stereo Decisis, Hilary Young, Robert Danay and Oliver Pulleyblank are joined by Justice Lorne Sossin of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities that Canadian courts are navigating as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the discussion, Rob mentions: Access to Justice in the Time of Social DistancingtweetCivil Resolution TribunalR. v. N.S., 2012 SCC 72niqab Ontario v. Ontario Association of Midwives, 2020 CanLII 25862 (ON SCDC)rebuke by a Florida judge of a lawyer who attended a virtual Zoom proceeding shirtless from bed In Obiter Dicta, Justice Sossin recommends Man in the Red Coat by Julian Barnes and The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson, Rob recommends the Dr. Henry Shoe by John Fluevog, Hilary recommends knitting while attending certain online meetings and Oliver recommends the "primitivist" music of John Fahey. Find us on Twitter and Facebook and please leave us a rating/review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you found us!

On this episode of Stereo Decisis, Robert Danay, Oliver Pulleyblank and Hilary Young are joined by David Quayat to discuss the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya, 2020 SCC 5. This case involves three former workers at a mine in Eritrea who launched a lawsuit in British Columbia seeking damages from a Canadian company that owned the mine. They claimed to have been subjected to torture, slavery and other human rights abuses at the mine and asserted that Nevsun was liable in tort based on breaches of customary human rights law. A majority of the Supreme Court of Canada allowed the lawsuit to proceed. In Obiter Dicta, David recommends donating to a food bank, Hilary recommends The Oland Murder, a four part documentary on the murder of millionaire Richard Oland and the retrial of his son Dennis, Oliver recommends audio books and a recent album by Daniel Romano's Outfit and Rob recommends The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts! Feedback, comments or suggestions? Find us on Twitter or Facebook.

On this, our first post-coronavirus pandemic episode, Hilary Young and Robert Danay are joined by Steven Penney, Professor of Law at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, to discuss R v Brown, 2020 ABQB 166. This was a case that gained national attention, in which a young man with no history of violence, consumed alcohol and magic mushrooms and went on a naked rampage in which he broke into strangers' homes and committed a brutal assault, all of which he did not recall doing after the fact. The discussion touched on the defence of extreme intoxication automatism, the constitutionality of section 33.1 of the Criminal Code and more. In obiter dicta, Steven recommended The Goodness Paradox by Richard Wrangham, Hilary recommended another story involving magic mushroom fuelled naked criminality, and Rob recommended a fantastic online criminal procedure lecture by University of Arkansas Law School professor Alex Nunn.

On this episode of Stereo Decisis, Robert Danay and Oliver Pulleyblank are joined by Caroline Mandell, a legal writing coach, litigation consultant and former counsel to the Court of Appeal for Ontario to discuss the Supreme Court's landmark administrative law decision in Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65. Caroline brings her particular expertise and perspective to explain Vavilov's anticipated effects on the scope and quality of reasons tendered by administrative decision-makers as well as some of the ways in which the decision might have set the bar higher for administrative decision-makers in this regard than that which is expected of judges themselves. In Obiter Dicta, Oliver discusses The Neon Skyline, a new album by Canadian singer songwriter Andy Shauf, Rob explains how he met his wife in high school and Caroline talks about the retirement of Justice Robert Sharpe and recommends his book, Good Judgment: Making Judicial Decisions (2018, UofTPress). Find us on Twitter and Facebook. If you haven't done so already, please leave us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you downloaded this episode.

On this edition of stereo decisis, Hilary Young, Robert Danay and Oliver Pulleyblank discuss the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Kosoian v. Société de transport de Montréal, 2019 SCC 59, which involved a woman who won a decade long battle for compensation after being wrongfully arrested for failing to hold the handrail on an escalator in a Laval metro station. The crew also discussed a recent series of decisions in the Federal Court of Appeal pertaining to the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX). In obiter dicta, Rob discussed the recent controversies over the conferral of graduate law degrees at UBC without the name of the law school's benefactor, Peter A. Allard, and the use of the name Ludlow Hall at UNB Faculty of Law.

On this episode of Stereo Decisis, Hilary Young and Robert Danay are joined by Professor Carys Craig (Osgoode Hall Law School) to discuss the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Keatley Surveying Ltd. v. Teranet Inc., 2019 SCC 43. The discussion touches on: Vaver, David. “Copyright and the State in Canada and the United States” (1996), 10 I.P.J. 187; and R. v. James Lorimer and Company Limited, [1984] 1 F.C. 1065; (1984), 77 C.P.R. (2d) 262; 180 N.R. 351 (C.A.). The discussion also touched on the recent news story that the street artist Banksy has set up a homewares store in a suburb of London as part of an ongoing trademark dispute. In obiter dicta, both Hilary and Carys discussed the recent passing of Professor Ian Kerr and some of the many tributes to him, including: The LawBytes Podcast, Episode 24: A Tribute to Ian Kerr (Michael Geist); and "Remembering Ian Kerr" Jotwell (September 26, 2019) Carys also referred to the last paper authored by Professor Kerr before his passing, which she co-authored: C. Craig and I. Kerr, "The Death of the AI Author" Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper (2019) Find us on Twitter and Facebook and support us on Patreon!

On this long overdue episode of the podcast, Hilary Young, Oliver Pulleyblank and Robert Danay are joined by Professor Paul Daly of the University of Ottawa (and the influential Administrative Law Matters blog) to discuss the recent decision of the UK Supreme Court in Miller, R (on the application of) v The Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41 (also known as the Case on Prorogation). The discussion touched on a number of related cases on prorogation and the justiciability of perogative powers in Canada including: Guergis v. Novak et al, 2012 ONSC 4579 Black v. Canada (Prime Minister), 2001 CanLII 8537 (ON CA) Galati v. Canada (Governor General), [2015] 4 FCR 3 Hupacasath First Nation v. Canada (Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada), 2015 FCA 4 The discussion also touched on the news media's coverage of Lady Hale (and her unusual brooches). Please rate and review the show and share your thoughts (or financial support) with us on Twitter, Facebook or Patreon!

On this episode of the podcast, Oliver Pulleyblank, Hilary Young and Robert Danay are joined by guest Jane Thomson to discuss a variety of topics that happen to relate to death. The first flows out of a recent case in which two parents were granted the right by a court to harvest the sperm of their deceased son for the purposes of creating a grandchild. The second involves a woman whose dying wish to have her dog euthanized and buried with her was granted by her estate's executor. In obiter dicta, Hilary continues the death theme by discussing a recent Federal Court case in which damages in the amount of $20 million were awarded to members of a class action lawsuit against a company that reproduced obituaries on its website for profit without consent, Oliver discusses his tomato plants and his daughter, Rob discusses a recent case from Newfoundland in which a man was acquitted of very unusual child pornography charges and Jane discusses her affection for reality television. Find us on Twitter and Facebook and support us on Patreon

On this episode of the podcast, Hilary Young, Oliver Pulleyblank and Robert Danay discuss the recent decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal in 9147-0732 Québec inc v Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales, 2019 QCCA 373 in which a majority of the Court found that corporations enjoy protection against cruel and unusual punishment under s. 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Rob mentions an interesting blog post on the case by Leonid Sirota. In obiter dicta, Oliver discusses his favourite spring beverage and issues a challenge to Hilary to identify the perfect spring beer. Find us on @twitter or Facebook Send us your voice memo recorded questions, comments or replies to robert@stereo-decisis.com Become a patron of the pod on Patreon and leave us a rating and a review wherever you got this podcast.

On this week's episode of the pod, Hilary Young, Robert Danay and Oliver Pulleyblank discuss: R v. Jarvis, 2019 SCC 10 serial killer Bruce McArthurmosque mass murderer Alexandre Bissonnette Orphan Well Association v. Grant Thornton Ltd. In obiter dicta, Oliver discusses his recent trip to Palm Springs and Hilary unlocks some secret commands on Apple keyboards. Rob's obiter, which is about a recent threat of litigation by a son against his parents for compensation due to the fact that he was born without his prior consent, is available exclusively to our Patreon supporters as a bonus segment. We are on Twitter (@stereodecisis) and Facebook.

On this episode of the show Hilary Young, Oliver Pulleyblank and Robert Danay discuss the recent guilty plea to dangerous driving offences by the accused in the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash, the decision of the United Nations Human Rights Committee that the Indian Act discriminates against women and the decision of the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Frank v. Canada (Attorney General), 2019 SCC 1. In obiter dicta, Oliver talks about the upcoming release of new albums, Hilary talks about the appropriation of Justin Trudeau's likeness (and that of his family) by a Kentucky outfitter and Rob talks about Nike's new self-lacing shoes. We are on Twitter: @stereodecisis ...and Facebook ...and Patreon!

On this week's episode of Stereo Decisis, the crew discuss the recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Vice Media Canada Inc., 2018 SCC 53 and Moore v. Sweet, 2018 SCC 52 as well as the federal government's recent announcement that it will introduce legislation devolving control over child welfare to Indigenous governments. In obiter dicta, Oliver recommends Nanette, a genre-bending Netflix special, Hilary recommends her beer Advent calendar and Rob recommends a story in which Brett Favre was duped into recording a video in which he inadvertently declared his support for white supremacy. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Patreon. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review.

On this week's episode of stereo decisis, the crew discuss the decision of the European Court of Justice that tastes may not be copyrighted, Statistics Canada's controversial attempt at collecting Canadians' banking information and the Supreme Court of Canada's decision absolving Joseph Groia of law society disciplinary sanctions for uncivil conduct. In obiter dicta Hilary talks about an upcoming Supreme Court of Canada case involving a woman who refused to hold the guardrail on an escalator in Montreal, Oliver recommends two interesting recently published novels and Rob talks about attending a concert by Record Club, Oliver's new band. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and donate to the pod on Patreon!

On this week's episode of Stereo Decisis, Hilary Young, Oliver Pulleyblank and Robert Danay discuss some recent developments in the area of medical assistance in dying ("MAID") in Canada. The discussion is sparked by the case of Audrey Parker, who had terminal brain cancer and elected to die earlier than she wanted because she feared losing the capacity to consent to obtaining medical assistance right before her death, as is currently required under the applicable legislation. The crew also follow up on the resolution of Emilie Taman's Twitter blocking lawsuit against Mayor Jim Watson, changes to the law governing the transfer of inmates to Indigenous healing lodges and the ruling of the European Court of Human rights approving of the application of an Austrian law prohibiting blasphemy to a case involving statements made about the Prophet Mohammed. In obiter, Hilary discusses the sending of shoplifting demand letters, Oliver discusses the spotting of a possible alien space probe and Rob discusses requests for portraits of Queen Elizabeth that have been swamping federal Parliamentarians in Australia. We are on Twitter: @stereodecisis And Facebook... ...and Patreon!

On this week's episode of the show, Hilary Young and Robert Danay are joined by Professor Emmett MacFarlane to discuss the recent lawsuit by Emilie Taman and others in which they allege that the Mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson, violated their constitutional free expression rights when he blocked them on Twitter. In so doing, they mention the excellent blog post on the topic by Benjamin Oliphant. In obiter, Rob applies the Bechdel test to the new movie A Star is Born, starring Lady Gaga and also recommends the new podcast Thunder Bay, by Canadaland, Emmett talks about an amazing scene in the new season of the Netflix show Daredevil and Hilary talks about the anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard and the raising of the "straight pride" flag in Chipman, New Brunswick. We are on Twitter: @stereodecisis And Facebook... ...and Patreon!