On The Wire

Wiretap Reports: Canada and the United States

In my post titled The Right to Notification dated August 2, 2014, I discussed s. 196 of the Criminal Code which contains the post facto transparency rule that a person who was the subject of a wiretap interception must be given notice within ninety days after the wiretap ended. It is ...
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Fourth Amendment Protects Hotel Records: U.S. Supreme Court Rules

On June 22, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States released its ruling in City of Los Angeles v. Patel et al, 576 U.S. _ (2015) that: (1) facial constitutional challenges can be brought under the Fourth Amendment; and, (2) the ordinance in the Los Angeles Municipal Code requiring ...
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Intercepts by GCHQ Violated Privacy Rights

On June 22, 2015, the British government's intelligence monitoring agency released its ruling that the interception of private communications of two international human rights groups by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was illegal and in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Article 8(1) provides: "Everyone ...
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What Is a Fair Trial?

On February 22, 1632, a book was delivered to Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, titled Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Ferdinando was a patron of its author Galileo Galilei, known mononymously as Galileo, an Italian mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. The Dialogue advocated the model of ...
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Supreme Court Rules Medical Marihuana Law Is Arbitrary

On June 11, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada released its unanimous opinion in R. v. Smith, 2015 SCC 34 that the law prohibiting medical access to marihuana other than dried marihuana is unconstitutional. In a per curiam ruling, the court held that the legislation violated the right to life, liberty and security ...
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The Anderson Report

In my post titled Anti-Terrorism Law Passed by Canada's Senate dated June 10, 2015, I made this point. While Parliament flailed ahead with passing Bill C-51 there has been a developing claw back of state surveillance powers in the United States and Britain - actual and proposed. Among the leading ...
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Anti-Terrorism Law Passed by Canada’s Senate

On May 25, 2015, criticism of Bill C-51, the Conservative government's reckless Anti-terrorism Act, 2015, went up a notch when the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the world's largest security oriented intergovernmental organization based in Vienna, released its legal analysis. OSCE concluded that Bill C-51 violates Articles 13 ...
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Judge’s Conduct Violated Right to Fair Trial

On January 17, 2012, Kimani Crawford was hanging out with a friend when they met up with Kevin Anderson. Anderson robbed a teenager of money which they used to buy liquor. They drank until four o'clock in the morning when Anderson decided to make a surprise visit to his girlfriend ...
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What is cyberlaw?

No one knows. Not that the question hasn't been asked. But, rather, because the domain of cyberlaw, or cybersecurity law, is one where the parameters have not been defined. Recent hacking attacks against Sony Pictures, Target and Anthem have heightened public interest and recently motivated the U.S. Congress to propose ...
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Prosecutors Can be Sued for Wrongful Convictions: Supreme Court Rules

On May 1, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada released a landmark ruling in Henry v. British Columbia, 2015 SCC 24 that damages in a civil claim may be awarded against the Crown for prosecutorial misconduct, absent proof of malice, under s. 24(1) of the Charter of Rights. In the ...
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