Canadian Appeals Monitor – SCC Monitor Post For July 2016

We may be into the lazy days of midsummer, but the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") has been busy, releasing a number of important decisions in the areas of insurance, contract, labour & employment, constitutional, property, evidence and administrative law.

Judgment

Since our last SCC Monitor post, the SCC has released the following judgments of interest:

Jurisdiction Over Radiocommunications: Rogers Communications Inc. v. Châteauguay (City), 2016 SCC 23 ( 36027) - One of McCarthys' Top 10 Appeals to Watch in 2016, in this decision the SCC confirmed the Federal government's jurisdiction over the location of radiocommunication infrastructure and held that the municipality's notice of reserve, which prevented Rogers from constructing an antenna system on a certain property, was ultra vires. The majority provided important guidance on the scope of the doctrines of cooperative federalism and interjurisdictional immunity. Read our blog post on this decision here. Right to a Speedy Trial: R. v. Jordan, 2016 SCC 27 ( 36068) - The SCC overhauled the Charter s. 11(b) right to a trial in a reasonable time. Effectively, the accused in a criminal case is entitled to a trial within 30 months (in a superior court action), or within 18 months (in a provincial court action), from the date of the charge. Any delay longer than that presumptively breaches s. 11(b). This recent blog post contains an excellent summary and discussion of the decision, including of the potential impact to corporate defendants facing criminal or quasi-criminal prosecutions. Terminal Discord on Standard of Review: Wilson v. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., 2016 SCC 29 ( 36354) - The SCC held that non-unionized federal employees can only be terminated for cause, if those employees choose to challenge their termination under the Canada Labour Code (unless the employee was laid off because of lack of work or discontinuance of a function). If the non-unionized employee opts to challenge the termination in court, the normal common law remedies continue to apply (notice or pay in lieu). The case is significant because the SCC justices displayed sharply divergent views on the administrative law standard of review analysis; see this previous blog post for a discussion of the decisions below. Presumptive Jurisdiction Over Dispute: Lapointe Rosenstein Marchand Melançon LLP v. Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, 2016 SCC 30 ( 36087) - Another one of McCarthy's Top 10 Appeals to Watch in 2016, in this...

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