Supreme Court of Canada 2011 Winter Term

The most recent issue of The Lawyers Weekly provides an overview of the kinds of issues the Supreme Court of Canada will be tackling this term:

"May a lawyer privately tell off a judge who has disparaged that lawyer in open court? Is it permissible for the defence to try to ferret out a police informant’s secret identity? Can an administrative tribunal hear a complaint already decided by another tribunal? When may local courts assume jurisdiction over defamation on the Internet?"

"These are some of the novel questions facing the Supreme Court of Canada in a winter session packed with interesting issues, including: the nature of the Crown’s fiduciary duty in non-aboriginal cases; foreseeability in historic environmental contamination cases; the existence of an aboriginal right to commercially fish; the new contours of the 'real and substantial connection' test in private international law; the ambit of the artistic merit defence in child pornography cases; and the application of the dreaded general anti-avoidance tax rule to a 'series of transactions'."

The Court website has a complete list of all of the Winter 2011 session cases. You can click on any case name for a summary of the issues involved as well as for links to facta from the parties. And don't forget the webcast link for each case. The oral hearings are webcast live and the webcasts are then archived "for your listening pleasure".