CanLII Offers New Commentary Text on Exclusion of Evidence

CanLII (Canadian Legal Information Institute) recently added to the new commentary section on its website by publishing The Supreme Court of Canada on S. 24(2) of the Charter by Hon. Gerard Mitchell, the retired chief justice of Prince Edward Island:

"Section 24(2) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms directs courts, to exclude unconstitutionally obtained evidence where, having regard to all the circumstances, its admission would bring the administration of justice into disrepute. As part of the Charter, and by virtue of s. 52 of the Constitution Act, 1982, s. 24(2) is the supreme law of the land. It changed the common law which prior thereto would have admitted virtually all reliable relevant evidence regardless of how it was obtained.1 However, s. 24(2) does not completely erase the common law rule. It does not provide for the exclusion of all unconstitutionally obtained evidence. In fact, such evidence remains presumptively admissible. Section 24(2) only mandates exclusion where, after considering all the circumstances, the court concludes that admission of the evidence would bring the administration of justice into disrepute."

CanLII, whose funding comes from members of Canada’s provincial and territorial law societies, makes Canadian legal information, mostly legislation an case law, available for free via the Internet.But it has recently started offering commentary.

Earlier this year, CanLII described its strategic priorities for 2012-2014 as including the following:

"When it comes to accessing content on or through the CanLII site, CanLII will strive to expand its users’ access to high value legal materials. This may involve incorporating secondary sources into CanLII, but it could also occur through facilitating searches of materials hosted elsewhere as CanLII’s interests go beyond growing its own site and extend to pursuing partnerships that advance the goals of other leading legal information providers. Potential partners include not-for-proft as well as for-proft institutions with an interest in expanding the free availability of their legal materials."

"CanLII will also seek out opportunities to improve understanding. For example, working with educational and other organizations, CanLII will explore opportunities to develop specialized services such as topic compilations and open access casebooks, and other professional user-generated content."