The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices,whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law,and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial,territorial and federal appellate courts. The Supreme Court is bijural,hearing cases from two major legal traditions and bilingual,hearing cases in both official languages of Canada.
Bora Laskin was a Canadian jurist who served as the 14th chief justice of Canada from 1973 to 1984. Laskin was appointed a puisne justice of the Supreme Court in 1970,and served on the Ontario Court of Appeal from 1965 to 1970. Before he was named to the bench,Laskin worked as a lawyer and in academia.
John Marshall Harlan was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1955 to 1971. Harlan is usually called John Marshall Harlan II to distinguish him from his grandfather,John Marshall Harlan,who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1877 to 1911.
Ronald Martland,was a Canadian lawyer and Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. He was the second Albertan appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada,taking the place of Justice Nolan,who died after only a short time on the Court.
Rocco Galati is an Italian-born Canadian lawyer who specializes in cases involving constitutional law.
William Ian Corneil Binnie is a former puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada,serving from January 8,1998 to October 27,2011. Of the justices appointed to the Supreme Court in recent years,he is one of the few appointed directly from private practice. On his retirement from the Court,he was described by The Globe and Mail as "arguably the country's premier judge",by La Presse as "probably the most influential judge in Canada of the last decade" and by the Toronto Star as “one of the strongest hands on the court.”
Harper v Canada (AG),[2004] 1 S.C.R. 827,2004 SCC 33,is a leading decision of the Supreme Court of Canada wherein the Court ruled that Canada Elections Act's spending limits on third party election advertising did violate section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms but was justified under Section One of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Marshall Rothstein is a former Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
In Canadian constitutional law,the doctrine of paramountcy establishes that where there is a conflict between valid provincial and federal laws,the federal law will prevail and the provincial law will be inoperative to the extent that it conflicts with the federal law. Unlike interjurisdictional immunity,which is concerned with the scope of the federal power,paramountcy deals with the way in which that power is exercised.
Reference Re Public Service Employee Relations Act (Alta) [1987] 1 S.C.R. 313,commonly referred to as the Alberta Reference,was a leading opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada on the right to freedom of association under section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court held that section 2(d) did not include the right to strike. In 2015,Alberta Reference was overruled,with the Court recognizing a right to strike in the Charter.
Thomas Albert Cromwell is a Canadian jurist and former Puisne Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada. After eleven years on the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal,Cromwell was nominated to succeed Michel Bastarache and occupy the seat traditionally reserved for Atlantic provinces on the Supreme Court of Canada by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and assumed office on December 22,2008. Cromwell retired in September 2016,and was succeeded by Malcolm Rowe.
Alberta v Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony,2009 SCC 37,[2009] 2 SCR 567 is a freedom of religion decision by the Supreme Court of Canada. The court addressed whether a requirement that all licensed drivers be photographed unconstitutionally violated the Hutterites' right to freedom of religion.
Michael Moldaver is a former Canadian judge. He was a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada from his 2011 appointment by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper until his retirement in 2022. Before his elevation to the nation's top court,he served as a judge at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal for Ontario for over 20 years. A former criminal lawyer,Moldaver is considered an expert in both Canadian criminal law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Robert Patrick Armstrong is a Canadian lawyer and retired judge. He served on the Court of Appeal for Ontario from 2002 until his retirement in 2013. Before serving on the bench,Armstrong was a partner at Torys and was lead counsel in the Dubin Inquiry on steroid use in Canadian sports. After leaving the bench,Armstrong joined Arbitration Place,a Canadian group specializing in alternative dispute resolution.
Ernst v Alberta Energy Regulator was a 2017 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada dealing with the extent to which damages are available as a remedy under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Sheilah L. Martin is a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada,having served in that role since December 18,2017. She was nominated to the court by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on November 29,2017. Before her appointment to Canada's highest court,Martin had served on the Court of Appeal of Alberta,the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories,and the Court of Appeal of Nunavut since 2016,and the Court of King's Bench of Alberta from 2005 to 2016. Martin is considered an expert in judicial ethics.
In Reference re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act 2021 SCC 11,the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on 25 March 2021 that the federal carbon pricing law is constitutional.
R v Stairs,2022 SCC 11 is a constitutional rights decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court established new standards for searches of a person's home after they have been arrested. At issue in the case was whether the traditional common law power of Search Incident to Arrest,which allows police officers to engage in warrantless searches of lawfully arrested persons,was compliant with section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as it related to searches of the home.
Moore v. Harper,600 U.S. 1 (2023),is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States related to independent state legislature theory (ISL),a doctrine that asserts state legislatures have sole authority to establish election laws for federal elections within their respective states without judicial review by state courts,presentment to state governors,and without constraint by state constitutions. The case arose from the redistricting of North Carolina's districts by its legislature after the 2020 United States census,which the state courts found to be too artificial and partisan,and an extreme case of gerrymandering in favor of the Republican Party.
Ontario v Fraser [2011] 2 SCR 3 is a Canadian labour law case concerning the protection of collective bargaining under section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. At issue was an Ontario law that created a separate labour relations regime for agricultural workers. The Court considered the standard for establishing a breach of section 2(d) in cases where government action is alleged to interfere with collective bargaining rights. A majority of the Court upheld the law,finding no breach of sections 2(d) or 15 of the Charter.
