Category: other

Although a young person is jointly charged with committing a criminal offence with an adult, a young person cannot be tried together with that adult. The YCJA is the exclusive means of trying a young person for a federal offence. The Act does not allow for the transfer of a young person to adult court only to keep the young person together with an adult co-actor in the alleged crime. The young person and the adult must be tried separately, the former under the YCJA and the adult in the adult court and subject to the provisions of the Criminal Code. The Attorney General is not entitled to prefer a direct indictment requiring that the youth and the adult be tried together.
The Youth Justice Court is separate from the adult system; with separate courts and rules. In reality, however, the same Judges usually preside as Judges in Provincial Court for adults and also perform the role of Judges for the Youth Court. Consequently, it is not uncommon to hear the clerk of the court stand to say, “Adult court is in recess, Youth Court to commence” and thereafter the same Judge, who, minutes before, was presiding in adult court, is, by these few words uttered by the clerk of the court, transformed into a Youth Court Judge for proceedings under the YCJA. It all must seem rather confusing to uninformed members of the public. A Youth Justice Court Judge is a Judge appointed or designated to sit in a Court established or designated as a Youth Justice Court. Most, if not all, are also designated as Judges of the Provincial Court system. And, we are about to discuss the circumstances under which a Superior Court Justice will preside as a Youth Court Justice.

Continue reading “Jurisdiction and Division of the Courts”

In Loyola High School v. Québec1 the Supreme Court of Canada was dealing with a high school that was private, English-speaking and Catholic. Its teaching curriculum was administered by the Jesuit order since the school’s founding in the 1840’s. Most of the students at the school came from Catholic families.

In September 2008, as part of a mandatory core curriculum in schools across Québec, the Québec government developed a program on ethics and religion that required a neutral and objective perspective. The program sought to inculcate openness to human rights, diversity and respect for others. The orientation of the program was strictly secular and cultural, and, required teachers to be objective and impartial in all matters religious. The program did permit applications to the Quebec government for exemption and Loyola applied for such an exemption.
Loyola was not granted an exemption. The school challenged the decision of the Québec government. The court found that the Minister of Education’s decision requiring that all aspects of Loyola’s proposed program be taught from a neutral perspective, including the teaching of Catholicism, limited freedom of religion more than was necessary given the statutory objectives of Québec’s program on ethics.

The court found that “freedom of religion” meant that no one can be forced to adhere to, or refrain from, a particular set of religious beliefs. This includes both the individual and collective aspects of religious belief. Religious freedom under the Charter must take into account the socially embedded nature of religious belief and the deep connections between it and its manifestations through institutions and traditions.

Continue reading “Religious Freedom”

Statements made by, or, attributed to the accused, made outside the evidence given in the courtroom, may be admissible for or against the accused. The statement(s) may be inculpatory, exculpatory or neutral in nature. An inculpatory statement is one that incriminates or tends to incriminate the accused. The opposite of inculpatory is exculpatory. An exculpatory statement is one that tends to exonerate the accused. Out of court statements by the accused may be used in a variety of circumstances, including, statements made by the accused to investigators, or, remarks attributed to him by others who testify about what he said to them that are relevant to the case.

Continue reading “Out of Court Statements of Accused”