The Friday Brief: Managing Editor’s must-read items from this week

Matthew Grace

Here are my picks for the top stories we published this week.

Trial delays, Toronto Council battle with province among issues SCC to tackle in winter session
As it continues to cope with the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, Canada’s Supreme Court will use its winter session to tackle issues of delay in criminal proceedings, inconsistent evidence in a historical assault case, jurisdictional boundaries between labour arbitration and human rights adjudication and a province’s constitutional control over a city’s council.

Access to Justice: Fragility and resilience: Lessons of 2020 and 2021 potential
In her column, The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin writes: “One could be forgiven for some hyperbole when writing a column about the past year. The year 2020 and the beginning of 2021 has been a time of historic, and largely negative, extremes across the health, environment and social landscape. We have been personally and institutionally tested in ways that most of us could not previously have imagined.”

Mandatory vaccinations, work refusals major issues for employers in 2021, legal experts say
With the COVID-19 pandemic raging into the new year and people across Canada facing curfews and stay-at-home orders, legal observers are saying employers are likely to see challenges in terms of whether they can compel their employees to get vaccinated and what options they have in dealing with employees saying they feel uncomfortable with coming into work.

Ontario Court of Appeal upholds drug trafficking conviction despite 10(b) Charter breaches
Ontario’s Court of Appeal has upheld a man’s drug trafficking conviction despite multiple breaches of his right to counsel during the execution of a search warrant.

Court of Appeal overturns ‘unfair’ decision, grants Ontario firm enhanced interest rate
In a rare tax decision, the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that the Ontario government must pay a Toronto company an enhanced interest rate on a tax overpayment under the province’s Corporations Tax Act.

Matthew Grace is the Managing Editor of The Lawyer’s Daily.