Links to legal resources
A comprehensive list of links to various legal resources.
Media contacts and legal experts
Supreme Court of Canada's media portal
http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/mediaportal/index_e.asp
Justice Canada's NewsRoom
http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/news/index.html
Canadian Law List: An online directory of 55,000 lawyers, law professors and other legal experts
http://www.canadianlawlist.com/
Ad IDEM: Advocates in Defence of Expression in the Media. A national association of media law practitioners, with contact information for members and commentary on media law cases and issues
http://www.adidem.org/Main_Page
Resources
A Compendium of Law and Judges: A retired British Columbia judge has compiled this comprehensive introduction to the justice system and criminal and civil law
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/legal_compendium/
Duhaime Law: Information on criminal law, divorce, civil litigation, legal history and other areas of the law
http://www.duhaime.org/
Legal Dictionary: Plain-language definitions of legal terms
http://www.duhaime.org/Dictionary/
Legislation
Charter of Rights & Freedoms
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/Const_index.html
Criminal Code of Canada
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/
Youth Criminal Justice Act
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/Y-1.5/index.html
Canadian Legal Information Institute: A searchable database of the laws and regulations of the federal goverment and each province and territory
http://www.canlii.org/
Court rulings
Canadian Legal Information Institute: Full-text versions of court and tribunal rulings at the federal level and for each province and territory, searchable by keyword
http://www.canlii.org/
Supreme Court of Canada decisions
http://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/en/nav.do
Court websites
Courts in most jurisdictions maintain websites with contact information and links to electronic versions of their rulings:
Supreme Court of Canada
http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca
Federal Court of Canada
http://www.fct-cf.gc.ca
Alberta
http://www.albertacourts.ab.ca
British Columbia
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca
Manitoba
http://www.manitobacourts.mb.ca
Newfoundland and Labrador
Supreme Court Appeal Division
http://www.gov.nf.ca/just/LAWCOURT/appeal.htm
Supreme Court Trial Division
http://www.gov.nf.ca/just/LAWCOURT/trial.htm
New Brunswick
Court of Appeal
http://www.gnb.ca/cour/03COA1/index-e.asp
Court of Queen’s Bench
http://www.gnb.ca/cour/04CQB/index-e.asp
Northwest Territories
http://www.nwtcourts.ca
Nova Scotia
http://www.courts.ns.ca
Nunavut
http://www.nucj.ca/index.htm
Ontario
http://www.ontariocourts.on.ca
Prince Edward Island
http://www.gov.pe.ca/courts/supreme/
Quebec
Court of Appeal
http://www.tribunaux.qc.ca/mjq_en/c-appel/index-ca.html
Superior Court
http://www.tribunaux.qc.ca/mjq_en/c-superieure/index-cs.html
The Yukon
Court of Appeal
http://www.justice.gov.yk.ca/prog/cs/crt/appeal.html
Supreme Court
http://www.justice.gov.yk.ca/prog/cs/supr/supremecrt.html
— Compiled by Tim Roberts, a Halifax-based lawyer and a recent graduate of the University of King's College journalism program. Updated October 2006
July 6, 2005
Homolka’s interview was one
Homolka’s interview was one of the most cynical, breathtakingly hypocritical things I’ve ever witnessed.
At virtually the same time her lawyers are fighting for a ban on media coverage of her, she’s giving an interview before even saying hi to her mother.
(Actually, her lawyers said Monday she was simply too distraught to testify at her injunction hearing. She looked pretty composed to me.)
The negotiations for the interview had been on well before that, with the arrangements finalized on Saturday.
And then there was her performance. As Luc Lavoie said on CBC, that had to have been rehearsed for months.
It makes me wonder if she had the coin to hire a media consultant — or if there’s some highly skilled flack who believes enough in rehabilitation to do it for free.
Frankly, after watching that interview, she’s now more of a story.
To me, those who accuse her of being a manipulative psychopath may well have been proved right by it.
A judge considered her sufficiently dangerous to impose a s. 810 order.
I find it interesting Homolka isn’t prepared to live with those conditions (her appeal will be heard in September). If she were genuinely remorseful, I think she would have said: “I committed some horrible crimes. While I don’t believe I’m a danger to society any more, I’m willing to abide by these conditions as I understand why people might be wary of me.”
Her remaining family, at this point in time, isn’t a story –although I suspect reporters would like to talk with Karla’s mom after she’s done helping Karla getting re-established.
While I don’t think Homolka deserves to be constant front-page news, I think the media would be right to keep an eye on her.
July 6, 2005
My wife and I had a
My wife and I had a discussion about the Homolka interview. My wife, who has worked as a communications consultant, felt the performance was an indication (as Bill suggests) that Homolka was extremely well-prepared for the interview.
My reaction was that in her flat responses and lack of emotion, Homolka was showing classic signs of psychopathy.
Of course, we could both be right.
By the way, I thought Rad-Can was absolutely right to seek the interview, and Joyce Napier handled it like a pro. There are few journalists today who aren’t wishing they’d have been in her position.
A final note on the selection of Rad-Can: Could Homolka and her lawyer have made a savvy choice by agreeing to talk to the Quebec media, which paid less attention to her trial? In doing so, she increases the likelihood she’ll be questioned by a reporter unfamiliar with the minutiae of the original trial. That reporter is thus in a weaker position in terms of being able to compare Homolka’s demeanour then and now, challenge her protestations of victimhood with contradictory information from the evidence, etc. In essence, Homolka gets an “easier” interview than she would have from, say, Christie Blatchford.