Tag Archives: supreme court of canada

Guelph Mercury

Parliament should review niqab ruling

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in December that niqabs — full-face veils — could sometimes be worn by witnesses in court depending on the context.

In a case involving a Toronto woman identified only as “N.S.,” the court was asked to balance a niqab-wearing witness’s freedom of religion versus a defendant’s right to a fair trial in a sexual assault case.

In weighing these rights against each other, the court ultimately adopted a balanced approach. However, it split in a 4-2-1 decision (with Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin writing for the majority), adopting a “just and proportionate balance between freedom of religion on the one hand, and trial fairness on the other, based on the particular case before the court.”

Justices Louis LeBel and Morris Fish, meanwhile, argued that niqabs must never be worn in the courtroom, while Justice Rosalie Abella, in a dissenting opinion, stated that a witness should only have to remove a niqab if her face is directly relevant to the case.

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Guelph Mercury

There’s a need to review judicial appointment process

Troy Riddell and Samuel Mosonyi.

Justice Richard Wagner, the newest judge on the Supreme Court of Canada, caused a stir in December when he suggested that the process used by the federal government to appoint judges below the Supreme Court level — primarily to superior trial courts and courts of appeal in the provinces — be reformed.

Potential appointees, according to Wagner, should appear publicly before a parliamentary committee as he did before his recent appointment to the Supreme Court. Wagner, however, indicated that for practical reasons hearings for now could be limited to appeal courts only.

There was a mixed reaction to Wagner’s comments. One law professor, for example, argued that this would Americanize the system and lead to the appointment of judges who were too deferential to government. Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail editorial board endorsed the suggestion, arguing that since judges have more power to influence policy, they deserve greater public scrutiny. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms inarguably gives judges a more significant role in the area of policy-making relative to the legislatures.

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Guelph Mercury

A logical decision in anti-terrorism case

Convicted terrorist Momin Khawaja disagrees fundamentally with Canada’s anti-terrorism laws, believing they are an unfair infringement on his rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to express himself freely.

The Supreme Court, in a unanimous, commonsensical decision, struck down this argument Dec. 17 and increased his sentence of 10½ years to a life sentence.

Khawaja was the first Canadian charged under the new anti-terrorism laws enacted after Sept. 11, 2001 for assisting a group of London Islamists who planned to build and detonate bombs made of fertilizer in shopping malls, nightclubs and other targets.

Khawaja sent a number of emails to those involved with the plot, provided funding to them, designed a detonator for the explosives which he planned to smuggle into the United Kingdom, and offered to provide training to the group. The emails he sent documented his ideological commitment to jihad. He also travelled to Pakistan to attend a terrorist arms training camp.

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