Droit civil - Publications // Civil Law - Publications

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Do differences in work disability duration by interjurisdictional claim status vary by industry and jurisdictional context?
(2021) Macpherson, Robert A; Koehoorn, Mieke; Neis, Barbara; McLeod, Christopher B
To examine whether differences in work disability duration between out-of-province and within-province workers differed by industry and jurisdictional context.
The Peace Agreement in Colombia in the Light of International Law
(2020) OVALLE DIAZ, Nelson Arturo
The signing of the peace agreement in 2016 helped put an end to the situation of Non-International Armed Conflict and encourage a stable peace between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – the people’s army (FARC-EP). However, this agreement has created another challenge which is to respect the principle of equality before the law. For revolutionaries to be encouraged to lay down their arms, the State exchanges the possibility of being tried by transitional justice. Legal pluralism helps to explain why the “Special Jurisdiction of Peace” (SJP) may be in conformity with international standards. This article proposes a way to explain the difficult choice between the right to peace and the right to equality before the law by considering international human rights standards. The text suggests the use of constitutional and conventionality judicial reviews as the two appropriate judicial remedies for verifying the compatibility of domestic law with international principles of human rights. These judicial reviews can be used to analyze the invalidity of a national rule that contravenes an international human rights standard based on the principle of supremacy of the imperative international law. Finally, it is concluded that equality before the law is not an absolute dogma and that transitional justice should be the last resort in the case where permanent war is the only other option. As for peace, it is a fundamental right in the international and national legal order, with the intention of guaranteeing the necessary conditions for the respect of other rights and freedoms for all.
Total disability days in interprovincial and home-province workers injured in Alberta, Canada: A mixed-methods study with matched-pair analysis of compensation data and participant interviews
(2020) Cherry, Nicola; Galarneau, Jean-Michel; Haynes, Whitney
Introduction Workers moving between states or provinces to find employment are reported to take longer to return to work after the injury. Methods The Alberta Workers Compensation Board (WCB) identified all workers from four Canadian Atlantic provinces who sustained a work injury in Alberta resulting in greater than 5 total temporary disability days (TTDDays) from January 2015 to June 2017. Each was matched on sex, age, and injury date with an Alberta claimant also with greater than 5 TTDDays. WCB information extracted included employment, injury, cost and place of treatment, and modified work. Cox regression identified factors associated with TTDDays. Semi-structured interviews were also undertaken. Results Two-hundred forty pairs were identified and 60 interviews completed. Those from the Atlantic provinces had more TTDDays (median 63 days) than Alberta (median 22 days) with an unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0.50 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.42-0.61). When adjusted for all factors, the HR moved closer to unity (HR = 0.62; 95% CI, 0.50-0.76). Total health care costs were the strongest predictor, with modified work, injury type, and claim status also explanatory factors. Among the Atlantic workers, leaving Alberta for treatment was strongly related to a lower likelihood of ending wage replacement (HR = 0.45; 95% CI, 0.32-0.62). Participants in the interview study emphasized the importance of returning to the family after injury and the financial difficulties of maintaining a second home with reduced income after the injury. Conclusion The higher costs of wage replacement associated with extended time off work may be inherent to the practice of employing out-of-province workers for jobs for which there is a shortage of local labor.
Cumulative stigma among injured immigrant workers: a qualitative exploratory study in Montreal (Quebec, Canada)
(2020) Côté, Daniel; Dubé, Jessica; Gravel, Sylvie; Gratton, Danielle; White, Bob W.
Purpose: This paper presents the phenomenon of stigmatisation among injured immigrant and ethnocultural minority workers experiencing a long-standing disability. Stigmatisation was one of the main findings of our study, the aim of which was to gain insight into the work rehabilitation process in the context of intercultural relations in Quebec. Various categories of stakeholders took part in the study, which sought to describe their experiences and perspectives and to identify the constraints, barriers, facilitators, and specific needs they encounter in terms of intercultural competencies.Methods: A purposive sample of 40 individuals was selected and divided into four groups: workers (N = 9), clinicians (N = 15), workers' compensation board rehabilitation experts (N = 14), and workplace representatives (N = 2). Semi-structured interviews were conducted using the critical incident technique, combined with an "explicitation" interviewing technique. Data collection and analysis procedures were based on grounded theory.Results: This study shows that immigrant and ethnocultural minority workers may experience stigmatisation as a cumulative process involving different concomitant parts of their "identity": age, gender, social class, ethnicity, mental health, and occupational injuries. Cumulative stigma may aggravate personal distress and feelings of shame, rejection, and disqualification from full social acceptance. Negative anticipatory judgements made by practitioners may undermine the therapeutic relationship and breach mutual trust and confidence.Conclusions: The phenomenon of stigmatisation is well documented in the sociological and health literature, but studies tend to focus on only one type of stigma at a time. Future research should focus on the cumulative process of stigmatisation specifically affecting immigrant and ethnocultural minority workers and its potentially damaging impact on self-concept, healthcare delivery, rehabilitation interventions, and the return to work.Implications for rehabilitationThe repetition of certain clinical situations with people from certain groups should not lead practitioners to undue generalizations, even if they may sometimes be accurate; these generalizations must always be verified on a case by case basis.Ethnicity and culture, along with other social attributions, should serve as working hypotheses or support tools in health communication, not as hindrances to clinical reasoning.Practitioners should deepen their understanding of the patient's treatment expectations and the support available for rehabilitation in his family and community.Stigma in the context of care is linked to the idea of conforming to the proposed institutional models of care (including expected beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours). Therefore, practitioners should be aware that alleged differences, misunderstanding or disagreements can highlight an asymmetry in practitioner-patient power relationships.Organisations should also promote exchange and reflection on how to adapt their institutional models to avoid asymmetrical power relations.Intercultural training should be promoted at the various organisational levels so that managers, decision-makers, and practitioners share a common knowledge of the challenges of intervention in multi-ethnic settings.
Work injuries in internal migrants to Alberta, Canada. Do workers' compensation records provide an unbiased estimate of risk?
(2019) Cherry, Nicola; Galarneau, Jean-Michel; Haan, Michael; Haynes, Whitney; Lippel, Katherine
It is not known whether out-of-province Canadians, who travel to Alberta for work, are at increased risk of occupational injury.
Enjeux juridiques du télétravail transfrontalier
(2021) Chikoc Barreda, Naivi; Bernstein, Stéphanie
Le télétravail transfrontalier, une pratique qui se développe depuis plusieurs années dans le contexte du processus accéléré de numérisation de l'économie et qui a reçu une impulsion incontestable en raison de la pandémie mondiale de COVID-19, se profile comme une tendance d’avenir. La dématérialisation du lieu de travail entraînant par essence un effacement des barrières spatiales, la prestation de travail exécutée à distance se déplace en continu à travers les frontières nationales par le biais des technologies de l'information et de la communication. La modification transfrontalière du domicile ou de la résidence du salarié pendant la durée du contrat est aussi une difficulté incontournable à laquelle sont confrontées les parties, un tel déplacement pouvant conduire au changement de régime applicable, sans que ni l’employeur ni l’employé en aient prévu cette conséquence. Face à ces problématiques, il s'impose d'examiner le cadre juridique applicable au télétravail comportant une dimension transfrontalière pour déterminer dans quelle mesure il permet de répondre aux principaux enjeux de cette pratique en expansion. Nous analysons les questions relatives à la détermination de l'autorité compétente pour connaître des litiges impliquant des télétravailleurs transfrontaliers et aux modes d’identification de la loi applicable parmi celles pouvant intervenir pour réglementer les droits et les obligations du travailleur et de l'employeur dans les rapports internationaux et interprovinciaux au Canada, ainsi que la façon dont les normes minimales d'emploi de l’Ontario, de la Colombie-Britannique, de l'Alberta et du Québec appréhendent le télétravail transfrontalier, leurs conditions territoriales d’application et leurs limites.
How and Why Homeless People Are Regulated Differently
(2018) Skolnik, Terry
Many legal theorists have examined the ways in which homeless people are—and can be—regulated differently than people with homes. Previously applied legal theories have invaluably contributed to understanding how quality-of-life offences disproportionately impact homeless people’s negative freedom or violate their constitutional rights. Despite this, they have certain shortcomings in that they fail to address the harm to homeless people’s freedom from potential interference, rather than just actual interference, and the state’s capacity to enact rules that disproportionately impact those without access to housing. This article argues that the republican theory of freedom (or republicanism) demonstrates how and why quality-of-life offences undermine homeless people’s freedom but does so in ways that address those shortcomings. Applying Philip Pettit’s republican theory of freedom as non-domination, the author argues that existing theoretical accounts, which are concerned with actual interference experienced by homeless people, fail to capture the risk of potential non-egalitarian interference when attempting to lawfully alleviate their needs in private. This risk can lead to homeless people abandoning their preferences, altering their pursuits, or being deferential towards others in order to avoid interference. Consistent with this theory of freedom, the author argues that homeless people who adopt these coping mechanisms to avoid actual interference are not meaningfully free and, furthermore, that the types of non-egalitarian trade-offs that homeless people must make to obey quality-of-life rules suggests that their freedom is undermined in ways ignored by negative freedom and constitutional theories. The author argues that while theorists recognize that quality-of-life offences may disproportionately affect homeless people because they live in public, they rarely address the non-egalitarian implications of the state’s greater capacity to regulate how homeless people alleviate their needs without the privacy of a home. Republicanism thus offers insight into how public authority’s greater capacity to regulate common property and protect its value raises important egalitarianism concerns for those who have no private place to live.
Objective Mens Rea Revisited
(2017) Skolnik, Terry
Since the enactment of the Canadian Charter, the criminal law concept of mens rea has evolved significantly. The objective standard of fault — or objective mens rea — has been the subject of much doctrinal and theoretical examination. Where proof of objective mens rea is required, an accused can be convicted because their dangerous conduct constituted a marked departure from the norm and a reasonable person would have foreseen and avoided the risk. In this article, it is argued that there are two groups of concerns related to the concept of objective mens rea in Canadian law. On the one hand, there are culpability-related concerns. Culpability for objective mens rea can be difficult to justify in a system of criminal law premised on rationality, choice, and fair stigmatization. On the other hand, there are constitutional concerns. Subjective awareness of a risk of harm to others should be constitutionally required in certain contexts. This is most notably the case where the accused can be stigmatized for having killed another person and is liable to life imprisonment. Due to these two groups of concerns, objective mens rea should be revisited accordingly.
Inflation législative et droit d’auteur au Canada
(2018) Goudreau, Mistrale
Ce texte porte sur le phénomène de l’inflation législative dans le domaine particulier du droit d’auteur canadien. Il identifie certaines des causes de l’inflation normative, en discutant du problème de conceptualisation de notions de droit d’auteur et de l’approche casuistique du législateur au Canada. Il offre ensuite quelques réflexions pouvant aider à l’élaboration d’un régime législatif plus optimal. This paper deals with the issue of legislative inflation in the particular field of Canadian copyright law. The author identifies some of the causes of normative inflation, discussing the problem of conceptualisation of the copyright notions and the casuistry approach adopted by the Canadian legislator. She then offers some thoughts that may help in the development of a more optimal legislative scheme.
L’encadrement de la maternité de substitution au Québec et la protection de l’intérêt de l’enfant
(1997) Giroux, Michelle
Le présent texte analyse les règles applicables à la maternité de substitution en droit québécois. Il tient aussi compte du projet de loi C-47 sur les techniques de reproduction humaine. Le principal objectif du texte est de vérifier si l'encadrement juridique choisi par le législateur québécois respecte l'intérêt de l'enfant. This paper assesses the rules pertaining to surrogacy in Québec civil law. It also takes into account Bill C-47 on human reproduction technologies. The main purpose of this text is to verify whether the legislative framework privileged by the Québec legislator respects the interests of the child.
Zone Restrictions Orders in Canadian Courts and the Reproduction of Socio-Economic Inequality
(2015) Sylvestre, Marie-Eve; Bernier, Dominique; Bellot, Céline
While State and local governments have long turned to legal norms, such as vagrancy ordinances and anti-panhandling by-laws, and relied on displacement strategies ranging from orders to disperse and forced removals to control disorderly behavior in public spaces, the ways in which courts and legal actors working within the criminal justice system contribute to the monitoring of public spaces have almost completely gone unnoticed. This paper focuses on one court-imposed spatial tactic, namely zone restriction or "no go" orders. We suggest that despite the fact that these court orders rely on preventative discourses and pursue rehabilitative objectives, they may ultimately have punitive effects on the public poor and political demonstrators and contribute to creating and reproducing socio-economic inequality by creating obstacles for their reintegration, encouraging recidivism, putting the safety of individuals at risk and by neutralizing those who challenge the social and political order in various ways. Ultimately, these orders raise some concerns with respect to the rule of law since they are rarely challenged and generally appear to be shielded from review. Mientras que estados y gobiernos locales han vuelto a normas legales como la ley de vagos y maleantes, y basan sus estrategias en el desplazamiento, mediante órdenes de dispersión y traslados forzosos para controlar el comportamiento desordenado en los espacios públicos, ha pasado prácticamente desapercibida la forma en la que tribunales y agentes jurídicos trabajan dentro del sistema de justicia penal para contribuir a la vigilancia de los espacios públicos. Este artículo se centra en una táctica espacial impuesta por un tribunal, concretamente la restricción de zona o pedidos "intangibles". Se sugiere que, a pesar de que estas órdenes judiciales se basan en discursos preventivos y persiguen objetivos de rehabilitación, en última instancia pueden tener efectos punitivos sobre el público pobre y los manifestantes políticos. También puede contribuir a la creación y reproducción de una desigualdad socio-económica mediante la creación de obstáculos para la reintegración, fomentando la reincidencia, poniendo en riesgo la seguridad de las personas y neutralizando a aquellos que desafíen el orden social y político de diversas maneras. Finalmente, estas órdenes plantean algunas preocupaciones relacionadas con el estado de derecho ya que rara vez se cuestionan y en general parecen estar a salvo de cualquier revisión.
The Redistributive Potential of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter: Incorporating Socio-economic Context in Criminal Law and in the Adjudication of Rights
(2012) Sylvestre, Marie-Eve
This article contrasts two series of arguments put forward by litigators for including social and economic context in the adjudication of rights protected by section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in order to assess the impact of 25 years of Charter litigation on the rights of the poor in the wake of the Re BC Motor Vehicle Act. The ﬁrst series of arguments focuses on the inclusion of poverty and social disadvantage in the deﬁnition of principles of fundamental justice relevant to the determination of criminal responsibility and insentencing. The second series of arguments articulates a broader conception of the right to life, liberty and security of the person. In light of the mitigated results obtained for the poor in both cases, this article discusses whether the problem lies in the constitutional nature of Charter litigation itself or in the ideological nature of social and economic arguments. Cet article met en opposition deux séries d’arguments présentés par des avocats en vue d’intégrer le contexte social et économique à l’adjudication de droits protégés par l’article 7 de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés et ce, en vue d’évaluer l’incidence des 25 années de litiges relatifs à la Charte à propos des droits des pauvres dans la foulée de l’arrêt Renvoi sur la Motor Vehicle Act (C-B). La première série d’arguments met l’accent sur l’inclusion de la pauvreté et la condition sociale défavorable à la déﬁnition des principes de justice fondamentale pertinents aux ﬁ ns de déterminer la responsabilité pénale et la peine subséquente à imposer. Dans la seconde série d’arguments, on formule une conception élargie du droit à la vie, à la liberté et à la sécurité de la personne. À la lumière des résultats mitigés obtenus en faveur de la pauvreté dans les deux cas, cet article s’interroge à savoir si le problème réside dans la nature constitutionnelle des litiges portant sur la Charte ou dans la nature idéologique des arguments sociaux et économiques.
L’accès des enfants à la justice et leur droit de participation devant les tribunaux : quelques réflexions
(2014) Paré, Mona
Cet article traite de la participation des enfants devant les tribunaux en tant qu’aspect fondamental de leur accès à la justice. En effet, la minorité de l’enfant est un obstacle à sa participation à la justice et elle se manifeste de différentes manières, qu’on se trouve en protection de la jeunesse ou en droit de la famille, par exemple. De plus, on note que les lois et les pratiques sont inégales à travers le Canada. Cette différenciation selon la province ou le territoire et selon le domaine du droit contraste avec l’approche du droit international, qui prône des droits élargis de participation, quel que soit le domaine. En effet, la Convention sur les droits de l’enfant prévoit que l’enfant doit pouvoir se faire entendre dans toutes les procédures qui l’intéressent. Ainsi, nous examinons les différentes manières pour l’enfant de se faire entendre dans des procédures au Québec, en nous concentrant sur les procédures judiciaires en matière de protection de la jeunesse et en matière familiale. Alors que plusieurs dispositions sont prévues dans la loi, celles-ci ne sont pas précises et laissent la place à une pratique criblée de contradictions. En l’absence de modifications législatives, nous suggérons donc l’adoption de directives pour les professionnels, lesquelles seraient inspirées des travaux faits à l’échelle internationale, ainsi que de certaines pratiques présentes dans d’autres provinces canadiennes. This article examines children’s participation before the courts as a fundamental aspect of their access to justice. Children’s legal minority is an obstacle to their participation in justice and it manifests itself differently in child welfare compared law to family law, for example. Moreover, laws and practices vary across Canada. This different treatment according to jurisdiction and area of law contrasts with international law, which is used to advocate for wide participation rights for children whichever the field. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children should be able to express themselves on all matters that concern them. Based on this, the paper will examine the different ways in which children can be heard in different procedures in Quebec, with a focus on judicial procedures in the areas of child protection and family law. While many provisions are included in the law, these are not precise enough and give way to many contradictions in practice. In the absence of legislative changes, this paper suggests the adoption of guidelines for professionals, which would be inspired by work done at the international level, as well as some practices in other Canadian provinces.
Children’s Rights Are Human Rights and Why Canadian Implementation Lags Behind
(2017) Paré, Mona
Child rights scholarship is increasingly calling for further theorization of children’s rights, and research using the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a framework is being criticized. This paper discusses children’s rights as a legal concept that is part of wider international human rights law. It recognizes the importance of critical studies and the contribution of other disciplines, but it makes a plea for not rejecting a legal reality. Children do have rights, and these are legal norms. The paper refers to Canadian practice as an example of how the lack of recognition of children’s rights as human rights can adversely affect the place of children in a country that is known for its respect for human rights
Les droits sexuels des personnes handicapées : réflexion sur le développement du droit international
(2018) Paré, Mona
L’intérêt pour la sexualité des personnes handicapées est croissant et les recherches améliorent notre compréhension des problématiques en la matière. Une réflexion doit s’ensuivre quant à la définition des droits sexuels en droit international et la manière dont sont conçus ceux des personnes handicapées. L’examen des normes existantes mène à la conclusion que malgré des avancées dans ce domaine, les droits sexuels demeurent limités surtout au domaine de la santé et ceci n’a pas changé avec l’adoption de la Convention relative aux droits des personnes handicapées (CDPH). Les revendications limitées quant à ces droits lors des négociations de la CDPH surprennent vu la participation importante des personnes handicapées. Malgré le manque de clarification par rapport aux droits sexuels dans la convention, la pratique de l’interprétation demeure une manière de développer le droit international en la matière, notamment à travers l’évolution du concept de non-discrimination. Interest in the sexuality of persons with disabilities is growing and research improves our understanding of issues in this regard. This leads us to a reflection on the definition of sexual rights in international law, and the way in which sexual rights of persons with disabilities are understood. Examining existing norms leads to the conclusion that despite developments in this area, sexual rights remain largely limited to the field of health, and this has not changed with the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The limited claims related to these rights during the negotiations of the CRPD is surprising given the significant participation of persons with disabilities. Yet, despite the lack of clarification in relation to the sexual rights of persons with disabilities in the convention, the practice of interpretation of law remains a way to develop international law in this field, particularly through the evolving concept of non-discrimination.
Homelessness and the Impossibility to Obey the Law
(2016) Skolnik, Terry
Building on Jeremy Waldron's work, this article argues that it can be impossible for homeless people to obey the law in certain contexts. This occurs where there are insufficient public resources to allow homeless people to comply with the law, or the homeless lack the capacity or opportunity to obey quality of life rules. This article explores the moral objections to enforcing quality of life rules in such circumstances, how courts view homeless people's impossibility to obey the law, as well as policy and litigation strategies applicable in such cases.
Why There Should Be No Constitutional Right to Contact Counsel from a Police Car
(2015) Skolnik, Terry
The Supreme Court of Canada has yet to consider whether there is a constitutional right to use a cell phone to contact legal counsel while detained in a police car. This article argues that it should not be recognized as a constitutional right for three principal reasons. First, recent judicial interpretations of the constitutional right to counsel have foreclosed the possibility of detained and arrested persons using their own cell phones to call a lawyer from a police car. Second, allowing detainees to use their cell phones to contact counsel can create unreasonable risks to public safety and undermine the privacy interests of the accused. Third, pre-existing mechanisms adequately protect the accused against self-incrimination while generating fewer risks than permitting a detainee to use her cell phone to call a lawyer. Traditional and emerging constitutional requirements related to section 10(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are satisfied by the process of the immediate transport of detained or arrested persons to a police station to contact a lawyer.
The Suspicious Distinction between Reasonable Suspicion and Reasonable Grounds to Believe
(2016) Skolnik, Terry
Canadian Criminal law distinguishes between the thresholds of “reasonable suspicion” and “reasonable grounds to believe” required in order for police officers to lawfully arrest persons, conduct certain forms of searches, and to obtain warrants. Officers wishing to lawfully exercise these powers must satisfy the requisite legal standard, or risk violating individuals’ constitutional rights with the ensuing possibility of exclusion of evidence. Unfortunately, recent attempts to clarify differences between the two thresholds is complex to articulate, confusing, and impracticable. This article examines the fundamental difficulties related to the current theoretical and practical distinctions between both standards. These issues are important for legal practitioners and judges interpreting whether the standards have been reached and whether constitutional rights have been violated, and, as a theoretical and pragmatic basis upon which to interpret the scope of new police powers. It is argued that the current confusion between both standards arises from the faulty usage of notions of “possibility” and “probability.” Furthermore, in identifying new police powers, courts have sometimes imposed legal standards which cannot safely or reasonably be met. Ultimately, I will attempt to provide a more coherent theoretical basis for distinguishing between both standards based on comprehensible pragmatic considerations. As a result, I hope to not only articulate a more simple and meaningful distinction between both standards based on certain overarching considerations, but which will also assist in identifying which standard ought to apply in identifying new police powers. Le droit criminel canadien établit la distinction entre les critères que sont les « soupçons raisonnables » et les « motifs raisonnables de croire » aﬁn que les agents de police puissent légitimement exercer leurs pouvoirs de procéder à des perquisitions et des arrestations ou d’obtenir des mandats. Les agents désireux d’exercer ces pouvoirs en toute légalité doivent satisfaire à la norme légale exigée, sans quoi ils risquent de porter atteinte aux droits constitutionnels des personnes concernées et risquent par la même occasion de voir rejeter les éléments qu’ils comptaient présenter en preuve. Hélas, les récentes tentatives visant à clariﬁer les diﬀérences entre ces deux critères sont diﬃciles à formuler, elles portent à confusion et sont à peu près irréalisables. Dans cet article, l’auteur examine les diﬃcultés fondamentales inhérentes aux distinctions actuelles théoriques et pratiques entre les deux normes. Ces questions sont importantes tant pour les avocats de la pratique que pour les juges chargés d’interpréter dans quelle mesure ces critères ont été respectés et si des droits constitutionnels ont été violés, et enﬁn sur quelles assises théoriques et pragmatiques il faut interpréter la portée des nouveaux pouvoirs conférés aux policiers. Je soutiens que la confusion qui entoure les deux normes découlerait de l’emploi erroné des notions de « possibilité » et de « probabilité ». Qui plus est, en identiﬁant les nouveaux pouvoirs policiers, les tribunaux ont imposé, à quelques reprises, des normes juridiques qui ne pourraient être respectées de manière raisonnable ou sécuritaire. En dernier lieu, je tenterais de présenter un fondement théorique plus cohérent aﬁn de distinguer entre les deux normes à partir de considérations pragmatiques compréhensibles. Par conséquent, j’espère formuler une distinction non seulement plus simple et plus signiﬁcative entre les deux critères fondés sur certaines considérations prépondérantes, mais une distinction qui permet en outre d’identiﬁer la norme applicable lorsqu’il s’agit de déterminer les nouveaux pouvoirs conférés aux policiers
Responsibility and Intervening Acts: What “Maybin” an Overbroad Approach to Causation
(2014) Skolnik, Terry
Oftentimes, a criminal action resulting in the victim’s death is clearly attributable to the accused. In many cases, we can easily say that the accused “caused” the victim’s death. Causation, however, becomes particularly complicated when some type of intervening act occurs between the accused’s initial conduct and the victim’s death, creating speculation about whether it is fair to morally blame the accused for the ensuing result. The Supreme Court of Canada’s relatively recent decision R v Maybin marks a significant attempt to clarify notions related to causation in the criminal law. Although the Court refused to alter conventional principles related to the law of causation, or create a new test to verify when it has been established, it provided two analytical tools which can be used in order to see when it is fair to morally blame the accused for the victim’s death despite an intervening act’s occurrence. As will be seen, although these analytical tools of “reasonable foreseeability” and “independent acts” serve to simplify the law of causation, there are important problems with how each tool has been conceptualized. This article highlights these important shortfalls, and ultimately, questions to what extent these developments in the law of causation affect current conceptions of mens rea. Souvent, une action criminelle entraînant la mort de la victime est clairement imputable à l’accusé. Dans de nombreux cas, il est facile de conclure que l’accusé a « causé » la mort de la victime. Toutefois, le lien de causalité devient particulièrement complexe lorsqu’un acte intermédiaire se produit entre la conduite initiale de l’accusé et la mort de la victime, ce qui crée des conjectures à savoir s’il est juste de blâmer moralement l’accusé pour le résultat qui a suivi. La Cour suprême du Canada, dans sa décision relativement récente dans l’affaire R v Maybin, tente de clarifier les notions liées à la causalité en droit pénal. Bien que la Cour ait refusé de modifier les principes classiques liés au lien de causalité, ou de créer un nouveau test afin de répertorier les situations dans lesquelles il peut être établi, la Cour a fourni deux outils analytiques qui peuvent être utilisés afin de déterminer quand il est juste de blâmer moralement l’accusé pour la mort de la victime, malgré l’occurrence d’un acte intermédiaire. Comme on le verra, même si ces outils d’analyse de la « prévisibilité raisonnable » et des « actes indépendants » servent à simplifier la théorie de la causalité, la manière dont ces outils ont été conçus pose de sérieux problèmes. Cet article met en lumière ces lacunes importantes, et ultimement, questionne dans quelle mesure ces développements de la théorie de la causalité ont une incidence sur les conceptions contemporaines de la mens rea.
Freedom and Access to Housing: Three Conceptions
(2018) Skolnik, Terry
This article argues that our current understanding of the relationship between access to housing and liberty (or freedom) is limited. It contends that judicial decisions and existing legal theory are predominantly concerned with the connection between housing and the two conceptions of liberty famously advanced by Isaiah Berlin: positive liberty and negative liberty. The notion of positive freedom conceptualizes freedom as self-mastery, whereas negative liberty portrays freedom as non-interference. The central premise of this article is that the republican theory of freedom (or republicanism) provides new insight into the importance of access to housing in protecting liberty, most notably in contexts where the state regulates public property, such as in Canada and the United States. The republican theory of freedom defines liberty as nondomination, meaning the absence of others’ power to interfere with an individual’s life and actions. This article argues that we develop a more well-rounded grasp of the value of access to housing by understanding its role in protecting individuals against domination. This article concludes by setting out the four concrete ways that housing reduces domination and safeguards individual freedom in contexts where the state regulates public property. By combining the respective insights of positive liberty, negative liberty, and republican liberty, this article ultimately provides a more robust understanding of the importance of housing in protecting freedom. Dans cet article, l’auteur soutient que notre compréhension actuelle de la relation entre l’accès au logement et la liberté est limitée. Il affirme que les décisions judiciaires et la théorie actuelle du droit s’intéressent avant tout à la relation entre le logement et les deux célèbres conceptions de la liberté formulées par Isaiah Berlin : la liberté positive et la liberté négative. La notion de liberté positive présente la liberté comme la maîtrise de son sort, tandis que la liberté négative décrit la liberté comme l’absence d’ingérences. La proposition centrale de cet article est que la théorie républicaine de la liberté (ou républicanisme) jette une lumière nouvelle sur l’importance de l’accès au logement pour la protection de la liberté. La théorie républicaine de la liberté la définit comme la nondomination, c’est-à-dire l’absence de pouvoirs externes d’entraver la vie et les actes de quelqu'un. L’argument fondamental de l’article est que le républicanisme corrige certaines lacunes des théories qui étudient l’importance de l’accès au logement du seul point de vue de la liberté négative et de la liberté positive. Nous parvenons à une compréhension plus solide de l’importance du logement en percevant son rôle de protection des personnes contre la domination. Après avoir examiné la prévalence croissante des règles applicables à la propriété commune et la manière dont l’accès au logement détermine l’influence de ces règles sur la vie d’une personne, l’auteur conclut l’article en présentant les quatre manières concrètes dont le logement réduit la domination et protège ainsi la liberté individuelle.

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