Constitutional Litigation
Our lawyers have an unmatched track record arguing constitutional cases, which frequently hinge on fundamental rights that are being litigated for the first time. Quite literally, our lawyers have written the leading textbook in the area, Constitutional Litigation in Canada.
We have argued a wide range of influential constitutional cases, shaping the interpretation and application of the framework for government powers and human rights, as enshrined in the Constitution and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. With longstanding associations with public interest groups like the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, we have acted for diverse clients—individuals, companies, Indigenous groups, and governments, as well as trade unions and professional regulatory bodies—advancing key rights issues pertaining to equality, freedom of association and expression, and Aboriginal rights.
Representative Work
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On September 25, 2019 Richard Stephenson argued the appeal of R. v. Nugent in the Ontario Court of Appeal. The case is a Crown appeal of a stay issued by the Ontario Court of Justice (upheld on appeal in the Ontario Superior Court) because of a violation of s. 11(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of a prosecution of three employees under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The case is a leading authority of the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Jordan in the context of Occupational Health and Safety prosecutions in Ontario.
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Tina Lie and Lauren Pearce represented the Scadding Court Community Centre in an intervention before the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Le (https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/17804/index.do),
a ground-breaking case in which the court addressed, among other things, the role of race in the test for psychological detention under section 9 of the Charter. -
Andrew Lokan and Lorne Waldman of Waldman and Associates successfully represented Kazakh businessman Rustem Tursunbayev in securing the Federal Court’s largest-ever costs award in an immigration matter, after the Federal Court found that the Attorney General had unreasonably opposed Mr. Tursunbayev’s request for a stay of deportation proceedings against him, based on his claim that Canadian officials had committed an abuse of process in seeking his deportation to a country that uses torture.
More details can be found here: https://bit.ly/2ZW6dAy
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Don Eady, Nini Jones, Jodi Martin, Emily Home and Glynnis Hawe represented a group of intervenors who challenged the right of the Provincial Government to change the City of Toronto election ward boundaries in the midst of an election campaign. They were successful at the first instance. See http://canlii.ca/t/httrh. That decision was stayed by the Court of Appeal. See http://canlii.ca/t/hv54t. The appeal before the Court of Appeal is ongoing and will be heard by a 5 member panel of the Court of Appeal on June 10 and 11, 2019. Paliare Roland represented the intervenors on a pro bono basis.
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Andrew Lokan and Michael Fenrick are representing three migrant farm workers who are trying to increase the constitutional protections afforded to workers employed in Ontario through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program.
