Despite what appears to be a growing prevalence of divorce in our society, there is no question that the fundamental issues of divorce have been plaguing societies for centuries. At their core are questions of fault. Is one person to blame when a marriage breaks down? If so, does the law punish the wrongdoer in…
What happens when a child under 16 refuses a medically necessary procedure that may save her life in order to uphold her strongly held religious beliefs? Until recently, the law was not clear as to whether paternalistic child protection legislation violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Supreme Court of Canada has, however, now set…
Eighteenth century jurist William Blackstone said “the law is the embodiment of the moral sentiment of the people”. The result in the “three parents” case from the Ontario Court of Appeal tells us much about modern Canadian morality. On January 2, 2007, the Ontario Court of Appeal released its decision in A.A. v. B.B. and…
In April of this year the Canadian Medical Association Journal published an editorial article entitled “Ending life with grace and agreement”. Sadly, the article seemed to demonstrate neither. The article concerns the case of Samual Golubchuk, an 84-year-old Winnipeg man who found himself at the centre of a dispute when his doctors wanted to remove…
The Supreme Court of British Columbia recently re-defined “adultery”. Traditionally, there has been a reasonably clear definition and understanding of adultery for the purposes of obtaining a divorce (the Divorce Act, section 8, states that a spouse may seek an immediate divorce based on the grounds of adultery). It was limited (based on the traditional…