Hearing and Deciding Charter Issues

Overview

This seminar was intended to provide judges with practical skills and tools to manage common applications under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedomsas well as the complex procedural issues arising from these types of cases.

Objectives

The objectives of this seminar were to provide participants with an enhanced understanding of the principles of the Charter, awareness of key jurisprudential developments, procedural skills to manage Charter proceedings, practical information on procedural issues, and analytical frameworks to assist judges in deciding cases under Charter provisions (both criminal and civil).

Summary

The program helped judges focus specifically on the Charter while receiving support from members of the faculty in this area of expertise and discussing developments in the law with colleagues from across the country. Through a combination of lectures, presentations, small group work, analytical frameworks and other interactive learning activities, participants worked through a fact scenario with the assistance of faculty and facilitators to address the following topics: general principles underlying the Charter; protection against unreasonable search or seizure; detention and the right to counsel; the right to life, liberty and security; the right to a trial within a reasonable time; reasonable limitations on Charter rights; remedies in case of Charter breach; the Charter and Indigenous peoples; and sentencing and the Charter.