Author Archives: Jennifer Koshan

About Jennifer Koshan

B.Sc., LL.B (Calgary), LL.M. (British Columbia). Professor. Member of the Alberta Bar. Please click here for more information.

Domestic Violence and Duress: In Search of a Contextual Approach

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Case commented on: R v Ryan, 2013 SCC 3.

 On Friday January 18, the Supreme Court released its decision in R v Ryan.  In a decision written by Justices LeBel and Cromwell, the Court held that Nicole Doucet (formerly Ryan) could not avail herself of the defence of duress in circumstances where she attempted to hire someone to kill her abusive husband.  This ruling followed Ms Doucet’s acquittal for counselling murder at trial, which was upheld by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. Although the Supreme Court paid some attention to Ms Doucet’s circumstances by ultimately staying the proceedings against her (with Fish, J dissenting on this point), its analysis of the defence of duress was sorely lacking in context.

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Leave to appeal granted in right to public transit case

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Case commented on: R v S.A., 2012 ABCA 323

The S.A. case, which concerns the right to use public transit and the constitutionality of trespass legislation as applied to public property, has been the subject of two previous judicial decisions (here and here) and two previous ABlawg posts (here and here).  On November 7, 2012, Madam Justice Myra Bielby of the Alberta Court of Appeal granted S.A. to leave to appeal the Court of Queen’s Bench decision that overturned the trial decision finding a Charter violation in her favour. Continue reading →

Hockey Night in Alberta

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Decision commented on: National Hockey League Players’ Association v Edmonton Oilers Hockey Corp, 2012 CanLII 58944 (AB LRB)

In the interests of full disclosure, I am a hockey fan, although I would prefer to play shinny or watch my son’s beer league playoffs rather than watch an NHL game. I have much more sympathy for agricultural workers who continue to be excluded from Alberta’s Labour Relations Code, RSA 2000, c L-1, and for the workers recently laid off by XL Foods, than I do for locked out NHL players (although I have even less sympathy for the owners).  So it was with some interest but not a lot of sympathy for either side that I read the recent decision of the Alberta Labour Relations Board in National Hockey League Players’ Association v Edmonton Oilers Hockey Corp, 2012 CanLII 58944.

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Peter Lougheed and the Constitution, Notwithstanding

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Commenting on: The legacy of section 33 of the Charter

I am not a conservative, as anyone who knows me or reads Rate My Professor is already aware.  But notwithstanding my political stripes, I was a fan of Peter Lougheed.  My kids were charmed when they heard him read Christmas stories at the Lougheed House many years ago, and my daughter and I once met him at an opera at the Banff Centre – again, we were charmed.  More pertinent to the law, he was the premier who repealed Alberta’s sexual sterilization legislation (the Sexual Sterilization Repeal Act, 1972, SA 1972, c 87) and brought in our first human rights act (the Individual’s Rights Protection Act, SA 1972, c 2), showing a strong commitment to the protection of individual rights.  But it is one of his contributions to constitutional law that I will comment on in this post.

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Non-Fatal Exclusion: The Fatal Accidents Act, Stepchildren, and Equality Rights

By: Jennifer Koshan and Jonnette Watson Hamilton

PDF version: Non-Fatal Exclusion: The Fatal Accidents Act, Stepchildren, and Equality Rights

Case Commented On: Dares v Newman, 2012 ABQB 328

A father died in a motor vehicle accident. For his grief and the loss of his father’s guidance, care and companionship, his biological child received $45,000 in bereavement damages from the at-fault driver’s insurance company under section 8(2)(c) of the Fatal Accidents Act, RSA 2000, c F-8. His two adopted children, who had not spoken to him for twenty years, also received $45,000 each under the same provision. His two stepchildren, to whom he had stood in the place of a parent for twenty years – and who had received his guidance, care and companionship over two decades and who suffered grief on his death – received nothing. This case raises the issue of the extent to which government is entitled to deny benefits to certain claimants for the purpose of restricting legal action against private parties for tortious conduct causing death. Continue reading →