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"This book examines law and religion from the perspective of its case law. Each chapter focuses on a specific case from a Commonwealth jurisdiction, examining the history and impact of the case, both within the originating jurisdiction and its wider global context. The book contains chapters from leading and emerging scholars from across the Commonwealth, including from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, Malaysia, India and Nigeria. The cases are divided into four sections covering: - Foundational Questions in Law and Religion - Freedom of Religion around the Commonwealth - Religion and state relations around the Commonwealth - Rights, Relationships and Religion around the Commonwealth. Like religion itself, the case law covers a wide spectrum of life. This diversity is reflected in the cases covered in this book, which include: - Titular Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur v Home Minister on the use of the Muslim name for God by non-Muslims in Malaysia - The Church of the New Faith v Commissioner of Pay-roll Tax (Vic) which determined the meaning of religion in Australia - Eweida v UK which clarified the application of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights - R v Big M Drug Mart on the individual protections of religious freedom under the Canadian Charter of Rights. The book examines how legal disputes involving religion are among the most contested in the courts and shows that in these cases, passions run high and the outcomes can have significant consequences for all involved"--

As a direct response to the extensive and ongoing police violence experienced throughout these past two years of struggle in Hong Kong, there has been an increasingly widespread understanding of the police force as structurally undemocratic, unaccountable, and subservient to the interests of elites. This has also led to the articulation by the protest movement of a “sixth demand”— to disband the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) altogether. The remarkable uptake of this demand sparked debate around exactly what dissolution of the HKPF would entail. Would it be reconstitution and reform? Or a more radical type of abolitionist politics? In grappling with this question, we encourage Hongkongers to engage with diverse decolonial and abolitionist struggles across the globe, along with existing and ongoing proto-abolitionist practices at home.

English Abstract: This bilingual volume of the Supreme Court Law Review dedicates itself to the legacy of the Honourable Justice Clément Gascon, who became a judge of the Supreme Court of Canada in 2014 and retired in 2019. This introduction provides an overview of his career and a summary of the papers included in the collection, written by: Rt. Hon. Richard Wagner; Hon. Marie Michelle Lavigne; Hon. Rosalie Silberman Abella; Hon. Nicole Duval Hesler; Hon. Nicholas Kasirer; Catherine Le Guerrier; Prof. Janis Sarra; Sajeda Hedaraly & Éléna Sophie Drouin; Jérémy Boulanger-Bonnelly; Alex Bogach & Ben Lerer; Brodie Noga; Hon. Louis LeBel; Brandyn Rodgerson; and Prof. Joshua Sealy-Harrington.French Abstract: Ce volume bilingue de la Supreme Court Law Review se dédie à l’héritage juridique de l’honorable Clément Gascon, lequel est devenu juge à la Cour suprême du Canada en 2014 et a pris sa retraite en 2019. Cette introduction fournit un aperçu de sa carrière et un résumé des essais inclus dans la collection, lesquels ont été rédigés par: le très hon. Richard Wagner; l'hon. Marie Michelle Lavigne; l'hon. Rosalie Silberman Abella; l'hon. Nicole Duval Hesler; l'hon. Nicholas Kasirer; Catherine Le Guerrier; Prof. Janis Sarra; Sajeda Hedaraly & Éléna Sophie Drouin; Jérémy Boulanger-Bonnelly; Alex Bogach & Ben Lerer; Brodie Noga; l'hon. Louis LeBel; Brandyn Rodgerson; et Prof. Joshua Sealy-Harrington.

In the beginning (of bibliometrics), citation counts of academic research were generated to be used in annual calculations to express a research journal’s impact. Now those same citation counts make up a social graph of scholarly communication that is used to measure the research strengths of authors, the hotness of their papers, the topic prominence of their disciplines, and assess the strength of the institutions where they are employed. More troubling, the publishers of this emerging social graph are in the process of enclosing scholarship by trying to exclude the infrastructure of libraries and other independent, non-profit organizations invested in research. This paper will outline efforts currently being employed by scholarly communication librarians using platforms built by organizations such as Our Research’s UnPaywall and Wikimedia’s Wikidata Project so that the commons of scholarship can remain open. Strategies will be shared so that researchers can adapt their workflows so that they might allow their work to be copied, shared, and be found by readers widely across the commons. Scholars will be asked to make good choices.

This article explores two disability justice legacies of Justice Clément Gascon. One legacy is embodied in his personal narrative of disability. Another legacy is jurisprudential and seen in his legal reasoning. On his embodied legacy, the article juxtaposes Justice Gascon’s widely publicized anxiety attack with Justice Le Dain’s private forced resignation following his hospitalization for depression thirty years earlier. This comparison reveals how, in many ways, attitudes around disability have not progressed, but rather reconfigured into more palatable forms. And on his jurisprudential legacy, this article conducts a critical disability theory analysis of Justice Gascon’s dissent in Stewart v. Elk Valley Coal Corp. In so doing, it highlights the ideological undercurrents that shape Canadian law, the link between ableism in society and ableism on the Court, and the importance of incorporating disability in contemporary discourse around judicial diversity.

English Abstract: Ottawa police sergeant Steven Desjourdy was the first officer in Canada to be prosecuted for sexual assault based upon an illegal strip search of a woman, arguably a “sexual assault by the state.”1 Sexual assault prosecutions present innumerable hurdles for all complainants, but when the accused is a police officer engaged in his duties, those hurdles are almost insurmountable. The prospect of racism loomed large in this case, given that Desjourdy was white and SB was a Black Canadian woman portrayed as volatile and dangerous. Using the transcripts of Desjourdy’s trial and drawing upon sexual assault and critical race literatures, this article explores the systemic biases that favour police officers on trial and facilitate the construction of white innocence and racialized danger.French Abstract: Le sergent Steven Desjourdy, de la police d’Ottawa, a été le premier policier au Canada à être poursuivi en justice pour agression sexuelle à la suite d’une fouille à nu illégale d’une femme, ce qui constitue sans doute une « agression sexuelle par l’État ». Les poursuites pour agression sexuelle présentent d’innombrables obstacles pour tous les plaignants, mais lorsque l’accusé est un policier dans l’exercice de ses fonctions, ces obstacles sont presque insurmontables. La perspective du racisme était très présente dans cette affaire, étant donné que Steven Desjourdy était blanc et que SB était une femme noire canadienne décrite comme volatile et dangereuse. À l’aide des transcriptions du procès de Steven Desjourdy et en s’appuyant sur les écrits en matière d’agressions sexuelles et de critiques de la race, les auteurs explorent les préjugés systémiques qui favorisent les policiers en instance de procès et facilitent la fabrication de la chimère d’une innocence blanche et d’un danger racialisé.* Assistant Professor, University of Windsor Faculty of Law; PhD candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School.**Professor Emerita, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law.1 Amanda George, “Strip searches: Sexual Assault by the State” (1993) 18:1 Alternative LJ 31.

Ottawa police sergeant Steven Desjourdy was the first officer in Canada to be prosecuted for sexual assault based upon an illegal strip search of a woman, arguably a “sexual assault by the state.”1 Sexual assault prosecutions present innumerable hurdles for all complainants, but when the accused is a police officer engaged in his duties, those hurdles are almost insurmountable. The prospect of racism loomed large in this case, given that Desjourdy was white and SB was a Black Canadian woman portrayed as volatile and dangerous. Using the transcripts of Desjourdy’s trial and drawing upon sexual assault and critical race literatures, this article explores the systemic biases that favour police officers on trial and facilitate the construction of white innocence and racialized danger.

We write as a group of experts in the legal regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), technology-facilitated violence, equality, and the use of AI systems by law enforcement in Canada. We have experience working within academia and legal practice, and are affiliated with LEAF and the Citizen Lab who support this letter. We reviewed the Toronto Police Services Board Use of New Artificial Intelligence Technologies Policy and provide comments and recommendations focused on the following key observations: 1. Police use of AI technologies must not be seen as inevitable2. A commitment to protecting equality and human rights must be integrated more thoroughly throughout the TPSB policy and its AI analysis procedures3. Inequality is embedded in AI as a system in ways that cannot be mitigated through a policy only dealing with use 4. Having more accurate AI systems does not mitigate inequality5. The TPS must not engage in unnecessary or disproportionate mass collection and analysis of data6. TPSB’s AI policy should provide concrete guidance on the proactive identification and classification of risk7. TPSB’s AI policy must ensure expertise in independent vetting, risk analysis, and human rights impact analysis8. The TPSB should be aware of assessment challenges that can arise when an AI system is developed by a private enterprise9. The TPSB must apply the draft policy to all existing AI technologies that are used by, or presently accessible to, the Toronto Police ServiceIn light of these key observations, we have made 33 specific recommendations for amendments to the draft policy.

Laverne A Jacobs, Martin Anderson, Rachel Rohr, Tom Perry, 2021 CanLIIDocs 987