On January 17, 2018, the trial judge held that ss. 31, 32, 33, and 37 of the Act violate ss. 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He declared the impugned sections to be unconstitutional, but suspended the declaration for a period of one year. On November 13 and 14, 2018, a panel of the BC Court of Appeal heard an appeal from that decision. At the conclusion of the hearing, the panel heard an application by Canada to extend the suspension of the declaration of invalidity until July 31, 2019.
The panel granted an extension of the suspension, but only to June 17, 2019. The extension was subject to a number of conditions, that were put in place to ensure that the government dealt with particular constitutional concerns during the period of suspension.
Following a letter from Canada reporting on its progress in complying with the conditions imposed by the panel, and at the request of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and the John Howard Society of Canada, the Court today imposed additional conditions to ensure the rights of inmates to access counsel were not impeded.
The full judgment is available here.
The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and the John Howard Society of Canada are represented by Joseph J. Arvay, Q.C. and Alison M. Latimer.
