FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WHAT: BCCLA at Supreme Court of Canada to intervene in John Howard Society of Saskatchewan v Attorney General of Saskatchewan to argue that the Charter must protect fair trial rights even outside of the criminal context
WHEN: October 8 – 9, 2024, at 6:30 am PST
WHERE: Supreme Court of Canada (Ottawa)
Ottawa, ON (unceded Anishinabe Algonquin Territory) – On October 8 and 9, 2024, the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) will present oral arguments as an intervener at the Supreme Court of Canada’s hearing of John Howard Society of Saskatchewan v Attorney General of Saskatchewan. The Court will decide whether prison disciplinary hearings should be determined on the beyond a reasonable doubt standard used in criminal trials.
When prisoners are accused of breaking institutional rules, they are given a hearing before being found guilty and having a penalty imposed. These penalties can be extremely harsh, including placement in segregation and loss of earned remission, which essentially prolongs the prison sentence. Despite these severe consequences, the standard of proof required to find a prisoner guilty of a disciplinary offence is the balance of probabilities, a much lower standard than used in criminal trials. The John Howard Society of Saskatchewan argues that this lower standard violates prisoners’ Charter-protected section 7 rights to liberty and security of the person, as well as the presumption of innocence under section 11 (d).
The BCCLA is intervening in this case to ask the Supreme Court of Canada to clarify the relationship between section 7 and the other legal rights contained in sections 8 – 14 of the Charter. We argue that section 7 can provide just as much protection as sections 8 – 14, whether or not the latter sections apply in a particular case. In this way, section 7 can fill any unintended gaps in the Charter’s legal rights protections.
The BCCLA is represented by Alexandra Belley-McKinnon and Jean-Philippe Groleau of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP and Molly Krishtalka of Alexeev Avocats.
