– look at the original SCC case on file on the SCC website or some other legal case website. If there was a JCPC appeal, you should look at this also. You can also scan the Wikipedia website but do not rely on it as reporting quality varies.
Answer the following (case brief):
1. What are the facts of the case? (When, where, why, what and how).
2. What statute, regulation, order, action or inaction triggered the dispute?
3. What constitutional and other legal provisions are in dispute? (division of powers or CCRF or principles of administrative law).
4. What questions are to be decided? (issues have to be phrased so a court can
answer them in a yes or no way)
5. How did the lower court(s) answer these questions? (ratio decidendi)
Answer the following (analysis):
1. What reasoning, including precedents, was (or were in the case of multiple precedents) used to answer these questions?
2. What other views were expressed in concurrence or dissent? (e.g. obiter dicta are holdings that do not decide the case but may suggest future direction)
3. What arguments are the two parties in the dispute (e.g. Crown vs. accused in criminal cases) making to the court(s)?
4. Were there interveners in the case at the Court of Appeal or SCC and did these interventions influence either court’s decision(s)?
5. Does there appear to be any pattern in the decision making of the various justices deciding the case? (e.g. Quebec justices vs. justices from the rest of Canada).
Opinion:
write an opinion presenting your analysis and detailing your reasons as to whether or not this a good case from a sound political or legal perspective and what the immediate and perhaps ultimate significance of this case is for groups, parts of Canada and the evolutions of the law itself.
making)
(3) opinion (balanced pro/con comments on significance to the outside observer
and in your own view)
Using these sources & other SCHOLARLY sources: