Jurisprudence

On August 19, 1947, the judges delivered their verdict in the "Doctors' Trial" at Nuremberg against 23 defendants. They also delivered their opinion on medical experimentation on human beings. Several of the accused had argued that their experiments differed little from pre-war ones and that there was no law that differentiated between legal and illegal experiments. In April of the same year, Dr. Leo Alexander had submitted to the Counsel for War Crimes six points defining legitimate medical research. The trial verdict adopted these points and added an extra four. The ten points constituted the "Nuremberg Code". Although the legal force of the document was not established and it was not incorporated directly into either the American or German law, the Nuremberg Code and the related Declaration of Helsinki are the basis for Health Canada and US Regulations.

For this reason, both civil libertarians and unionists should be concerned. Bill 195 is power seeking, but it may be only the beginning. If these intrusions into our rights are not resisted, we may be at the beginning of a new policy cycle that seeks even longer term and larger changes that further limit our rights. Emergency powers should apply only during emergencies, and any attempt to extend them beyond must be described as nothing more than a power-grab.

The LCO’s project is the most comprehensive analysis of Ontario’s defamation law framework to date. The project is examining the underlying purpose and function of defamation law and how defamation law should be updated to account for “internet speech,” including social media, blogs, internet platforms and digital media.