Canadian Supreme Court

Similarly, in 1991, the Montreal suburb of Hudson became the first of many Canadian municipalities to entirely outlaw the use of cosmetic pesticides on lawns. Since that time, dozens of other towns have enacted similar bans, including some of that country s largest cities. A decade later, the Canadian Supreme Court upheld the Hudson restriction, giving local authorities across Canada the right to follow suit. ... 

It is interesting, therefore, that a balancing between the interests of the population concerned and the need to maintain international stability and peace was undertaken even then. This approach has persisted to this day, as evidenced by an important decision of the Canadian Supreme Court ... 

This view was very strongly confirmed by the Canadian Supreme Court in a reference concerning the possible secession of Quebec. Despite that fact that there is no express constitutional self-determination status for Quebec in the Canadian Constitution, the Court found that A clear majority vote in Quebec on a clear question in favour of secession would confer democratic legitimacy on the secession initiative which all of the other participants in Confederation would have to recognize .However, the Court also confirmed that independence is not an automatic result. Instead, both sides would have to engage in good faith negotiations about implementation of the decision to secede. 

This ruling seems to suggest that a population would not be bound to accept the restraint of territorial unity if it could not participate in the governance of the state. The Canadian Supreme Court, in the Quebec Reference, also accepted that remedial self-determination may exist in certain circumstances, namely possibly where a people is denied any meaningfnl exercise of its right to self-determination within the state of which it forms part . ... 

The seeds of the notion of external self-determination were planted by the Commission in the 1920s, and they would be further developed by the Canadian Supreme Court in the infamous Quebec secession case several decades later. It is interesting to compare the two cases (Aaland Islands and Quebec) while they stem from completely different eras, address distinct geographical regions, and use different language, their approach to issues of self-determination is strikingly similar. 

Ibid., para. 138 (the Canadian Supreme Court concluded that exceptional circumstances , where a people is being denied its rights to internal self-determination, are not applicable to the people of Quebec). 

Ibid., para. 134 ( when a people is blocked from the meaningful exercise of its right to self-determination internally, it is entitled, as a last resort, to exercise it by secession ). Note that the Canadian Supreme Court declined to answer the issue of under what circumstances such a right to secession accmes, as it determined that the population of Quebec is entitled to meaningful internal self-determination and thus is not in a position to claim the tight to external self-determination. Dunoff et al., op. cit., p. 222. 

Computers have been defined as systems of machines that process information in the form of letters, numbers, and other symbols, and that are self directing within predetermined limits . Webster s New International Dictionary defines a computer as a mechanical or electronic apparatus capable of carrying out repetitious and highly complex mathematical operations at high speeds . Computers are used in business for the maintenance of inventories, the calculation and preparation of payrolls, etc. in industry for the automatic operation of machinery, the control of refinery operations, etc. and in research for the determination of flight characteristics of missiles and spacecraft, the prediction of the behaviour of substances acted upon by a number of variables, etc. These definitions were cited by the Canadian Supreme Court in R. v. McLaughlin [1980] 2 SCR 331 at 339. 

Canadian criminal law, like U.S. criminal law, recognizes a defense of automatism in cases where the defendant has acted in a state of unconsciousness. What makes the Canadian experience in this area particularly interesting is the very full discussion of the subject to be found in a number of court decisions, including a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of R. v Parks (23). After the Parks decision the issue of somnambulism arose in a number of provincial court decisions, in which concern over the use of the automatism defense in such cases was aired. 

The case is that of Clive Michael Boutilier, a Canadian national, who was ordered deported by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The order for deportation having been sustained in the lower courts, Boutilier appealed to the Supreme Court. In a six-to-three decision, the Court upheld the order. 

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