CANCELLED - Section 12 of the Charter: Should Corporations Be Protected from Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

We regret to announce that this conference has been cancelled.

In 9147-0732 Québec inc. c. Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales, 2019 QCCA 373, the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that corporations enjoy Charter s.12 protection from “cruel and unusual punishment”, whereas the dissent found that legal persons do not benefit from this protection. Should this constitutional protection only be applied to preserve human dignity? Or should disproportionate fines that push corporations into bankruptcy be considered unconstitutional?

The appeal of this case was recently heard by the Supreme Court of Canada, in January of this year. In this appeal, the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) presented two competing answers to this question.

Me Alyssa Tomkins, representing the position of the CCLA, and Me Joanna Baron, BCL/LLB'12, representing the position of the CCF, will argue the case for the applicability of s.12 of the Charter to corporations under the vigilant moderation of Prof. Víctor Muñiz-Fraticelli.

Organized by the Runnymede Society student club.