Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, revealed his government’s intentions to raise family reunifications numbers. Consequently, Canada will welcome approximately 25,000 parents and grandparents as immigrants next year. The government’s main goal is to cut the backlog of applications, which has pushed wait times to up to eight years in some cases. No new family reunification applications will be processed before 2014. In the near future, a new family reunification program is expected.

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The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that that prosecutors can ask police to search the criminal background of potential jurors. The Crown can ask police officers associated with the case for their opinions on the jurors’ suitability for a particular case. However, the Crown has to disclose the information they obtained to the defendant before the jury is selected. This issue came to light after a controversy in 2008 in which police in Barrie systematically ran computer checks on potential jurors. This practice went on for years until defense lawyers discovered it. Defense counsel accused the Crown of hand-picking jurors in order to increase their chances of a getting a conviction.

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