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Criminal Review

CriminalReview.ca is an open forum for the public discussion of recent announcements and developments in the criminal law of Canada.

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Last Entry: January 08, 2009 at 14:32:16

R. v. DeCoste

Posted on October 07, 2008
A couple of guys got into an argument in a pub and decided to take it outside. Mr. DeCoste punched his opponent in the chin, sending him to the ground where he hit his head on the pavement and was knocked unconscious. At trial Mr. DeCoste was acquitted because the Crown had not shown an [...

R. v. Blais

Posted on October 03, 2008
This case considers the proper approach to the exercise of the discretion to issue a subpoena under s. 698(1) of the Code where it is proposed to subpoena a person to give expert evidence in a proceeding to which that person has no ties and in which he or she is otherwise a complete stranger...

R. v. R. E. M., R. v. H. S. B.

Posted on October 02, 2008
The Supreme Court hands down a pair of decisions (R. E. M., H. S. B.) giving some guidelines on the sufficiency of judicial reasons. The lead case is R. E. M., where the Court first of all provides a solid grounding for why “a trial judge on a criminal trial where the accused?s innocence is at [...

Oversight unseen

Posted on September 30, 2008
Ontario?s system of police oversight has failed to live up to its promise due to a ?complacent? culture and a lack of rigour in ensuring police follow the rules, Ontario Ombudsman André Marin says in his latest special report, released today. In Oversight Unseen, Mr...

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R. v. Briscoe

Posted on September 30, 2008
A notorious case, and unpopular decision, overturned by the Alberta Court of Appeal. Briscoe was one of a group of mostly young people, led by a fellow named Laboucan, who kidnapped, raped, and killed a young girl. (Yet another sign that something is very, very wrong with young people today: “In the hours before the killing, [...

Community court in the news

Posted on September 29, 2008
In an earlier post on Vancouver’s new community court (designed to handle “minor crimes committed in the downtown area”) I raised an eyebrow at some of the serious offences that were apparently going to be tried there. In this case we have an assault that may have been motivated by the victim’s being gay, thus [...

Terror conviction

Posted on September 26, 2008
Already lots of buzz over this (you can download a .pdf of the decision at the CBC here): An Ontario Superior Court judge has convicted a 20-year-old man of conspiring in a group plot to bomb several Canadian targets, including Parliament Hill, RCMP headquarters and nuclear power plants...

Milgaard report

Posted on September 26, 2008
The official report of the Milgaard Inquiry has been released. You can read it here, or about it here. At first glance, I don’t see where it’s saying much that we didn’t already know.

The chocolate smugglers

Posted on September 26, 2008
Apparently dogs and drug tests aren’t always reliable. Who knew? The drug-sniffing dogs were coming. They knew they were in trouble again ? for carrying chocolate. Even with their certified letter from the Department of Justice, which clearly outlined the organic chocolate they were carting across the U...

Getting tougher on crime

Posted on September 23, 2008
Electioneering: Stephen Harper’s Conservatives pledged today to put forward a new version of the party’s bill to remove the option of judges handing out house arrest for a list of 30 crimes ? and to make the matter a confidence motion that would trigger an election...

Getting tough on crime (again)

Posted on September 22, 2008
Well, this is a surprise (more here). Conservative leader Stephen Harper says if re-elected he would alter young offenders legislation to give judges the discretion to sentence persons aged 14 and older to life in prison if convicted of first-degree or second-degree murder...

Prison diet

Posted on September 20, 2008
Like many a fellow of a certain age, I’ve been trying to cut down on the calories. So this story from the Star caught my eye. At 5 feet, 11 inches and 170 pounds, Raymond Martin is so hungry he loses his ability to concentrate on court proceedings, according to his sworn affidavit...

R. v. Mulroney

Posted on September 19, 2008
As you know, I don’t usually link to “over 80″ cases, even though they are the bread and butter of many a practice, because I don’t find them very interesting. As an example of the kind of thing that goes on, here we have the case of a fellow who blew into a breathalyzer (the [...

The beat goes on

Posted on September 18, 2008
But I think there may be a real problem this time. A 42-year-old Brampton, Ont., man died yesterday morning after he was tasered during a struggle with four Peel regional police officers while in custody the night before. Peel police arrested Sean Reilly at a home in Mississauga around 5 p...

Enforcing limits

Posted on September 13, 2008
From the Globe and Mail: RCMP announced Friday that criminal charges have been laid against an Alberta tavern, its owner and a bartender in connection with the death of a 22-year-old patron who was allegedly over-served when she was already drunk. According to relatives, Tammy Kobylka was drinking shooters on Oct...

Taser report

Posted on September 12, 2008
Hmmmm. OTTAWA?The RCMP did not do “due diligence” when it approved the Taser stun gun for use as a less-than-lethal weapon by its officers, a hard-hitting independent review concludes. … Submitted in June to Elliott but not made public, the review says the RCMP relied too much on the advice of the Taser’s American manufacturer in developing its [...

Community court in Vancouver

Posted on September 11, 2008
As reported in the Globe and Mail, yesterday marked the opening of Canada’s first “community court” in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The community court is designed to hear cases involving minor crimes committed in the downtown area, such as theft ranging from auto and shoplifting, mischief, assault and drug possession...

R. v. L. T. H.

Posted on September 11, 2008
According to the Youth Criminal Justice Act (s. 146), no statement by a young person to a person in authority is admissible in evidence against that young person unless the statement was voluntary and the person who took it ?clearly explained to the young person, in language appropriate to his or her age and understanding? [...

R. v. Bonisteel

Posted on September 10, 2008
In recent years the strange phenomenon of the false confession has been gaining a lot of attention. Strange because, after all, who would confess to a crime they didn’t commit? Because of this common sense way of looking at things, the value of a confession as proof of guilt is quite high, and typically a [...

R. v. Ellard (again)

Posted on September 05, 2008
You know you’ve been blogging for a while when you find the same cases coming up again and again. I actually commented on this case way back in 2006 (an eternity in internet years). Anyway, the (seemingly) endless trials of Kelly Ellard will continue, as the British Columbia Court of Appeal has overturned her third [...

R. v. Badgerow

Posted on September 05, 2008
An interesting decision on an accused’s s. 10(b) right to retain and instruct counsel. In 2001 Mr. Badgerow was convicted at trial of the first degree murder of Diane Werendowicz in 1981 (subsequent DNA testing linked him to the crime). At issue on appeal was whether the trial judge erred in failing to exclude a statement [...

R. v. Spratt; R. v. Watson

Posted on September 04, 2008
Appellants Watson and Spratt were charged under British Columbia’s Access to Abortion Services Act for interfering within the access zone to an abortion clinic. The challenged their convictions on the ground that the provision they were charged with was an unconstitutional infringement of their freedom of expression...

No exceptions?

Posted on September 03, 2008
From the CBC: Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino has said repeatedly that drivers who go 50 km/h over the speed limit will have their car seized on the spot and their licence suspended for seven days ? with no exceptions. But there were two exceptions, and both were OPP officers...

Judging the judge

Posted on September 03, 2008
From the Toronto Star: A judge accused of abusing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms during a high-profile murder trial admitted yesterday the case was “not a model judicial proceeding” and offered his regrets to lawyers ? and the victim’s family ? for hardships caused by his mistakes...

Tasers zapped by Zaccardelli

Posted on September 03, 2008
Apparently former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli thinks the force should stop using tasers. Not really much of a story since he’s the former head, and so his opinion is just another opinion. I’m also a bit disturbed by his reasoning: “And you know, after all that I’ve thought about it, I’ve come more and more to [...

No web, no life

Posted on September 03, 2008
Technology is a major stress factor in our lives because (a) we don’t really understand it, and (b) it never works the way it’s supposed to. Still. From the Globe and Mail: It’s a story as old as the Internet. You fire up your Web browser and all you get is some cryptic error message...

This may take a while

Posted on September 02, 2008
Just because this is a story I know we all like to keep hearing about . . . As reported by CBC news: The 10 adults accused of plotting a militant attack in Toronto all appeared in a Brampton court on Tuesday as the judge began hearing defence motions claiming the way the case has proceeded violates [...

Summer hiatus

Posted on July 03, 2008
Hello readers! This is just a note to let you know that I’ll be taking some time off for the rest of the summer. Hopefully I’ll be back with more posts in the fall. See you then!

Mental health and incarceration

Posted on June 26, 2008
A story in the Globe and Mail today on the incarceration of the mentally ill: Canada’s provincial jails and federal prisons are home to a burgeoning number of offenders with mental disorders, many of them repeat offenders ? so-called frequent fliers...

A cautionary tale

Posted on June 25, 2008
You have to pay attention to cases like these because of what they tell us about the justice system. An Ontario man convicted of assaulting a teenage girl 21 years ago was exonerated Wednesday by the Ontario Court of Appeal after new information revealed imprisoned killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo had confessed to the crime...

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