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International Law

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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

Twist in terror trial

Posted on June 19, 2008
Odd developments in the Toronto 18 terror trial. Apparently the Crown yesterday accused its “star witness,” police mole Mubin Shaikh, of lying. Things started to unwind over what Thomas Walkom in the Star refers to as a “seemingly minor point” but which Isabel Teotonio refers to as a “crucial” discrepancy...

Loose ends

Posted on June 12, 2008
Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but I’ve been outrageously busy. And it’s been such nice weather. Hopefully I’ll be able to be back on track soon. In the meantime . . . Watch the full tape (or a choice edit) of Paul Bernardo’s police interview...

R. v. Wittwer

Posted on June 12, 2008
An incriminating statement made by the appellant to the police upon being confronted with an earlier statement obtained from him in violation of his constitutional rights is inadmissible so long as there is a connection between the two statements that is “temporal, contextual, causal or a combination of the three...

More on tasers

Posted on June 01, 2008
Since this has been a topic of some interest here, just thought I’d link to a good overview of the subject in today’s Toronto Star. Lots of numbers (20 Canadian deaths “linked to” taser use, 352 people tasered by Toronto police in 2007) and some background on what the policy is for their use...

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R. v. Hughes

Posted on May 31, 2008
The accused Hughes had seriously injured a cat at his girlfriend’s apartment and they decided to kill it to end its suffering. The girlfriend told the accused to break its neck. He instead decided to strap a weight on top of it and stick it in the microwave...

London (City) v. Young

Posted on May 31, 2008
If the “set fine” box on your Ontario Certificate of Offence is inaccurate, do nothing. The proceedings should be quashed. So says a majority of the Ontario Court of Appeal. An incorrectly entered set fine is not “mere surplusage” but means the certificate is not “complete and regular” on its face...

R. v. Lewis and Renaud

Posted on May 31, 2008
Things getting out of hand. It’s not easy being a cabbie, especially with what’s happening with gas prices. In this case one Monsur Moohidine took the accused home to their apartment building. They said they had to go in to get the fare. It was clear they weren’t planning on coming back...

R. v. L. M.

Posted on May 30, 2008
A decision from the Supreme Court on the application of maximum sentences. An often-used rule of thumb in criminal law used to be that the maximum sentence for an offence should only be applied for the “worst offenders” — those who commit the worst crimes in the worst circumstances...

R. v. Strong

Posted on May 27, 2008
You know how I said a couple of weeks ago that you can expect to hear a lot more from the Supreme Court’s line in Dinardo that ?the inquiry into the sufficiency of the reasons should be directed at whether the reasons respond to the case?s live issues...

The fast and the foolish

Posted on May 19, 2008
From the Toronto Star: A Barrie-area teenager?s license has been suspended after he was pulled over for driving 239 kilometres per hour in an 80-kilometre zone. Huronia West OPP were on a routine patrol at 1:50 a.m. today when they saw a black 2000 Lincoln LLS travelling north on Highway 26, north of Barrie...

R. v. D. B.

Posted on May 16, 2008
A bare (5-4) majority of the Supreme Court holds that a young person who commits a “presumptive offence” under the Youth Criminal Justice Act cannot be automatically be presumed to attract an adult sentence (as is mandated under the legislation)...

Yeah, that’s safe

Posted on May 13, 2008
Driving while talking on a cellphone is one thing. Text messaging another. Then there’s this: WINDSOR, Ont. - A man from Windsor, Ont., has learned the hard way that drivers should not be watching movies while dealing with highway traffic. Especially while speeding...

R. v. Dinardo

Posted on May 09, 2008
Perhaps the most cited/litigated/commented on case in Canadian criminal law today is W. (D.). Basically that case covers he said/she said credibility situations and sets down the process of reasoning that a trial judge is supposed to follow in order to find an accused guilty beyond a reasonable doubt...

Unbelievable

Posted on May 09, 2008
This has gone too far. An elderly man in Kamloops, B.C., was zapped three times on the torso by a police stun gun while lying on his hospital bed, CBC News has learned. Frank Lasser, 82, appeared fragile Thursday when he showed the Taser marks on his body and talked about the ordeal he went through [...

Some disturbing news from the UK,

Posted on May 07, 2008
Some disturbing news from the UK, where the use of CCTV cameras virtually everywhere have apparently not had much of an effect on crime. LONDON?In becoming the world’s most-watched nation, Britain was promised a commensurate drop in crime. But the estimated 4...

R. v. Rybak

Posted on May 05, 2008
The Ontario Court of Appeal clarifies the s. 14 right to an interpreter. The appellant urges a bright line rule that essentially proceeds from any showing of a need for interpreter assistance to provision of continuous, precise, impartial, competent and contemporaneous interpretation as the only means of ensuring that the language deficient have the same opportunity [...

Age of consent raised

Posted on May 01, 2008
The Tackling Violent Crime Act (read it) comes into effect today, raising the age of consent in Canada from 14 to 16 as well as providing higher mandatory prison sentences for those committing serious gun crimes. The age of consent provision is getting the most headlines, though I suspect the gun laws will have more [...

Big Brother, we love you

Posted on May 01, 2008
Fall-out from the Supreme Court’s drug-sniffer dog cases? OTTAWA?The Harper government is miffed at two Supreme Court judgments restricting sniffer-dog searches in schools and other public places, and it’s hinting it will take action to offset them...

R. v. Conway

Posted on April 29, 2008
At issue in this appeal was whether the Ontario Review Board (the ?ORB?) is a ?court of competent jurisdiction? within the meaning of s. 24(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The appellant Conway had been a resident of psychiatric institutions for the past 24 years, since being found not criminally responsible by [...

R. v. Sheikh

Posted on April 27, 2008
A rather interesting public indecency case. In the present case, the facts are that the Appellant was seated in a reclining position in the driver?s seat of his vehicle with his pants at his ankles, his penis was erect and he was in the course of putting a condom on his penis...

R. v. W. V. J. C.

Posted on April 26, 2008
In his reasons for sentence in a case involving an ambiguous jury verdict on a charge of sexual assault, Mr. Justice S. R. Romilly makes the following comment: Permit me to say that I was a bit surprised to see that the accused elected trial by jury for this offence, especially because of my comments in [...

Constitutional round-up

Posted on April 25, 2008
Christopher’s Law (named after Christopher Stephenson, a child killed by a sex offender on parole), is an Ontario law requiring convicted sex offenders to register with the police. According to the Ontario Court of Appeal it is constitutional. While the reporting requirements of Christopher?s Law admittedly infringe the liberty interests of the appellant and others in [...

The biggest losers

Posted on April 19, 2008
The Toronto Terror Trial has officially become farce. As reported in the Toronto Star (under the damning headline “Terror Training or Dieting?”): So was it simply a fat camp for Muslim boys? Or was it a jihadist training camp where attendees were encouraged to wage war on Canada because of its military presence in Afghanistan? A video was [...

There must be more to this

Posted on April 17, 2008
At first blush this just seems like another case of police overreaction. Handcuffing a ten-year old for playing his Xbox too loudly? Lukasz Gurzynski said he and five friends were in the midst of a noisy swordfight with sticks and a loud game of Xbox on Sunday when the next-door neighbour yelled at them to quiet [...

R. v. Gibson

Posted on April 17, 2008
The Supreme Court gives “straddle” evidence of intoxication a qualified thumbs-up. As I mentioned in my Statement of Principles post a while back, I’m really not interested in drinking and driving cases. They are, of course, the bread and butter of many a practice and regularly get fought and appealed more than any other criminal offence, [...

Terror case sinking?

Posted on April 15, 2008
The Toronto Star reports on the staying of charges against four of the “Brampton/Toronto 18″ terrorist cell. If it really was a terrorist cell. I’ve commented on this story before and I have to admit I’m confused about all of these developments...

R. v. Legare

Posted on April 14, 2008
The Alberta Court of Appeal considers (pdf file) what Parliament accomplished in enacting s. 172.1(1)(c) of the Criminal Code. The section is designated as “luring a child,” but “luring” is not a word used in the actual wording of the section...

Unsafe at any speed

Posted on April 04, 2008
An artist has beaten the ticket he received for “driving” a performance sculpture around Toronto. In fact, the vehicle (which goes by the name “Shared Propulsion Car” while on display) is a hollowed-out 1986 Buick Regal that operates Flintstone-style by pedal power...

Tele-Mobile Co. v. Ontario

Posted on March 28, 2008
If the police want documents or data records from third parties, which they are entitled to obtain under new provisions in the Criminal Code, those third parties cannot ask for compensation. (More at the CBC.) The issue in this case is whether a judge has the power to make it a term or condition of a [...

Kommando Kamp

Posted on March 27, 2008
More details come out about the “shocking and sensational” training camp of the “Brampton 18″ (see my previous post here). Apparently even the police thought one suspect’s call for jihad was “blowing smoke,” his “jihadist ambitions, to the extent he had them, were limited only by the fact that he had neither the means, skill [...

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