Criminal defence lawyer, Sheldon Wisener, joins Wise Law’s Garry Wise in discussion about Covid19 and criminal justice in Ontario.Topics include court hearings by video conference, the implications of Ontario court closures and the Jordan ruling, the life of a criminal defence lawyer, and real world advice on remaining silent if
Continue readingTag: Criminal Law
Wise Law Blog: Spousal Immunity: You May Or May Not Tell The Courts What Your Spouse Tells You
Should common law spouses be exempt from testifying against their spouse in criminal cases? A recent article by the LawTime’s, Yamri Taddese provides some insight to this complex question. Recently in R.v. Lomond, 2015 ONCJ 109 the Honourable Justice Javed of the Ontario Court of Justice found that to deny
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Is there any benefit for Albertans in a criminal prosecution of Alison Redford? Not really
Alison Redford, in days past, somewhere in the skies over Alberta. OK, I never said I was a master of Photoshop! Below: Disgraced Canadian Senator Mike Duffy, Alberta Tory leadership frontrunner Jim Prentice, leadership candidate and former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk. Will Alberta benefit from a police investigation of Alison Redford’s
Continue readingLaw is Cool: Doctor Associated with Gang-rape Case De-clutters Phone
By Shannon O’Connor Doctor Associated with Gang-rape Case De-clutters Phone Tim Alamenciak, a Toronto Star reporter addressed a topical legal issue in Thursday’s newspaper. The staff reporter discussed a criminal case regarding Dr. Amitabh Chauhan and his longtime friend Dr. Suganthan Kayilasanathan. Dr. Chauhan is facing charges
Continue readingLaw is Cool: A Quebec man convicted of manslaughter of his daughter gets 60 days in jail.
A Quebec man convicted of manslaughter of his daughter gets 60 days in jail. You’ve read it right and on top of this ‘gentle’ sentence, the man is to serve two times per week over a period of 30 weeks, and two years of probation later on. On May 21,
Continue readingLaw is Cool: INDEPENDENT OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: GREATER POWER & ACCESS TO RESOURCES MUST BE BALANCED WITH GREATER RESPONSIBILITY AND INSPECTION OF PUBLIC LAWYERS SUCH AS PROSECUTORS
Introduction What is the proper scope of state power and its agent the public lawyer in Criminal law? Moreover, are there enough incentives for public lawyers such as prosecutors to remain vigilant in upholding their higher duty? This paper will consider the emergence of contemporary debates about criminalisation
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Abortion rights group launches website to celebrate historic 1988 Supreme Court “Morgentaler Decision”
by Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada | Jan 15, 2013 In honour of the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s historic 1988 decision to overturn the nation’s criminal abortion law, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada is delighted to dedicate a new website to the anniversary: www.morgentaler25years.ca The day of
Continue readingLaw is Cool: LawFacts: Online Legal Advice from Legal Aid Ontario
LawFacts: Online Legal Advice from Legal Aid Ontario By: Simon Borys; Cross Posted on Simon Says Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) recently launched a website entitled LawFacts which is designed to provide information about the criminal justice system to people in Ontario. (See the press release here.) It will not provide
Continue readingLaw is Cool: How Hate and Law Collide
2nd When Law and Hate Collide Pan-European Hate Crime Symposium
Continue readingLaw is Cool: Safe injection facilities and arbitrary government decisions
I often talk to friends or strangers about law. I remember a debate I had with someone once about the government. Can it make arbitrary decisions? I said yes, and he said, rather indignantly, no. His logic was that arbitrary means capricious with a tinge of tyranny. Doesn’t our democratic government respect the rule of […]
Continue readingLaw is Cool: Squeezing Blood From A Stone: No Onus on Impecunious Offender to Prove Inability to Pay Fine in R. v. Topp
In the recent Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) decision in R. v. Topp, 2011 SCC 43 the Crown attempted to do the impossible and get blood from a stone. The metaphorical stone in this case was John Phillip Topp, a defendant sentenced to five years in prison for his conviction on 16 counts of fraud […]
Continue readingLaw is Cool: The death of Troy Davis
On September 21, 2011, at 11:08 pm Eastern Daylight Time, Troy Anthony Davis was declared dead. Cause of death: lethal injection. Administered by: employees of the state of Georgia. Legal justification of homicide: a court order. Grounds for the court order: Troy Anthony Davis’s murder conviction. Societies punish crimes for specific reasons. Section 718 of the Canadian Criminal […]
Continue readingLaw is Cool: Review of Dennis Edney’s Lecture, “The Rule of Law in an Age of Terror”
“Human rights have a dysfunctional relationship with justice. The language is certainly beautiful, but it’s all dressed up with nowhere to go,” charged Dennis Edney in a scathing lecture at the Faculty of Law at UBC on September 15. Edney worked from 2004 to 2011 on Omar Khadr’s defence against charges stemming from the July […]
Continue readingLaw is Cool: In Memorandum: Wendy Babcock (1979-2011)
Law students like to think the have it rough. But some of us have it rougher than others, especially those of us that took the less traveled road to law school. This evening The Star announced that Wendy Babcock was found dead yesterday in her home. Wendy would have entered her third year of […]
Continue reading