Gladue Reports: Patchwork Band-Aids for a Failing System - Nicholas Mark
Indigenous Over-Representation As it currently stands, Canada’s indigenous peoples are grossly overrepresented in the Canadian prison population. For those behind federal bars, roughly 30% are indigenous while this population only makes up only around 5% of the general Canadian population. (1) This number changes quite drastically when we look at provinces like Manitoba or Saskatchewan, where the number can be as high as 75% as of 2018/2019. (2) This issue is nothing new, and
Individualizing Bail Compliance - Evan Kwong
In R v Zora (“Zora”), Mr. Zora was charged with three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking contrary to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, S.C. 1996, c. 19 in 2015. He was granted bail on his own recognizance with conditions. There were twelve bail conditions in total, the most important of which being that Mr. Zora was required to present himself at the door of his residence within five minutes of a peace officer or bail supervisor attending to confirm hi
Flexible Sentencing Fits the Crime - Noah Curle
TRIGGER WARNING: this case deals with sexual offences against children A judge is rarely ever able to please everyone, particularly when it comes to sentencing. The guilty party always wants the sentence reduced while the victim usually wants it increased. But what happens when the courts themselves disagree about the length of a sentence? This situation arose in R v Friesen (“Friesen”), a Manitoba case which reached the Supreme Court of Canada (“Court”) in 2020. The issue in
Failure to Disclose HIV Not Always Sexual Assault – Eryka Gregory
The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal decision in R v Thompson reaffirms that non-disclosure of HIV-positive status, while morally reprehensible, is not necessarily a crime. Informed consent is the key determination of whether sexual activity between two or more parties constitutes sexual assault under the Criminal Code. The decision in Thompson upholds the high legal threshold of harm required to vitiate consent and render an accused guilty of sexual assault. In the eyes of the la
The Final Word on Entrapment? - Daniele Zerbo
The Supreme Court of Canada (“the Court”) recently had the opportunity to revisit the entrapment doctrine established in R v Mack (“Mack") ver three decades ago. This paper will discuss the background of the entrapment doctrine and how the Court applied it in the context of “dial-a-dope” drug trafficking operations. R v Ahmad (“Ahmad") represents a division on the subject because there was only a narrow majority. Notably, Chief Justice Wagner was in dissent and so it will be