Institutions of Punishment and Criminal “Debt” – Lewis Waring
Courts often sentence criminals in reference to his or her “debt to society”. Indeed, legal systems of all kind work to repay debts, to require one party to pay to another an amount determined to be owed. In civil law, money underlies all legal debts. While civil judgments sometimes determine debt based upon collections of receipts or contractual clauses, some civil damages derive from amorphous notions of mental suffering. In either case, a civil wrongdoer or tortfeasor accr
Appellate Intervention Warranted where the Majority Disagrees with the Sentencing Judge - Anonymous
R v Friesen (“Friesen”) was one of the most impactful decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada (“the Court”) in 2020. Friesen changed and explained how courts across the country should address instances of sexual offences against children and modernized the judicial system’s approach to such instances. Not only did Friesen change the way that courts view the numerous harms (and numerous people they affect) flowing from sexual offences against children, but it also provided so
Revisiting the Constitutionality of s 229 of The Highway Traffic Act - Anonymous
Statutory presumptions and reverse onuses are oft challenged issues in the realm of the intersection of criminal law and the Charter. These issues have seen considerable attention in recent Supreme Court jurisprudence, from the SCC’s 1992 decision in R v Downey through to their recent 2019 decision in R v Morrison. Very recently, the Manitoba Court of Appeal [“MBCA”] was asked to contemplate the constitutionality of s 229 of The Highway Traffic Act in R v Bernier. Mr. Bernier
Consistency & Clarification: The Solution to the Misapplication of the Plain View Doctrine - B Macht
Author: Brittney Macht, JD Candidate, University of Manitoba Faculty of Law The plain view doctrine has been used by police forces in both Canada and the U.S. to justify warrantless seizures of evidence. Despite this doctrine being a widely accepted principle, there are many problematic means that could result from its application such as abuse of police powers in over search or seizure of evidence. This blog will provide an overview of the plain view doctrine itself and the
Sentencing for Sexual Offences Involving Youth - Breanna Sheppard
Sentencing for sexual offences is a complicated area and not just because of the factors considered in the sentencing of sexual offences, the application of R v Kienapple (“Kienapple”) for included offences, and the ancillary orders of which there are many. The sentencing ranges are further complicated by the application of sentencing minimums that often are both legislated and have higher ranges dictated by the various provincial appellate courts. The application of Kienappl