Sentencing In the Time of COVID (Part 1/2) - Caylene Foley
In March of 2020, the world was hit by a global COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has affected every aspect of human life. Freedoms were restricted to help reduce the spread of the virus; people began working from home; and life became virtual for many, including the Canadian judicial system. The whole world needed to pivot to learn how to live within this new reality. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the courts to pivot and change how they operated; moving from an in-person syste
Removal of Judicial Discretion in the use of Conditional Sentences for Drug Offences
This blog focuses on how, in this author’s opinion, section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) is violated when one combines sections of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) and sections of the Criminal Code of Canada (Code); specifically section 742.1(c) and section 742.1(ii)(e). This infringement is caused by the removal of conditional sentences as a sentencing option for Aboriginal offenders.
R v Trochym and the Use of Forensic Hypnosis (Part 2/2) - Samantha Harvey
The case of R v Trochym follows the murder of a young woman in 1992. Police investigators found the body of Donna Hunter, Trochym’s girlfriend, in her apartment and determined the time of death to be in the early morning hours of Wednesday, October 14. The police also noted that it appeared as though the body had been moved eight to twelve hours after the murder to make it look as though the murder had been sexually motivated.
Unlimited Surveillance: Protection for the Police and from the Police - M Packulak
Twice in Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) judgments, Justice La Forest referenced the work 1984 by George Orwell when writing about police surveillance. In R. v. Wong he writes that “we must always be alert to the fact that modern methods of electronic surveillance have the potential, if uncontrolled, to annihilate privacy.”The invocation of dystopian fiction in reference to SCC cases should not be discarded as mere hyperbole.
R v Trochym and the Use of Forensic Hypnosis (Part 1/2) - Samantha Harvey
The Society of Psychological Hypnosis defines hypnosis as a “state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion." There are many theories as to how hypnosis works and the effect that the technique has on the human body and mind.
