Detention in a Pandemic
In this essay, I will be discussing how COVID-19 has affected jails and prisons in Canada, especially in relation to bail and sentencing. Prisoners are often a forgotten population in society, but, during a pandemic, prisoners become a very vulnerable population. Outbreaks in jails and prisons have significantly contributed to the rising number of people who have contracted COVID-19.
Drinking and Driving: A Tale as Old as Time
The case of R v Farley (“Farley”) was recently decided by the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench (“the MBQB”) on an appeal from a Provincial Court of Manitoba (“the MBPC”). The offender, Mr. Farley, was convicted of one count of operating a motor vehicle having consumed alcohol in such a quantity that the concentration in his blood exceeded eighty milligrams of alcohol in one hundred millilitres of blood. At trial, Mr. Farley argued that his section 8 and section 10(b) rights un
“Societal Notions” and the Babos Test
In the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench’s (“the MBQB”) case R v MJZ (“MJZ”), the accused was charged with multiple offences arising from allegations that he sexually abused his three nephews when they were children. The accused was initially arrested following the allegations first made by two of his nephews and was arrested a second time after the third nephew came forward.
The Ordinary Sober Person in Provocation
Utilizing provocation as a defence has a few caveats. Under section 232(1) of the Criminal Code (“the Code”), “[c]ulpable homicide that otherwise would be murder may be reduced to manslaughter if the person who committed it did so in the heat of passion caused by sudden provocation”. However, the type of act that can be “provoking” has been significantly narrowed to “conduct of the victim that would constitute an indictable offence under this act.”
Necessity and Aiding a Murder Under Duress
The common law defences of necessity and duress have been well established at this point in time. Necessity has been an option in common law at least since the 1884 case of R v Dudley & Stephens (“Dudley & Stephens”) and it has since been expounded upon and more precisely defined by Canadian courts over the last forty years in particular. In 1984, the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision (“the Court”) in R v Perka (“Perka”) established the preconditions for a defence of necessi
