Protecting Privacy at the Expense of Victims’ Rights: R v Bykovets
The internet has forever altered the criminal landscape, making it easier for offenders to collect, share and trade child sexual abuse material (CSAM) across both the regular and dark web. Between 2014 and 2022, there were 15,630 reports from police of online sexual offences against children and 45,816 reports of online CSAM in Canada.
"AI is reshaping Canadian Criminal Law" - a podcast
Produced by third-year Robson Hall law students Jayden and Andreas for Robson Crim, this episode looks at how AI is reshaping Canadian criminal law from both directions at once: the state’s growing use of AI in policing and surveillance, and criminals’ use of AI to scale fraud and identity theft. The first half sketches the privacy and Charter backdrop, then walks through tools like predictive policing and facial recognition, raising concerns about bias, and “feedback loops”
IP Addresses - Do Police Have a Right to Use as Evidence?
The internet has become part of our everyday life in today’s society. Browsing the internet for hours at a time is not an uncommon practice. When someone uses the internet, they leave their fingerprint in the form of an Internet Protocol Address (IP Address). “An IP address is a string of numbers assigned to an internet-connected device. Think of it like an address on a house. Your computer network uses the IP address to communicate with other computers, websites, and all par
Known Third Party Suspect & Circumstantial Evidence
In R v Biya, Abadula Biya appealed his conviction and sentence for the charges of unauthorized possession of a firearm, ammunition, possession of a Schedule I controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, and possession of the proceeds of crime. Biya sought to appeal his case based on the trial judge’s decision to reject Biya’s defence based on the evidence of a known third-party suspect. Biya claimed the reasoning from the trial judge’s decision resulted in a miscarr
Indigenous Oral History as Evidence: Cowichan Tribes v. Canada (AG) [2022]
Since Delgamuukwi, the oral histories of Indigenous peoples have been recognized as being put on “an equal footing” with documentary evidence.ii Oral history is a means to transmit information orally to record history and preserve Indigenous knowledge.iii The Cowichaniv case was a voir dire to determine the threshold reliability of the oral history evidence of Grant, Guerin and Chief Wayne Sparrow and to allow them to testify without interruption.
