Reviewing Fleming v Ontario
Canada is a free and democratic society. Every Canadian is afforded protection of a number of rights and freedoms under the Canadian Charter. However, the administration of criminal justice often infringes upon these rights, particularly the right to liberty. Through both statute and common law, police are afforded the power to enforce order through lawful detention of individuals to promote the safety of Canadian society.
R v Grant to R v Le: Psychological Detention - what has changed?
R v Grant was a case that outlined how to determine psychological detention and changed the analysis of evidence exclusion based on section 24(2) of the Charter. The recent Supreme Court case R v Le considered similar issues. This blog will look at the two cases, consider the similarities, and determine why the two cases had different outcomes.
Transgender Justice and Bill C-16: The Unfounded Fear of Pronoun Prison
Bill C-16 added “gender identity or expression” to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination in Section 3(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Second, Bill C-16 added “gender identity or expression” to the protected identifiable groups listed under the hate propaganda provisions in Section 318(4) of the Criminal Code.Lastly, Bill C-16 also modified Section 718.2(a)(i) of the Criminal Code to classify a criminal offence motivated by bias based on “gender identity or exp
Aiming Arbitrarily: The Flawed Ban on “Assault-Style” Weapons
In order to ensure the safety of Canadian citizens, it is important that Canada maintains thoughtful regulations that control the legal usage of firearms. But for any such regulations to be thoughtful, they cannot be arbitrary.Canada’s federal government recently placed an immediate ban on 1,500 different models and variants of specific “assault-style” firearms. The ban prohibits citizens with a firearms license from selling, transporting, importing or using any of the numero
Sentencing of Indigenous Offenders in Canada
Section 718.2(e) was added to the Criminal Code to remedy the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in criminal custody. Section 718.2(e) provides that “all available sanctions, other than imprisonment, that are reasonable in the circumstances and consistent with the harm done to victims or to the community should be considered for all offenders, with particular attention to the circumstances of Aboriginal offenders”.
