Robson Crim Legal Blog

The criminalization of peaceful protests as violent conduct has become an increasingly concerning issue in Canada. The imposition of criminal language on protest action delegitimizes activism by framing it as violence, and in turn legitimizes police intervention against activists. The legal and rhetorical criminalization of protest, how the justice system redefines democratic participation as disorder and the proportionality between protest tactics and injustice they challeng

It is almost unimaginable that a seemingly normal family man would attack and be charged with the murder of his mother-in-law and the attempted murder of his father-in-law. It is even more unimaginable that the accused in such a crime would be found not guilty by relying on the defence of automatism. This is what occurred in the R v Parks decision, where in 1992, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) found the respondent, Kenneth Parks, to be not guilty for attacking his parents

In R v Hart, Cromwell JA stated that the cross-examination process is a “cornerstone of the adversarial trial process… [and that] it is an important vehicle for the discovery of truth. The decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal (ONCA) in R v King adds an additional layer of protection for accused persons of Indigenous ancestry. The newfound precedential impact of R v King, as it relates to the Corbett applications of Indigenous accused persons, is ultimately the subject of i

Generally, written evidence of a complainant’s sexual activity is presumed inadmissible, as it runs afoul of the Criminal Code s. 276. Such evidence can be admitted, but it requires the judge to carefully consider several factors prior to admission. Popularity of dating applications like Tinder, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between communications referencing a complainant’s prior sexual activity and communications that are part of the sexual activity

Confessions carry significant weight in this system. They are intuitively persuasive and often treated by triers of fact as powerful admissions of guilt, even where contextual or coercive factors may be present. Given the natural inclination toward guilty verdicts in the face of such admissions, judicial actors have paid considerable attention to developing safeguards to regulate how confessions are obtained. These protections, Mr. Big Operations (MBO) skillfully evade any sa