Robson Crim Legal Blog

There is no question that historically, women and men have been hesitant to come forward and report sexual offences. These victims are afraid to come forward because of the fear of not being believed, fear of retribution, and fear of the criminal justice system and its methods. However, in the past few decades, the combined efforts of Parliament and the common law have helped to bridge some of the gaps that perpetuate these fears.

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.

What is privacy, anyway? The Oxford dictionary defines privacy as “the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people.” You would not expect to have as much privacy when you are walking down the street as you would when you are inside your own home. When you are out in public people can see you and interact with you, but you would not want to have people come up to your house and look in your windows or to enter your home without invitation.

In McLeod agreed on the facts that Garrioch came to the house on request of McLeod’s father concerning the removal of an intoxicated minor from the premises. The MBQB found sections of each provision to bestow power to safety officers to enforce them. The MBQB answered the question by referring to two past decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada (“the Court”) while focussing on statutory interpretation, R v Myers and Rizzo & Rizzo Shoes.

If you have ever watched the popular Netflix show How To Get Away With Murder, you have probably heard Professor Keating played by Viola Devis explain to her students the concept of “mens rea” in the first episode. In subsequent episodes, we see this element of criminal law play out. But what exactly is mens rea and why is it a crucial element of a crime? Well, as Professor Keating explains to her students, mens rea is the “guilty mind”, it is the state of the mind.