Category Archives: Law Blog

Politics, Alberta Prosecutors and Danielle Smith

I don’t usually get political but I’m afraid I need to in this case. The recent explosive headline in Alberta is that Danielle Smith – currently Alberta’s premier and leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) had a phone conversation with Artur Pawlowski, a pastor who is currently awaiting verdict on his criminal trial for …

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Part 2 – Manufacturing Guilt: Wrongful Convictions

I believe [the accused] did something very, very wrong in that room. But I also believe that nobody has asked me to play God. I’ve been asked to apply the law. Justice belongs to God; men only have the law. Justice is perfect, but the law can only be careful. […] If we as a …

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Manufacturing Guilt: Wrongful Convictions

We’ve all had clients convicted of crimes when we were sure of their innocence. I have two as I stand here. I can remember them, and they haunt me. You wonder, was it my fault? And you’re bound to blame yourself. In the two cases that haunt me, I have no doubt it was my …

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Open Letter to Justice Minister Shandro RE: Legal Aid Alberta Funding

This is a copy of the letter I sent to Alberta Justice Minister this morning: August 3, 2022 Via Email to: ministryofjustice@gov.ab.ca   The Honourable Minister Tyler Shandro Minister of Justice and Solicitor General & Deputy House Leader 204 Legislature Building 10800 – 97 Avenue Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6 Dear Sir: RE:     Inadequate Legal …

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Ghomeshi, Guilt and Gullibility

Given the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent horrendous decision in R. v. J.J., 2022 SCC 28 (extending its half-decade Crown win streak for sex assaults at that Court to 35) that I blog about here and the recent jury verdict in the Jacob Hogaard case (noting the awful, one-sided media coverage of it), I thought I’d …

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Innocence is not a myth – Shakespeare, wrongful convictions and R v BEM, 2022 ABCA 207

I read a recent ABCA case of a conviction appeal dismissed that illustrates for me the extent of the quagmire that is sexual assault law in Canada. The decision is indexed as R v BEM, 2022 ABCA 207. The majority decision is by Schutz and Slatter JJ.A., with a partial dissent by Veldhuis JA (on …

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Trauma and memory

Since I’m no brain scientist, I thought I’d crack open a textbook (crowns believe in textbooks, right?). I had a look at Witness Testimony – Anthony Heaton-Armstrong; Eric Shepherd; Gisli Gudjonsson; David Wolchover – Oxford University Press (oup.com) – 2006 (thank goodness for a solid Calgary law library). While skimming the book, I was looking …

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Surprisingly Human: How Judges Think, by R. Posner

I recently read Richard Posner’s excellent 2010 book, How Judges Think. He pulls back the curtain on judicial thinking, clarifying a topic seldom discussed or understood. He puts the lie to the commonly held perception that judges’ reasoning is (for the most part) Divinely inspired. He reinforces Justice Berger’s somehow-controversial comments in R. v. Gashikanyi, …

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The train wreck that is Legal Aid Alberta

I have lots to say about Legal Aid Alberta (LAA) and its funders. They’ve slashed their budget drastically the last few years – with an extreme, detrimental impact on both the public and the lawyers who depend on it for their livelihoods. Given their very tight budget (and drastic reductions in funding from Alberta’s provincial …

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