Following up on my recent posts about Ewanchuk and Professor Elaine Craig’s horrendous book, I noticed a lot of ideas tracing their way to a respected law professor out of the University of Windsor – David Tanovich. He appears to be a part of a group of academics – whom I’ll call “the #Me Too …
Category Archives: Law Blog
Racism, Credibility, Reasoning Pitfalls, and why I need to spend less time on Twitter
I got into a Twitter spat last week. I noticed a lawyer calling out the Canadian judicial system for its apparent racial bias in a 1997 decision. I had a quick look at the case, and thought it was a weak claim. I tried to challenge the claim on Twitter, and met with a whole …
The Worst Case in Canadian Judicial History: R. v. Ewanchuk, 1999 CanLII 711 (SCC)
With extra time on my hands during this COVID era, I found myself looking up some horrendous U.S. Supreme Court decisions. I started with this list: Dred Scott v. Sanford(1857): Hands down the worst Supreme Court decision ever, Dred Scott held that African Americans, whether free men or slaves, could not be considered American citizens. The ruling undid …
Some Clarity on Starting Point Sentences: The SCC in R. v. Friesen, 2020 SCC 9 (CanLII)
This will be a fairly long post (approximately 8 pages). I’ll begin with the background to the Supreme Court of Canada’s latest pronouncement on starting point sentences in Friesen, using Alberta cases such as Hajar, Arcand, Gashikanyi, Godfrey and Parranto, as well as the SCC case of Lacasse. I’ll then discuss the effects of the …
Book Review: Putting Trials on Trial: Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession
I read Professor Elaine Craig’s 2018 book: Putting Trials on Trial: Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession a year or so ago, and felt quite unsettled. I wanted to address it in a blog post, but then convinced myself that no one would take the book seriously. I then saw that the …
Mandated judicial education for judges on sexual assault law
I saw this terrible article this morning and had no choice but to do a blog post. Angela Chaisson, a criminal lawyer, is quoted: “We’re having a lot more realization, and a lot of really good case law, coming out about bringing a racial lens to criminal law in particular, but we’re not having the …
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Up, up and away: the Alberta Court of Appeal sets 9 year starting point for wholesale fentanyl trafficking: R v Felix, 2019 ABCA 458 (CanLII)
In yet another disturbing sentencing decision (R v Felix, 2019 ABCA 458 (CanLII), the Alberta Court of Appeal overturns (in a unanimous 5-member decision authored by Antonio J.A.) a 7-year sentence for wholesale fentanyl trafficking, and imposes instead a 10-year sentence. Luckily for the respondent, the Crown only sought a 10-year sentence – otherwise the …
Another Disturbing Criminal Law Decision from the Alberta Court of Appeal – R v Sumner, 2019 ABCA 399 (CanLII) – Starting Point Sentencing
I noticed another disturbing criminal law decision from the Alberta Court of Appeal this week. This time, it’s about starting point sentencing. By way of brief introduction, starting point sentencing has become very popular in recent years – particularly with the Alberta Court of Appeal (see, for example, R. v. Arcand, 2010 ABCA 363 (CanLII), …
The Supreme Court of Canada’s surprising decision in R. v. R.V., 2019 SCC 41
The Supreme Court of Canada has come out with an interesting “trilogy” of cases on sexual assault in the past few months: R. v. Barton, 2019 SCC 33 (CanLII), R. v. Goldfinch, 2019 SCC 38 (CanLII), and now R. v. R.V., 2019 SCC 41 (CanLII). I have the most concerns over the most recent one – …
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One and Done: the Alberta Court of Appeal’s Disturbing Approach to Bail Reviews in R v Ledesma, 2019 ABCA 60
The Supreme Court of Canada has established the requirements for a bail review in numerous decisions – notably, St-Cloud and more recently in Myers. The Alberta Court of Appeal, however, has decided to limit the value of a bail review to an accused person: R v Ledesma, 2019 ABCA 60 (CanLII). Reading carefully, it refers …
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