Month: June 2014

The Conservative government has set a goal to abolish prostitution and legal sex work, and it believes it can do it with a bill that would heavily penalized the individuals who buy sex. While there is certainly some support for the bill, there are many people who find this proposed bill to be paternalistic and potentially dangerous. Currently, it is not considered a sex crime to exchange money for sex in Ontario. There are certainly a number of laws that regulate how and where prostitution can happen, but the general profession is not against the law. If this bill becomes law, however,…

The Controlled Drug and Substance Act dictates which drug acts are criminal under Canadian law. The act is quite extensive and lists a number of crimes that many people in Ontario may not even realize are criminal. Of course, most people in the province know that marijuana possession is a violation of the law, but it is hardly as serious as a violent or destructive crime. Sadly, the Ontario Provincial Police are not likely to be lenient with drug possession crimes, especially in the more rural areas of Ontario. According to the OPP, drugs pose a danger to the community and, thus,…

One look at the media and it is clear: many people in Canada don't think too highly of people charged with drug crimes. Many see them as ruining society, willing to rip apart families and lives with addiction just to make some money. And if that is the general public's attitude toward people suspected of drug crimes, one can only imagine what law enforcement and prosecutors think. What many people fail to realize, however, is that many of the people who are arrested, charged and convicted of drug crimes are often addicts themselves. And it is not just hard drugs…

Most people in Mississauga know that criminal law is the domain of the federal government, so why have provinces and territories passed civil and administrative laws that, in effect, criminalize certain behaviour? And, if provinces are creating these quasi-criminal laws, are individuals' Charter of Rights and Freedoms rights being respected? These are some of the questions that many people in the criminal defence field have. One of the great things about the Canadian legal system is that everyone has a certain set of rights and responsibilities granted to them by the Charter. These rights protect against government intrusion and are designed to…

Law enforcement agencies in Ontario have once again come together to investigate and arrest someone accused of heroin trafficking. A 30-year-old Barrie man has been arrested on suspicion of bringing drugs into Canada. These are incredibly serious charges, as the man was allegedly found with one kilogram of heroin. The government and law enforcement take even the smallest amount of drugs crossing the border seriously. Those who are caught trafficking could spend years behind bars and pay high fines. Unlike cases in which someone is caught by border agents as they cross into the country from somewhere else, this man allegedly…

Unlike other countries, Canada does not have a statute of limitations on indictable offences. What this means, then, is that anyone can be charged and prosecuted for an indictable offence at any point following a crime. On first blush, this may make sense, as it makes it harder to escape justice. With some thought, however, there are some problems that arise. One of the biggest is that someone can be charged for a crime 10, 20, 30 or more years after it happens. After a while, witnesses forget what they have seen or heard, evidence degrades and it may become…

Anyone who has ever been stopped under suspicion of drunk driving in Brampton is likely aware that Canada's drunk driving laws are certainly not lenient. Even if charges were dropped or the individual was cleared of all wrong-doing, he or she probably wouldn't say that Canada needs to make its impaired-driving laws any stricter. That is certainly not certain lobby groups' perspective, however. One of the fronts that organizations like MADD Canada are targeting is drugged driving, which is considered a subset of impaired driving. Not only does the organization want new methods of testing drivers for impairment, but it also wants…

An Ontario man has recently been charged with two drug charges following his arrest by members of the RCMP. The RCMP had been called in after Canada Border Services Agency officers became suspicious. They had emptied the man's bag, but they felt it was still too heavy. After RCMP officers did some digging, they say they found 2.9 kilograms of what they believe to be heroin hidden beneath a false door. The man had been flying from Frankfurt to Calgary when he was stopped and arrested. It is not clear why agency officers needed to look in his bag to begin with…

Most people in Toronto realize that the U.S. imprisons far more people than Canada does, and that high rate of imprisonment is due, in part, to mandatory minimum sentences. While these sentences are particularly prevalent in drug cases, there are many laws that strip judges of their discretion in sentencing. Unlike Canadian judges, many American judges must send defendants to prison for years solely because they meet a select number of criteria. So why is this important to Torontonians? It is important because there is new legislation that has similarly stripped some discretion from Canadian judges with regard to drug charges.…