Month: February 2017

Those who choose to work with young people do a great service for the community. However, they can also put themselves in position to be accused of inappropriate acts. Often, these acts are not reported for many years, which may make the validity of any such claims suspect. Nevertheless, police do take such allegations extremely seriously. An Ontario man who coached hockey for kids across two decades knows this first hand, as he finds himself facing accusations of sexual assault dating back many years. The 57-year-old man was arrested recently after accusations of alleged assaults were made known. Though he began coaching…

The buying and selling of medical marijuana continues to be a source of legal headaches in Ontario. There does exist a certain degree of confusion surrounding the manufacture and distribution of the product, and this has led to many raids and arrests of seemingly legitimate businesses in this province. The latest happened just this month and left a man facing several charges, including drug trafficking. On Feb. 14, Halton Regional Police officers entered the premises of a business in Burlington and executed a search warrant. The proprietor of the business was evidently licensed to sell medical marijuana. It is alleged, however, that…

A review of the recent Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Regina v. Grant On July 17, 2009, the Supreme Court released R. v. Grant and three other companion cases, reformulating how courts ought to deal with evidence obtained in breach of the Charter. A fulsome reconsideration of this important issue has been long overdue in the wake of confusion arising from the Court's last major treatise on the subject in1997, R. v. Stillman. As the Chief Justice and Justice Charron noted in Grant, "existing jurisprudence on the...exclusion of evidence is difficult to apply and may lead to unsatisfactory results." [ 1] In…

The unfortunate truth is a person can accuse another person of just about anything. If it happens there are no witnesses to corroborate the story, it becomes a matter of "he said, she said," an all-too-common occurrence. Even if evidence is presented, the entire story may not be immediately evident. When the accusations include allegations of sexual assault, life can become very difficult for the accused, regardless of what actually happened. A 41-year-old Toronto man was arrested by police on Feb. 14, following an investigation into an incident that allegedly occurred the previous month. A 38-year-old woman claims she met a man…

Sex crimes are among the most frowned upon misdeeds with which a person can be charged. Simply being associated with an accusation of sexual assault can turn a person's world upside down. That recently happened for a man and a woman charged by Toronto Police last month. Toronto Police Services were looking into an alleged abuse case involving a child living a couple of hours southwest of the city. The investigation transpired in Jan. 2016, but the alleged assault took place between 12 and 14 years ago. Police allege two men arranged to sexually abuse a child with the child's parents via online…

They say when it rains it pours. Like a torrential downfall, sometimes drug charges come raining down on a person after a police raid. When this happens, the accused individual may feel as if he or she is drowning in legal troubles. A woman from west of Toronto knows this exact feeling after police entered her home recently and charged her with drug trafficking and other crimes. The arrest happened on Feb. 9 at a home on Limeridge Road East in Hamilton. Shortly after 5:30 a.m., plainclothes officers entered the home after investigating tips provided about suspected drug activity in the neighbourhood. Numerous…

Marijuana continues to be a touchy subject in Canada, and many think of it as a legal "grey area." At the end of the day, however, there are still strict laws in place regarding its use, possession and transfer. A pair of Toronto residents was recently charged after police broke up what they allege to be a neighbourhood drug distributionbusiness. On Jan. 30, Toronto Police from 14 Division enacted a search warrant at a home under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. An investigation led police to the home where, they allege, two people were operating a neighbourhood marijuana dispensary. Various…

For a group of people to escape from a serious accident with only minor injuries is very fortunate, indeed. A woman driving a vehicle that rolled on its roof was not able to avoid prosecution, however. Police have charged her with impaired driving after an accident just outside Toronto. The accident happened around 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 25 in Ajax. What caused the accident has not been determined, but the vehicle, a minivan, left the road and struck a hydro pole before rolling repeatedly. The van eventually came to rest on its roof. The vehicle had three occupants, including the driver, all…

When a man or woman is swept up in the net of a major police action, what he or she does next may be crucial to the outcome. High-profile raids and arrests are intimidating, and many may feel they have no chance of being defended. Perhaps that was weighing on the minds of three people recently arrested by Toronto Police for drug trafficking and other alleged crimes. The arrest came following a series of search warrant executions carried out by officers from the Gun and Gangs Task Force on Jan. 24. Five warrants were acted upon, including three on residences and two on…

When faced with an accusation of criminal behaviour, in may be difficult to know what to do. A Toronto man recently faced that dilemma after three girls accused him of inappropriate activity. He now faces sexual assaultcharges. The alleged incidents occurred on Jan. 19 near Keele Street and Eglinton Avenue. A 17-year-old girl reported that at around 4:50 p.m. a man approached her on the street and attempted to engage her in conversation. She apparently claims that he then sexually assaulted her. Shortly thereafter, a pair of 16-year-old girls were allegedly approached by the same person, who is said to have then sexually…