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We have seen a significant shift in the criminal justice system over the past two years that has and will continue to erode the ability of an individual's right to make full answer and defence to allegations of sexual assault. The most controversial changes as proposed by Bill C-51 is to automatically exclude relevant evidence in the possession of the accused. Text messages, emails, pictures, video recordings, even thank you...
Continue reading Bill C-51 – Evidence in Sexual Assault Cases – A direct Attack on the Right to Make Full Answer and Defence...

As an accountant in Ontario, you would not have been where you are without investing substantial resources into gaining the qualifications necessary to practice your profession. For this reason, society typically holds CPAs to high standards of conduct. If you face allegations of misconduct, your personal and professional reputation could suffer significant harm that might even have long-term consequences. Your chosen field of work can be intensely competitive with mounting...
Continue reading Are you facing professional misconduct charges as an accountant?...

Professional misconduct among educators in Ontario can take on different forms, and the severity can range from allegations of harm done directly to students to acts that could be detrimental to the profession. Misconduct charges against educators do not always involve actions that occurred on campus, nor do they always involve members of the school or college community. Unfortunately, almost all allegations of misconduct are severe and could have dire...
Continue reading Dealing with accusations of professional misconduct as a teacher...

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....
Continue reading Conscriptive Evidence, Real Evidence, Good Faith, Bad Faith – What does it all mean?...

Citizens of Ontario have a right to fair treatment at the hands of the law, regardless of who they are. The mere suspicion of wrong-doing is not justification for detention, or arrest. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened to a Toronto man who was detained and searched without probable cause. On Aug. 21, 2008, Toronto Police officers stopped a man who had just parked his Jaguar near Parkdale Collegiate, in the...
Continue reading Lack of probable cause leads to acquittal for convicted dealer...

Tags: Search & Seizure

Police officers must often rely on their instincts to tell them when something does not look right. Sometimes though, gut feelings need to be held in check by the letter of the law. Simple suspicion is not reason enough to detain a person without just cause. In the case of a search for drugs east of Toronto, a judge recently ruled in favour of a defendant when the search was deemed to be the...
Continue reading Search for drugs ruled unlawful: trafficking charges dropped...

Tags: Search & Seizure

Throughout the Greater Toronto Area, residents rely upon their cellphones for communication. Whether that communication takes the form of talking, texting or email, few who have smartphones can likely imagine going back to a time when they were not available to use. Their popularity has ramifications in many different parts of life including criminal investigations. Specifically, questions have arisen regarding what information contained within the phone is discoverable to law...
Continue reading Seizing information found in smartphones...

Tags: Search & Seizure

We have previously written about the important role evidence can play in establishing guilt or innocence related to a criminal charge. That evidence must be obtained in accordance with certain rules. Among other things, the evidence collected must not be overbroad. These rules are in place to protect the civil rights of residents of Ontario. Recently, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled on a matter of this nature related to...
Continue reading Rules pertaining to collection of evidence in place for a reason...

Tags: Search & Seizure

In previous posts we have written about changes activists have sought related to law enforcement's practice of carding, in Toronto. In response, this past fall a draft regulation which is supposed to prohibit the arbitrary and random collection of identifying information by law enforcement officer, was released by Ontario's Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. While their efforts were successful, some are concerned about how police officers would be able to...
Continue reading Feedback provided to proposed carding rule...

Tags: Search & Seizure

When someone is suspected of engaging in an illegal activity, there are certain things that Toronto law enforcement officers can do to determine whether that is in fact what is going on. Under certain circumstances an officer can perform a search of a house or vehicle to get more information. To take this course of action there must be a pretext for that search. If there is not pretext, a search...
Continue reading Planted evidence does not provide pretext needed for search...

Tags: Search & Seizure