Access to Justice
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September 09, 2024
Flight risk considered in intimate partner violence decision
By all accounts, Johnny W. was considered a model citizen. The married father of two lived in London, Ont., and was employed in the family business, operating a fleet of taxi cabs. He had no criminal record. That is until he was charged in 2018 and convicted by a jury in 2023 of choking to overcome resistance, assault causing bodily harm, sexual assault and forcible confinement. The victim was an intimate partner who claimed the mistreatment occurred between 2013 and 2015, although not reported until 2018. He remained on bail without incident until he was sentenced to just under six years on Aug. 5, 2024.
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September 06, 2024
Public safety under consideration as Court of Appeal considers Review Board decision
Luis-Fernando Manrique tried to kill his wife. When his trial on an attempted murder charge concluded in 2010, he was found not criminally responsible. The court heard that until his spousal attack, Manrique had no criminal record, nor was there any indication of drug use. Psychiatric testimony revealed Manrique suffered from schizoaffective disorder. He was found not criminally responsible and was confined to a psychiatric facility.
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September 05, 2024
After navigating choppy waters, Alberta trumpets ‘collaborative’ new legal aid governance deal
A new five-year legal aid governance deal in Alberta appears to have calmed, at least for now, the choppy waters the provincial law society and Legal Aid Alberta (LAA) encountered in late June when the Alberta government abruptly changed its negotiating stance at the 11th hour, raising the prospect that legal aid certificates could no longer be issued once the predecessor governance agreement expired in July.
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September 05, 2024
Open letter from lawyers again demands government prevent the extradition of Hassan Diab
A group of 117 lawyers and legal academics is again appealing to the federal government to guarantee it will not extradite Ottawa sociology professor Hassan Diab to France for a crime they say he didn’t commit.
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September 05, 2024
Motion allowed in part in systemic negligence class action involving RCMP doctors’ conduct
The Federal Court has allowed in part a motion for certain particulars requested by the federal government in a class action against the RCMP for alleged systemic negligence relating to sexual assault and battery in medical examinations conducted by doctors.
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September 05, 2024
R. v. Ball decision leaves unanswered questions about police
Michael Ball, of Kitchener, Ont., was supposed to go to trial in 2018 for the 2013 killing of a 28-year-old Elmira waitress Erin Howlett. In 2016, a Kitchener jury couldn’t reach a verdict on a first-degree murder charge, although the jury found Ball guilty of an indignity to a human body.
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September 04, 2024
Appeal court rules COVID-19 benefit income threshold violated Charter
In what one lawyer described as a “leap forward” in the application of s. 15 Charter rights to legislation, the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that the federal government’s $5,000 threshold for its COVID-19 unemployment benefits infringed on the Charter rights of an Ontario woman who did not qualify due to her disability.
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September 04, 2024
Parole officers and post-suspension hearings | Michael Crowley
I generally did not find it easy when we revoked a release and I had to deliver the decision because often it was evident that the individual had been making some positive steps before they screwed up in some way. So, I knew that we were impacting a life in a very negative way. Still, I took some comfort in knowing that by adhering to the law and our policy, we were removing an individual from the community who was now posing an undue risk.
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September 03, 2024
Yukon report outlines lawyer shortage, lack of legal aid help
Yukon’s law society is hoping the territory’s natural beauty will lure more lawyers into living and working there, says an official. The territory is experiencing a shortage of lawyers in its private bar as is laid out in a recently released report from the Law Society of Yukon (LSY).
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September 03, 2024
Post-suspension parole hearings | Michael Crowley
Conducting post-suspension hearings was often difficult because an offender had likely found some successes in the community, and in general, they had been suspended for violating one of the standard or special conditions that formed part of their release, rather than for committing a new offence.