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DAVID MILGAARD AND THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE – He spent 23 years in jail for a crime he did not commit. Wrongful convictions are a real thing in Canada.

Posted byDennis Reeve 16 May 202216 May 2022
http://www.slaw.ca/2022/05/15/the-milgaard-storys-importance-for-the-presumption-of-innocence/
Posted byDennis Reeve16 May 202216 May 2022Posted inUncategorized

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WE ARE FACING THE SECOND JORDAN JUDGMENT – It is upon us. There will need to be a severe culling of the backlog of criminal cases. The Ministry of the Attorney General has a choice of whether to resist and fight the inevitable (thereby making the backlog longer) or accept reality. Let’s see how this plays out.
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THE DISPROPORTIONATE RATE OF INDIGENOUS INCARCERATION IN CANADA – Did you know? “Indigenous women now make up 50 per cent of the female population in federal prisons, even though just 4.9 per cent of women in Canada are Indigenous. For all Indigenous prisoners, men and women, the rate stands at 32 per cent. Bill C-5 would repeal 20 different mandatory minimum sentences, mostly for gun and drug crimes, and re-establish conditional sentences, such as house arrest, for some offences … which proposes undoing aspects of the crime agenda passed under former prime minister Stephen Harper.”

Recent Posts

  • Credit also has to be given to JAMES LOCKYER for his tireless advocacy over many years to bring this to fruition.
  • Lawyers in England are refusing to represent some people because their legal aid system is insufficient to maintain a viable practice. The legal aid system in Ontario is similarly perpetually on the brink.
  • Since 1982 accused persons have had the right to a trial within a reasonable time. We’ve had the Askov, Morin and now the Jordan cases of the Supreme Court of Canada trying to ensure that right, with only limited success. So now the courts are stacking cases on top of other cases on their daily trial lists that have no possibility of being reached for trial on that date.
  • JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED – Every person charged with a criminal offence has the constitutional right to have their trial held within a reasonable time. Our Supreme Court has twice attempted to define what is reasonable through the cases of Askov and Jordan. The result has been decades of hundreds of cases being “stayed” from proceeding due to delay and further delays caused by the complex application procedures required to assert that right. Nothing has changed. Simply demanding that the trial process proceed expeditiously doesn’t work.
  • WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR BAIL SYSTEM? – The federal government enacts the criminal code. The province applies it. The province builds and owns the courts. The province hires the Judges, the Justices of the Peace, the Crown Attorneys and court staff.
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