The ReeveLaw Blog

Words matter. Words are important. Words have meaning. When we had the specific criminal offence of rape in Canada it was defined as non-consensual sexual intercourse. The word rape is presently defined by the FBI as “Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” Every definition of the word rape involves penetration. On the other hand the criminal offence of sexual assault is much more broadly defined to be an assault committed in circumstances of a sexual nature such that the sexual integrity of the victim is violated. The part of the body touched, the nature of the contact, the situation in which it occurred, the words and gestures accompanying the act and all other circumstances surrounding the conduct, including threats, which may or may not be accompanied by force will be relevant. While sexual assault includes rape not every sexual assault is rape.  One cannot be a survivor of rape unless that person has actually been raped. We do everybody a disservice when we refer to any and every form of sexual assault as a rape.  Let’s use our words carefully, as they were meant to be.

Wise words from Jim Wigmore and what he says about the late Shelly Altman is all true.

Source: Trials of A Forensic Toxicologist: Cross | Jim Wigmore | Pulse | LinkedIn

THE HIGH RATE OF DROPPED CRIMINAL CHARGES – Consider this: A police officer lays a criminal charge when the officer has “reasonable grounds to believe” an offence has been committed. The charge then falls to the Crown Attorney who has the sole discretion to determine whether the charge should be prosecuted. In order to prosecute the evidence has to meet 2 criteria that 1) there is a “reasonable prospect of conviction” (i.e. that it can be prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” and 2) the prosecution is “in the public interest”. Not only do the police routinely lay more charges than are necessary but there is a large gap between the police and prosecutorial standards which many people (inmates) fall into.

Ontario’s prosecutors drop way more criminal charges than Crown attorneys in other provinces, a phenomenon that almost certainly contributes to overcrowding in jails while prisoners wait for prosecutors to give up on their cases. The numbers are huge and consistent. Statistics Canada keeps national and province-by-province figures, which show that outside Ontario, about 25 per…

Source: Reevely: Ontario’s freakishly high rate of dropped criminal charges makes our jail overcrowding worse

“20 minutes of action” can cause a lot of damage. Drunken guy sexually assaults an unconscious and intoxicated woman behind a dumpster near a frat house. Victim writes 12 page impact report of how the incident has dragged her through hell. Prosecutor asks for 6 years in jail. Judge sentences guy to 6 months in jail. Guy’s dad cries that it’s too harsh a sentence for his son because it was only 20 minutes of action. Social campaign launched to have Judge removed from his judgeship. Judge up for re-election soon. What do you think?

Letter read in court ahead of sentencing causes online backlash; victim’s impact statement has also gone viral.

Source: Father of ex-Stanford swimmer reportedly called sex assault ‘20 minutes of action’ | Toronto Star

Google reports allegedly pornographic video involving children which has been uploaded to a Google Drive. When Google finds sexually exploitive material, they report such contraband to [the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children or NCMEC], and capture the IP addresses and account information. This information is given to local police who then obtain subscriber information of the IP address from the internet service provider and obtain a search warrant.

A tip from Google started detectives on a virtual chase through emails, phone records, social media and fetish sites that ended in the discovery of a trove of child pornography — and two arrests, including an Alberta woman accused of sexually assaulting her own young son.

Source: How internet detectives tracked a child porn trail from Idaho to Red Deer – Calgary – CBC News

Feeling assaulted is not the same thing as being assaulted. The criminal law often struggles to keep up with innovations in serious wrong-doing which sometimes causes mis-labelling of offences. The result is failure of its principal object to guide citizens and members of the public in such a way that they do not commit crimes in the first place.

A disturbing crime before the courts raises questions about how we should define wrongdoing.

Source: What sexual assault isn’t – Policy Options

Determining whether a driver is impaired by the consumption of marijuana is not as simple as is the case with alcohol. The level of THC in a person’s blood has no scientific connection to the level of impairment. “There is understandably a strong desire by both lawmakers and the public to create legal limits for marijuana impairment in the same manner we do alcohol. In the case of marijuana, this approach is flawed and not supported by scientific research.” Any “nanogram limit for THC in blood (is) picked out of thin air by politicians. Innocent people are convicted of DUI because of this.”

The study commissioned by AAA’s safety foundation said it’s not possible to set a blood-test threshold for THC that can reliably determine impairment.

Source: Scientific basis for laws on marijuana, driving questioned – WTOP

Typical lawyer answer is it’s either …. or both. The practice of law is practised ….. or we practise the practice of law ….or maybe we should just practize.

Source: –ice, –ise, –ize | SlawTips

Next stop, the Ontario Court of Appeal.

Source: CanLII – 2016 ONSC 788 (CanLII)

“About 10 per cent of Canadians — over three million people — have a criminal record.” In 2012 the previous government replaced pardons with “record suspensions”, quadrupled the fee from $150 to $631, increased the waiting periods from 3 to 5 years and 5 to 10 years and cancelled all pending applications. The present government is reviewing these changes. “Inaccessible pardons cause a major barrier to good employment” for offenders who have served their sentence and have become contributing members of society.

Trudeau government studying Harper government changes that made people wait longer and pay more to obtain a pardon

Source: Lower pardon fees mulled for minor offences as part of review