The ReeveLaw Blog

Even though recreational use of marijuana will soon be legal here and is legal in some States, having been convicted, found guilty or confessing to border officers marijuana (or other restricted drugs) use or consumption at any time in your life will find you excluded from entry into the U.S. for life. The conundrum is answering truthfully while not admitting to marijuana use and take note: they can and will search your texts and messages on your mobile or computer for evidence.

By Pat Grubb Engraved on the International Peace Arch are the words, “May These Gates Never Be Closed.” For a few unlucky souls, these gates are effectively

Source: The anatomy of an exclusion: How it happens | All Point Bulletin

It often starts with oxycodone and leads through heroin to fentanyl and now carfentanil, described as “a tool of war for terrorism”. “A kilogram of carfentanil shipped from China was recently seized in Canada. The powder contained 50 million lethal doses — more than enough to wipe out the entire population of the country.”

The Associated Press identified 12 Chinese businesses that said they would export the synthetic opioid known as carfentanil to the United States, Canada, and other countries for as little as $2,750 US a kilogram, no questions asked.

Source: Several Chinese companies willing to export carfentanil: AP investigation – World – CBC News

According to Statistics Canada 2014 report “Both the police-reported Crime Severity Index (CSI) and the crime rate continued to decline in Canada in 2014, furthering a longer-term downward trend.” So other than political gain what was all that “Tough on Crime” agenda perversion of the truth all about? Here are all the details you’d ever want to know.

Source: Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2014

 We are very accustomed to determining impairment due to alcohol consumption than we are with other drugs, as we’ve been able to study the effects of alcohol legally for a long time and the effects of alcohol are consistent and predictable. Not so with a plethora of various other drugs. It may well be impossible to determine scientifically but that’s no excuse to impose arbitrary unrealistic limits.

Source: What happens when you’re caught driving stoned? Canada’s Supreme Court may soon tell us | Globalnews.ca

Durham Police Constable Edgar is also a director of an unlicensed marijuana dispensary. I wonder if he arrests and charges his customers for unlawful possession after he sells it to them?

Source: Cop director of unlicensed pot dispensary

No. Selling sexual services is legal but purchasing them is illegal. “The Conservative government (introduced legislation which) targets demand by criminalizing buyers and purveyors of prostitution, including pimps, traffickers and anyone who publishes advertising for the sale of sexual services but it failed to fully decriminalize prostitutes. Instead, it maintained criminal sanctions against those who work in locations frequented by children.” Confused? Remember the age of consent is 16 years of age except a prostitute cannot legally consent until 18.

As Vancouver fails to enforce Canada’s prostitution laws, Liberals leave open the possibility of legalizing sex work, Daphne Bramham writes

Source: Canada prostitution: Trudeau govt must declare stance on legalization

TEXT MESSAGES ARE NOT PRIVATE – You may intend text messages to be private and police may need a warrant to search your phone but the “Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that sent text messages seized from a recipient’s phone can be used as evidence against the sender in court.” You lose the aspect of privacy once they are received. This puts them on the same footing as posts to public social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. On to the Supreme Court of Canada to sort this out.

Source: Sent text messages not private: ruling

It seems that a lot of people have difficulty understanding the concept of what consent is and what it is not, in terms of sexual activity. If you’re not sure, you should read this.

Ahead of the biggest drunken party night of the year, Samantha Gold takes a look at Canada’s consent laws

Source: The C Word: Canada’s Consent Laws – Forget The Box

This article does a pretty good job of laying out the sex crimes landscape in Canada however there are 3 comments to make. 1. The age of consent is 16 however if you’re paying for or providing compensation for the sexual activity the age of consent rises to 18 years old. Beware of this quirk. 2. Although prostitution is not illegal, communicating with someone (even electronically) for the purpose of prostitution is. Beware of this quirk. 3. In law a complainant is not a victim until a crime has been proven. That’s why we use the terminology we do.

n the wake of Graham James’ release from prison, Legal Columnist Samantha Gold takes a look at Canada’s sex crime laws involving minors

Source: Canada’s Laws and Penalties for Sex Crimes Against Kids – Forget The Box

The 2015 Martin’s annotated criminal code and related statutes runs 2,079 pages. The 2015 supplement of amendments adds 87 more pages. It is amended and added to numerous times each year. It is riddled with “outdated, unenforceable and unconstitutional” laws. It has become so complex and confusing it is difficult, even for experts, to apply the law correctly, hence this judicial doozer of a mistake. I don’t know if anyone alive remembers the last time it was overhauled and cleaned up.

As legal goofs go, Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Denny Thomas’s verdict in the Travis Vader murder trial for the slaying of vanished-without-a-trace retired couple Lyle and Marie McCann was a doozy. That’s not only because Justice Thomas’s second-degree murder conviction relied on a long-dead provision of Canada’s Criminal Code, but also because his trial judgment, the first ever live-streamed from an Alberta courtroom, was ballyhooed as a signal judiciary-media compromise in the campaign to put cameras in courtrooms.

Source: Criminal Code long overdue for overhaul