The ReeveLaw Blog

OUR RATE OF CRIME IS FALLING FAST – Whether it’s a result of our increasing use of technology or not, the truth is that crime rates continued their decades-long decline. “The overall crime drop has been described as the most important criminological phenomenon of modern times.” Yet, as the U.S. is making bold moves to decrease their high rate of incarceration here in Canada our laws are deliberately moving in the opposite direction to incarcerate more of us for longer periods of time. It’s insane.

How social media obsession, smartphone addiction, and even violent video games are, surprisingly, making us safer

Source: The real reason crime is falling so fast – Macleans.ca

It looks like a good therapeutic alternative to domestic assault. Smash away to your heart’s content.

Source: Now you can smash things in Toronto’s first rage room

Lawyers who do not exhibit these qualities will not be long for the profession, according to columnist Gaston Kroub.

Source: Beyond Biglaw: 3 Admirable Lawyerly Traits | Above the Law

BOATING UNDER THE INFLUENCE – Did you know? Impaired (or over 80) boat or vessel operation carries the same penalties as if you were operating a car or truck? If you are convicted of impaired boating you will lose your motor vehicle license and will be prohibited from driving a motor vehicle anywhere in Canada for at least the mandatory minimum period of 1 year. The OPP are on the waters. Boat safely this summer.

Source: The Canadian Safe Boating Council and MADD Canada Team Up to Reduce Impaired Boating Deaths This Weekend – Press Release – Digital Journal

“Speaking in code is an easy trap to fall into. It is the language lawyers use daily with their peers, so to talk in legal terms with a client seems totally natural. This can create two problems. First of all, when clients don’t understand what is going on, they aren’t in a position to make informed decisions. The second problem is emotional: When someone speaks ‘above’ a customer’s understanding, it makes the client feel inferior.”

“We’re [McLeish , Orlando LLP] in the process of retaining an ad agency for some of our marketing,” says Dale Orlando. “And it’s really frustrating when they use acronyms we don’t understand. You don’t want to ask because it seems like everybody else

Source: Communications breakdown: When a lawyer uses jargon – Slaw

If you were a customer of Ashley Madison and the confidential information which had been hacked was your name or identity and sexual preferences, would you really want to add your name to a class action suit?  And what about damages? “Even if a class action is launched, it’s difficult in privacy cases to assess what the damages are, particularly where they’re not financial in nature.”  What exactly are you going to claim are your damages?  Loss of spousal affection? Divorce? Is that really Ashley Madison’s fault?  Good questions, eh?

Source: Will Ashley Madison customers launch class action over hacking incident?

 “Imprisonment is supposed to reduce crime in two ways: it takes criminals off the street so they can’t commit new crimes (incapacitation) and it discourages would-be criminals from committing crime (deterrence). But neither of these outcomes came to pass. Prison obliterates your earnings potential. Being a convicted felon disqualifies you from certain jobs, housing, or voting. Each year in prison reduces the odds of post-release employment by 24% and increases the odds you’ll live on public assistance. Time in prison also lowers the odds you’ll get or stay married. Being in prison and out of the labor force degrades legitimate skills and exposes you to criminal skills and a criminal network.” These are the indisputable experiential facts. Harper’s “tough on crime” policies fly in the face of the evidence. His words are “1984 double speak” designed to get him votes at the cost of the safety of our communities.

Source: In America, mass incarceration has caused more crime than it’s prevented – Quartz

Federal judicial appointments “remain open to blatant partisan political favouritism. They use their local contacts, such as party fundraisers (or “bagmen”) to identify lawyers, academics and sitting judges who fit their specifications. You always have to have a champion. Nobody gets appointed without somebody walking them through, in one way or another.” I don’t see how one can toe the line, buy in, sell out, condescend, play the political game and still be an effective independent minded judge – unless, of course, you’re a right-wing Conservative – which is the point, I guess.

For a decade, the Prime Minister has been on a quest to take back the judiciary from the Liberals. Sean Fine goes inside the opaque world of judicial appointments to reveal the making of a Conservative legacy

Source: Stephen Harper’s courts: How the judiciary has been remade – The Globe and Mail

“Mr. Obama explained that people who commit violent crimes are not the reason for the exploding federal prison population over the last few decades. Most of the growth has come instead from nonviolent, low-level drug offenders caught up in absurdly harsh mandatory minimum sentences that bear no relation to the seriousness of their offense or to the maintenance of public safety. Mandatory minimums like these should be reduced or eliminated completely, he said. Judges should have more discretion to shape sentences and to use alternatives to prison, like drug courts or community programs, that are cheaper and can be more effective at keeping people from returning to crime.”

Mr. Obama spoke of the absurdly harsh sentences that have filled America’s prisons, and of the need for community investment to prevent crime.

Source: President Obama Takes On the Prison Crisis – The New York Times

“On any given day in Canada, there are more innocent people in prison than guilty ones.” Isn’t that a shocking statement? Did you know Canada was like this? It wasn’t always so but it’s become this since Harper has brought in his “tough on crime” laws. It’s become more like “tough on the innocent”. “The people elected to lead are ignoring a crisis that needs immediate attention. But the only response from governments to date has been the construction of larger remand centres to hold the growing hordes of legally innocent people trapped in the system.”

On any given day in Canada, there are more innocent people in prison than guilty ones.

Source: Most of Canada’s prisoners have never been convicted of anything. Why are they in jail? – The Globe and Mail