The ReeveLaw Blog

 “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

The case against my client involves four different bare bones descriptions plus a license plate of a vehicle he does not have exclusive use of. Police arrest him and interview him, which is video recorded. Identification is the issue. The police officer writes a “confidential memo, not to be disclosed to the defence” to the Crown saying my client confessed to committing the crime. In the interview they ask him if he committed the crime. His reply was “NO”! Period. This isn’t just lying by the police officer, it’s an attempt to obstruct the course of justice.

When prosecutors believe the complainant contrary to the evidence …..  then it all goes very very wrong. I know a couple of Crown Attorneys who need to read this.

Source: Mark Weiner conviction vacated: Chelsea Steiniger text case finally overturned.

A tip for my clients.  He learned to do this when he was 13 years old.

Wtf? How in the world does he do this?

Source: Filming Cops – Cops Can’t Arrest Badass Guy Because He Keeps…

VICTIM SURCHARGE – It is a fee added to every conviction that Harper has made mandatory regardless of ability to pay. We will continue to fight it being mandatory. “The fines place an unnecessary and disproportionate burden on people who are poor. The reason why the judges, I think, are finding creative ways to try and bring fairness back into the system is because these are the people who hear and see the homeless individual who has no money, who is faced with what can be, for them, a back-breaking fine for minor offences.”

OTTAWA – Defence lawyers say mandatory victim surcharges being imposed on destitute offenders are destined for the Supreme Court of Canada as fierce legal battles play out in lower courts in British Columbia and Ontario.

Source: Victim surcharge challenged in B.C., Ontario | Metro

To all of my friends and clients from other lands with cultural differences and mores, be aware of the fact that your actions will be judged here according to Canadian values with no discount or credit given for the “cultural gap”.

Source: ‘Cultural gap’ not a reason for lighter sentence for Iranian immigrant guilt of raping wife, beating children: court