The ReeveLaw Blog

“Since June, 2013, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is serious about removing those who have criminal records in oversea or in Canada.  In fact, it is their top priority to remove people with criminal records. (There are) two issues, instead of one issue – (1) criminal inadmissibility assessment AND (2) misrepresentation for non-disclosure.” Consult an immigration specialist.

Am I Criminal in Canada?.. a drinking and driving charge in Canada is a criminal coded conduct.

Source: Am I Criminal in Canada?

Did you know that if you have to attend court because you’ve been charged, or you’ve been subpoenaed as a witness or victim or summoned for jury duty or simply want to observe the court process you not only have to submit to the usual entry checkpoint security process but also may be required to provide identification and submit your vehicle to a search by police? Does that make you think twice about attending court?

A new provincial law intended to increase security at courthouses and other facilities gives police overly broad powers and may even be unconstitutional, according to some Ontario lawyers.

Source: Controversial court security act proclaimed into law

WHO’S IN CHARGE? – While Harper’s Public Safety Minister bickers with the RCMP people are being charged, convicted and imprisoned for having a gun prohibited because it has a wood coloured stock instead of a black plastic stock, which is not prohibited.

This is not the first time the government has taken issue with the way the RCMP has classified a gun and reflects its push to obtain greater control over such decisions

Source: Federal public safety minister, RCMP clash over banned rifle | National Post

Do you remember last February when Peel Regional Police stormed into a Brampton court room, arrested and handcuffed a lawyer in her court gown and paraded her through the halls and charged her with passing drugs to her incarcerated client during the trial? Then the police LIED about what they did to her. Today the Crown dropped the last of all charges against her. Why? Because there was no case against her – they realized they couldn’t possibly prove she had done anything wrong. Arrogant, pre-emptive insensitive police abuse of power.

The Federal Crown withdrew all charges against defence lawyer Laura Liscio today

Source: All charges dropped against lawyer arrested at Brampton courthouse | Toronto Star

In Harper’s Canada once a criminal always a criminal. Roy McMurtry and Anthony Doob are two men who know what they’re talking about. “People make mistakes. And people change. But for Harper, there is no getting past a criminal conviction. For him, people are defined by the worst thing they once did. Stephen Harper’s Canada represents a dramatic break with Canada’s past.”

The Harper government is making it more difficult for those who made a mistake to get a pardon and become full members of society, say a former chief justice of Ontario and a leading criminologist.

Source: Making pardons tougher to obtain is harsh and unfair | Toronto Star

“Support the Palestinian cause? Cheer on Ukrainian irregulars blowing up Russian ammunition dumps? Defend an armed uprising against the Chinese occupation of Tibet? Best think again before saying any of that out loud. Any of us who question the current order of things could be charged with a precrime, not by “precogs” in a bubble, but by your friendly neighbourhood Constable Plod.” Without having committed an offence you can be imprisoned and have to undergo forced “religious counselling”.

Aaron Driver has never been charged with a crime. But his liberties have been severely limited by a judge, who made “religious counselling” a condition of release. Expect more of this under C-51.

Source: Precrime, Canadian style | rabble.ca

It seems that everything we do leaves some sort of electronic trail, whether it be on-line or the ubiquitous security cameras or 407ETR records or ….. “The Crown said Tuesday it would present evidence that included recordings of fake 911 calls allegedly found on the accused’s computer, as well as logs from Skype and a Twitter account.”

An Ottawa courtroom heard new fake 911 calls Tuesday morning at the ‘swatting’ trial of a 17-year-old boy, including one in which a caller pretended to have come across his mother in a pool of blood.

Source: More fake 911 calls on second day of teen ‘swatting’ trial

The Harper gov’t has done a 180 degree turn in the direction of criminal law and is taking us down the disastrous path the U.S. has discovered doesn’t work. “It’s striking to realize that the crime rate is as low as it is, yet we’re undergoing the largest prison expansion since the 1930s.” The clear and proven fact is that more punishment does NOT lead to less crime.

Crime rates in Canada are plummeting, so why are we spending hundred of millions on new prisons?

Source: State of Incarceration – Doc Zone

“Professional means ethical. It means upright. A profession is a calling, not just a job. When you are professional, you act with the highest standards of integrity and regard for your clients. It is professional to tell the truth, especially when it is hard to do so. People will remember the way you handle yourself years after they met you. What would you like them to remember you for?”

Being professional has always meant taking one’s obligations seriously, but at one time being professional was also assumed to mean being stiff and formal. A lot of people still have that idea in their minds.I have been called ‘unprofessional’ for a lot of silly reasons, like wearing a shade of pink lipstick that someone thought was too vivid, or for telling the truth when no one else in the room wanted the truth to be told.Gradually I realized that people throw the term ‘unprofessional’ around for several different reasons.There are behaviors, of course, that are actually unpr

Source: Seven Things That Brand You Unprofessional | Liz Ryan | LinkedIn

ZERO TOLERANCE POLICIES – simply don’t work because they remove all judgment and discretion from the equation.They involve only the simple application of inflexible rules without consideration of the circumstances, the people involved or any humanity. Zero tolerance policies result in more injustice than it does justice.

The justice system has taken the idea of zero tolerance in domestic assault to such an extreme that it’s unfair to defendants and no longer works in the best interests of Ontario families, says a 40-year veteran of criminal law.

Source: Zero-tolerance conundrum