The ReeveLaw Blog

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

“Not surprisingly, the high court kicked them to the curb, again. Medical marijuana is legal, the court reminded them in a unanimous decision, and that means there should be no difference between whether it’s ingested via a joint or baked in a brownie. Health Minister Rona Ambrose is outraged, of course.” The so-called HEALTH MINISTER, claims that marijuana is not a medicine. That’s what’s outrageous!! Even 3 year old Gwen knows better. “We can continue to treat our children without fear of prosecution. Yet the feds, so blinded by the smoke of their ideology, somehow think that’s a bad thing.”
http://www.straight.com/news/470286/lawyer-kirk-tousaw-calls-health-minister-rona-ambrose-utterly-ignorant-about-medical
https://www.straight.com/news/470036/stephen-harper-loses-again-supreme-court-canada-time-over-medical-marijuana

Well, there go more of our tax dollars up in smoke.

Source: Canada ends reefer madness for kids like Gwen | The London Free Press

None. Period.

There’s a lot of hype about the increase in fines under Bill 31 and rumours going around that you can be charged for being distracted by drinking coffee, smoking, map reading, fiddling with the radio, arguing with your kids, putting on make-up, etc. but these things are not prohibited by the law. There has been no offence and there is no new offence of “distracted driving”. The governing section is 78.1 of the Highway Traffic Act which is entitled “Wireless Communications Device”. Here is the text:
78.1 (1) No person shall drive a motor vehicle on a highway while holding or using a hand-held wireless communication device or other prescribed device that is capable of receiving or transmitting telephone communications, electronic data, mail or text messages.
Entertainment devices
(2) No person shall drive a motor vehicle on a highway while holding or using a hand-held electronic entertainment device or other prescribed device the primary use of which is unrelated to the safe operation of the motor vehicle.
Hands-free mode allowed
(3) Despite subsections (1) and (2), a person may drive a motor vehicle on a highway while using a device described in those subsections in hands-free mode.
(6) Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply if all of the following conditions are met:
1. The motor vehicle is off the roadway or is lawfully parked on the roadway.
2. The motor vehicle is not in motion.
3. The motor vehicle is not impeding traffic.
Please note the limited scope and the exception and don’t believe the hype.