Not only are drug dogs frequently wrong, if you’re driving to Florida this winter be careful of policing for profit – highway robbery on the Interstate. In some states the police keep what they seize, so they will stop you and use any technique they can to search you and your car and they will seize any money you have on you claiming it must be drug/crime related.
CRIMINALIZING BARBARIC ACTS
The government has introduced legislation to criminalize honour killings, polygamy and forced marriages. To my knowledge we already have laws that prohibit murder, polygamy and establish a minimum age for marriage but the act goes further to render temporary and permanent residents inadmissible for practising polygamy without need for a criminal conviction. As we historically discouraged Chinese immigration by making possession of opium illegal, is this perhaps our modern day attempt to discourage Muslim immigration? Is this a good thing?
DO NOT EVER SUBMIT TO A LIE DETECTOR TEST
First off, a polygraph test is not a lie detector test. No machine can tell if you’re lying or telling the truth. Period. This is junk science, it’s validity has long been debunked, it is notoriously unreliable and results are NOT ever admissible in court. Police use it to trick people into confessing. Here is a polygraph expert who is being indicted for teaching people (for profit) how to “pass” a test. Proof enough.
Polygraph.com owner indicted for training customers to beat the polygraph | Ars Technica.
SELFIE INCRIMINATION
It’s a head smacker. Guy steals a cell phone. Guy takes selfies. Guy doesn’t realize phone was synced to the owner’s Google account, thus uploading any and all pics to the cloud. Owner sees photos of guy she doesn’t know. Guy gets arrested.
Selfie lands a Georgia man in jail | FOX10 News | Fox10tv.com.
PLEA BARGAINING – WHY INNOCENT PEOPLE PLEAD GUILTY
Here is a thorough detailed explanation and we in Canada are rushing headlong into the same “almost exclusively system of plea bargaining, negotiated behind closed doors and with no judicial oversight. The outcome is very largely determined by the prosecutor alone.” This is fuelled by mandatory minimum sentences and consecutive minimums such as have been recently introduced here. Don’t be a fool and think you can you can successfully negotiate this yourself or with a free lawyer. You can’t.
Why Innocent People Plead Guilty by Jed S. Rakoff | The New York Review of Books.
WHEN IS A BARRELLED OBJECT A FIREARM AND WHEN IS IT A WEAPON?
The SCC has recently affirmed that the CAO got it right. A firearm “means any barrelled weapon from which any shot, bullet or other missle can be discharged and that is capable of causing serious bodily injury or death”. A weapon “means any thing used, designed to be used or intended to use a) in causing death or injury to any person or b) for the purpose of threatening or intimidating any person and includes a firearm”. Barrelled objects fall into 3 groups: 1) Those that shoot a projectile with a velocity of less than 214 ft./s. are not firearms because they are not capable of serious injury or death; these objects will only be considered weapons if they meet paras a) or b). 2) Those that shoot a projectile with a velocity of more than 214 ft./s. are firearms because they are capable of causing serious injury or death. 3) Those that shoot a projectile with a velocity of more than 500 f./s. These objects fall within the definition of firearm for all purposes of the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act and must be licensed accordingly. See the judgment for full details to this summary
ATTACK ON FAIR TRIALS –
Under the pretence of victims rights, Harper is introducing into criminal trials the central features of almost every wrongful convictions – secret evidence, non-disclosure of information and anonymous witnesses.
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/11/02/secret-witnesses-curtailed-cross-exams-the-poison-pill-in-the-victims-bill/
ANATOMY OF A SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGE
This is a pretty good article written by a non-criminal defence lawyer. It is, of course, written with a particular bias but if you’ve been charged with sexual assault it will give you some good insights into what you’re facing
Remembrance Day November 11th
After a prolonged era of relative peace that produced at least one generation that has not known war and as we sense as a country that we are entering a period of violent conflict there is no better time to reflect upon our past sacrifices to value what it has earned us and what we will continue or resume to fight together for. I am proud to belong, with you, to the greatest country on earth.
CRIMINAL LAWYERS’ ASSOCIATION
I am proud to be a member of and proud of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association. When you hire a lawyer who’s a member you gain the benefit of the resources, experiences and history of a united organization of criminal lawyers, many past members who are presently Judges. Don’t you want us to have your back when you most need it? Don’t go it alone. Hire a CLA lawyer.