The ReeveLaw Blog

Technology will ultimately completely address the concerns of impaired driving, whether the impairment be from alcohol or drug consumption, distraction, inattention, stupidity, lack of skill or whatever. “The cars now being produced are stuffed with high-tech safety technologies that will allow the car to automatically avoid danger and even drive itself—if you fall asleep while driving, the car should be able to get you home safely.” Implementation is not far away. BMW and AUDI are working on autonomously driven cars.  INFINITI with it’s Q50 is almost there in a mass production vehicle.  GOOGLE is actually doing it in limited numbers.  Soon you’ll be able to really party on without worrying about getting home.  But until then, every motor vehicle should be mandatorily equipped by the manufacturer with ignition interlock devices.

via The Model D Is Tesla’s Most Powerful Car Ever, Plus Autopilot | WIRED.

Too much money goes to the bureaucrats and not to you.  Here are the facts:

BENEFITS OF WORKING AT LAO

Staff

Annual salary of $60,601 – $107,464 (non-management lawyers)
17 days paid vacation
Up to 32 weeks of pregnancy and parental leave
6 paid sick days per year with 5 to 120 days paid at 100% of pay with medical documentation
Choice of benefits package
LAO payment into health care spending account
80% of prescription drug costs up to $2,500/annum
Semi-private hospital accommodation
$25,000 private duty nursing/3 yrs
Paramedical practitioners up to $1000/annum
Basic life insurance
Dental benefits up to 100% reimbursement
Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance
Travel Insurance
LawPro insurance fully paid
Law Society membership fees fully paid
Employee and Family Assistance Program
Training opportunities/career development opportunities
Flexible working hours
Casual office attire
http://www.legalaid.on.ca/en/careers/careerbenefits.asp

Executive compensation (exclusive of earned bonuses)

Executive   Base Salary 2010 ($)  Base Salary 2011 ($)  Salary Increase (%)
Bob Ward CEO   226,000   264,000   17
Janet Budgell VP  148,000   168,000   14
David McKillop VP  156,000   175,000   12
Heather Robertson VP  156,000   175,000   12
Michelle Seguin VP  162,000   182,000  12

Managers

The public sector salary disclosure documents (2012 “Sunshine List” of those earning more than $100,000) reveal a dramatic increase in managers on the list. The number of managers listed has increased from 3 in 2007 to 19 in 2011 – a 533% increase.
http://laolawyers.ca/updates/inequities-abound-at-legal-aid-ontario/

BUT IF YOU EARN MORE THAN $10,800 A YEAR YOU’RE MAKING TOO MUCH!

“Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) received $354 million in funding during the 2010/11 fiscal year, with 76% of that coming from the provincial government. Additional funds came from the federal govern­ment under a cost-sharing agreement, from the Law Foundation of Ontario, and from clients whose income levels require them to help pay for legal assistance.” (Ontario Auditor’s Report 2011)

Firstly note that the federal government makes the criminal law and the provincial government builds the courthouses and pays the Crown Attorney’s to prosecute you and pays the Judges to judge you.  Secondly they don’t have enough money for lawyers to defend you and even if they did, do you really want a government paid lawyer, because with money comes control.

LAO however does seem to have plenty of money to pay themselves. “LAO incurred $47 million in expenditures on administration and other expenses.” (Ontario Auditor’s Report 2011)

If a certificate is issued to you, you can take that certificate to a lawyer of your choosing who is willing to accept that at the sole source of compensation for defending your criminal charge. According to the report less than ½ (49.17%) of LAO’s expenditures were for the issuance of certificates.

You will most likely NOT be granted a certificate is your annual gross individual income is over $10,800 AND you must be facing a likely (in their sole opinion) period of incarceration, if convicted, exceeding 90 days.

In other words, we won’t be issuing YOU a certificate, but here, have a cookie.  A cookie always makes you feel better.

The shame of LAO continues.

The shame of Legal Aid Ontario.

For a government who is proudly “tough on crime”, this is a tough one to understand. “Canada is one of the only countries in the world that is moving backwards: weakening its controls on firearms while other countries are introducing stronger laws to improve safety and combat the trafficking of firearms.”

Canada Is Becoming More American on Gun Control | Coalition for Gun Control.

After many years we’re still fighting the Crown’s extremely prejudicial attempts to introduce junk science into evidence to obtain convictions of sexual assault.  In this case the Crown used a purported expert “child psychologist to testify about the effect of delayed, incremental and inconsistent disclosure by child victims of trauma including child abuse and a correlation between child sexual abuse and non-epileptic seizures and post traumatic stress disorder.”  Fortunately our Court of Appeal can’t be as easily tricked by this nonsense as the convicting trial Judge was.

CanLII – 2014 ONCA 611 (CanLII).

CAMH has now weighed in on the issue. “The war on drugs has failed and it has done more damage than any possible good,” said Culbert. “So we have to take a different approach.” Can reform be far away? Unfortunately the way the Harper government ignores evidence and refuses to accept advice, it probably is.

Pot should be legalized, regulated and sold like alcohol: CAMH | 680News.

I heard the good news today straight from the horse’s mouth.  The Ontario government has promised to give LAO some more money sometime in the future.  That means that LAO may be able to raise the financial eligibility criteria (that is, is the level of annual income above which you do NOT qualify for Legal Aid assistance, which is currently set at just about 50% of the official poverty level) in increments over a number of years so it may then come close to today’s poverty level.  However, if you manage to qualify for a legal aid certificate the rate of pay to lawyers is so low that no lawyer can continue to stay in business on just a legal aid practice.  So, if you are charged with a criminal offence you now probably have enough information to answer the question.

Revenge Porn – a criminal offence?  Not exactly but smart police and Crown Attorneys can use our existing laws to make it so.  Tread with caution.

We must treat revenge porn as the crime it is – Telegraph.

 

Revoking citizenship of treasonous Canadians.  Is this a good idea and if so, how should it be done?  Will there be 2 classes of citizenship – a second class of those eligible for dual citizenship?  Should we rely upon the judgment of foreign courts?  Is it better to imprison or deport such offenders?  There will be much heated debate about this is in the near future.  What do you think?

 

Winnipeg man could be test case for Canada’s latest tool in fight against terrorism: revoking citizenship | National Post.