Criminal
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July 26, 2024
Appeal court decision addresses problems with repeat offender
When a cloistered group of nuns had a member of the group unable to fit into their society, the musical The Sound of Music had them break into song, singing “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?” The City of Calgary also had a problematic resident who did not fit into its society but was much more dangerous than Maria von Trapp.
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July 25, 2024
Court of Appeal decision underscores significance of obeying police instruction
On March 23, 2017, the Canadian Press reported that Angel McCool, then a 30-year-old Stratford woman, was charged with obstruction of police after her GMC utility vehicle was stopped on Highway 401 in Thames Centre, Ont.
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July 25, 2024
SENTENCING — Dangerous operation of motor vehicle — Flight from police — Aggravating factors — Previous record
Appeal by Crown from sentence imposed on McCool from convictions for dangerous operation of motor vehicle and flight from police. McCool, a suspended driver at the time of the offence, led police on a dangerous high-speed chase for over 15 km, driving erratically until forced to stop.
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July 25, 2024
Judicial appointment announced for Northwest Territories
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani announced the appointment of Karin L.E. Taylor as a judge of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, according to a July 24 news release.
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July 25, 2024
PM announces National Security and Intelligence Review Agency appointments
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in a July 24 news release the appointment of Marie Deschamps, Craig Forcese and Charles Fugère to the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA).
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July 25, 2024
Ottawa ordered to disclose memos about CUAET immigration program targeted by Charter challenge
A novel Charter challenge — which contends that Ottawa’s expansive Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) policy for war-affected Ukrainians unfairly discriminated against Taliban-targeted Afghans who face stricter immigration requirements — is proceeding to next steps after the Federal Court rejected a bid by the federal attorney general to avoid disclosing information that sheds light on what went into devising the generous immigration policy for Ukrainians.
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July 24, 2024
Duty of tech competence, AI adoption by lawyers | Connie L. Braun and Juliana Saxberg
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has dominated legal tech conversations for several years, and for good reason. Widespread consumer adoption of ChatGPT and other generative AI products has delivered a host of unprecedented legal and tech risks to Canadian entities. Governments and regulators in Canada and abroad continue to scramble to regulate the responsible use of AI tools, even though their use is already thoroughly embedded in Canadian and global business, government and legal system operations. As a result, the typical Canadian entity’s AI compliance dossier is an unfinished patchwork of aspirational codes and aging regulatory instruments that were designed when Y2K was considered a big enterprise tech risk.
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July 23, 2024
Canadian securities regulators stepped up enforcement in 2023-24, driven in part by crypto schemes
Canadian securities regulators commenced 83 enforcement proceedings between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, with 27 cases of selling securities illegally making it the most common offence, according to the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) annual year-in-review report.
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July 23, 2024
Ontario appellate court releases rare ruling on eyewitness, voice identification evidence
In a rare ruling that addressed both eyewitness and voice identification, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for a man convicted of sexual assault in 2022 after finding that the trial judge failed to provide proper jury instructions regarding both forms of identification.
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July 22, 2024
Competition watchdog gives guidance, seeks input on policing deceptive ‘greenwashing’ by business
The federal Competition Bureau is asking for input from lawyers, their clients and the public to inform the bureau's “future enforcement guidance” regarding misleading and unsubstantiated environmental claims by businesses about products or activities, including future enforcement guidance with respect to last month’s amendments to the Competition Act that explicitly address “greenwashing.”