Criminal
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October 09, 2025
New federal Bill C-12 features immigration reforms carved out from contentious ‘strong borders’ bill
The federal government has removed about half of its controversial 140-page omnibus “strong borders” bill (C-2) and inserted excised measures into a newly introduced 70-page “immigration and borders” bill (C-12), which proposes many of the same immigration changes that critics had called on Ottawa to scrap.
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October 09, 2025
B.C. to modernize consumer protection laws on credit fraud
British Columbia is introducing amendments to improve consumer protection laws, allowing consumers to benefit from stronger tools for protection against credit-related fraud and to “support confident financial decision-making.”
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October 08, 2025
Saskatchewan’s top court examines ‘causation’ in manslaughter case
A Saskatchewan man acquitted of manslaughter after he allegedly killed a friend by hitting him on the head with a “metal object” now faces a new trial.
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October 09, 2025
The case for human-centred elder justice
On a good day, 83-year-old Beatrice can still make a cup of tea and find her way to the park. But when she tries to fill out a digital form, the steps feel endless and confusing. For many people with dementia, even small hurdles can make it hard to get the help they need.
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October 09, 2025
Theme of World Day Against Death Penalty 2025: Use of death penalty as tool to oppress
This Friday marks the 23rd World Day Against the Death Penalty. On this day, abolitionists around the world call on governments that retain the practice to abolish capital punishment. We also use the day to draw attention to individual cases of those facing execution and plead for clemency, commutation or a reconsideration of the case altogether. A theme this year in the cases we are highlighting is the use of the death penalty as a tool to oppress.
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October 08, 2025
Fraser calls provinces’ demand to scrap Ottawa’s SCC arguments on notwithstanding clause ‘untenable’
Attorney General of Canada Sean Fraser has pushed back against the demands of five premiers that Ottawa should drop its novel arguments at the Supreme Court that there are substantive constraints on governments’ powers to invoke the Charter’s s. 33 “notwithstanding” clause — arguments that those five provinces contend “represent a complete disavowal of the constitutional bargain that brought the Charter into being” in 1982.
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October 08, 2025
The Strong Borders Act and the road ahead: Charting Canada’s AML future
In part one of this series (see below for link), we traced the broad ambitions of Bill C-2, the so-called Strong Borders Act. We examined how Canada, under mounting domestic and international pressure, sought to overhaul its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) framework, repositioning itself against increasingly sophisticated networks of financial crime (Government of Canada, 2025; FATF, 2022). That first instalment highlighted the bill’s sweeping recalibration of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA), its elevation of FINTRAC into a far more muscular regulator, and its attempt to harden Canada’s borders against precursor chemicals, illicit funds and contraband.
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October 08, 2025
R. v. Chand: A cautionary tale of generative AI and judicial intervention
This is the third article in a series building on my earlier discussion of AI hallucinations in the legal context and their prevalence.
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October 08, 2025
Miscarriage of Justice Canada targets B.C. government for mishandling wrongful conviction
The adage “justice delayed is justice denied” has a corollary: justice delayed is compensation denied. What happens when our criminal justice system makes a mistake? Fortunately, groups are stepping forward to correct an existing wrong. They are working to ensure that a wrongly convicted individual, Gerald Klassen, will ultimately be compensated for the injustice he endured at the hands of the state.
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October 07, 2025
B.C. introducing legislation to address sexual violence at post-secondary schools
The Government of British Columbia is introducing new legislation and an action plan to “strengthen support for post-secondary communities in preventing and responding to sexual violence.”