Criminal
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September 24, 2025
Ruling highlights importance of considering reasons for criminal behaviour
In my latest book, Acts of Darkness, I highlight a theme that runs through our criminal justice system: an undue concentration on what was done that requires punishment, with little attention to why it was done. Fortunately, that focus appears to be shifting. An example of this new approach to sentencing is shown in the case of R. v. Kaiser, 2025 NSCA 56.
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September 23, 2025
Feds to launch gun compensation program via Nova Scotia pilot
Canada’s government is launching a pilot program in Nova Scotia as part of rolling out its amnesty buyback initiative for “assault-style” guns deemed illegal for people to possess.
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September 23, 2025
Quebec Appeal Court rules conditional discharge may be granted in sexual assault cases
An aspiring real estate agent found guilty of sexually assaulting his ex-partner has had his eight-month imprisonment sentence to be served in the community overturned by the Quebec Court of Appeal after it ruled that a conditional discharge, while a rare measure for sexual assault, may be granted when the circumstances warrant it.
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September 23, 2025
SENTENCING - Controlled drugs and substances - Possession for the purpose of selling, trafficking, distributing or exporting
Application for leave to appeal and appeal by the appellant from the two-year prison sentence imposed by sentencing judge for possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
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September 23, 2025
NCR appeal asks: How long is too long to file an appeal?
How long is too long to file a notice of appeal? In 2013, Ahmed Ahmed pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault but was found not criminally responsible (NCR) by reason of a mental disorder.
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September 23, 2025
View from inside prison: The struggle for mental health help
Prisons are supposedly about helping prisoners rehabilitate so they can re-enter society successfully. In fact, spending time in prison makes it a lot harder to live outside, not easier.
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September 22, 2025
Ontario appoints two new judges to provincial court
Attorney General Doug Downey has announced the appointment of two new judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective Sept. 25, 2025: Justice Rachel Elizabeth Young and Justice Ghazala Shaheen Zaman.
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September 22, 2025
Edmonton Police Service: Extortion or reasonable justification?
As a criminal lawyer practising for over 20 years, I was troubled last week to see various newspapers reporting that the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) had sent a letter to the Alberta government stating that if a plea agreement for a child homicide was allowed to go through (from murder to manslaughter), the EPS would release facts about the case to the public so that public opinion could decide whether the plea was appropriate.
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September 22, 2025
Canadian government should abolish immigration detention
A 39-year-old Somali man, Abdurahman Hassan, died at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre in June 2015 after being transferred from the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ont., where he had been restrained by 10 individuals attempting to control him.
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September 19, 2025
EVIDENCE - Witnesses - Credibility - Previous record of witness
Appeal by Ramdeo from convictions for kidnapping, use of an imitation firearm to commit an assault and possession of an imitation firearm for a purpose dangerous to the public peace. Kidnappers abducted and beat the complainant before he ultimately escaped from the trunk of the rental car used by the kidnappers.