Criminal
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July 16, 2025
SENTENCING - Sexual offences, public morals, disorderly conduct and nuisances - Totality principle - Sexual offences against children
Appeal by accused Schofield against his eight-year sentence for three child sexual offences.
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July 16, 2025
Was Correctional Service’s internal investigation into Robert Pickton’s death a ‘whitewash’?
Rather than quelling concerns about how Robert Pickton died at Port-Cartier Institution in Quebec, Correctional Service Canada’s recently released internal Board of Investigation (BOI) report summary should raise red flags. The narrow focus of the investigation and the recommendations that fail to address core issues associated with the death make the report inadequate.
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July 16, 2025
View from inside prison: Opening the box
I’m not a person who is hugely attached to things. I have no trouble throwing out or giving away old clothes or furniture or even books. But I do tend to hang on to reminders of my past life, such as letters and pictures.
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July 16, 2025
Prepare for change: The plain language legal writing standard is coming
What lawyer has not heard that legal writing should be clear and concise? Everyone wants legal documents to be straightforward, client-oriented and “crisp.” Yet, cryptic memoranda, wordy submissions, legalese-filled judgments and insurmountable walls of text in contracts and policies remain common. Even with clarity in mind, writing clearly is hard without knowing the rules to guide the process.
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July 15, 2025
Ontario court expands right to reconsult counsel for strip searches
Ontario’s top court has ruled that the invasive nature of strip searches requires a second consultation with legal counsel after a suspect has been arrested.
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July 14, 2025
Federal Court judge strikes SRL’s submission in employment dispute over AI hallucination citation
In another sign of AI’s growing impact on the law, the Federal Court has ordered that a self-represented respondent’s motion record be removed from a court file because it relied in part on a non-existent court decision hallucinated by an artificial intelligence (AI) research tool.
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July 14, 2025
FINTRAC publishes updates to its guidance on ministerial directive on Iran
Canada’s anti-money laundering watchdog has updated its existing guidance related to the federal government’s ministerial directive on financial transactions associated with Iran.
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July 14, 2025
Alberta giving $1.25 million to groups in bid to end gender-based violence
Alberta is launching a new grant program through which more than $1 million will be available to community organizations as part of the province’s ongoing bid to tackle gender-based violence.
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July 14, 2025
CRIMINAL CODE OFFENCES - Sexual offences - Sexual interference - Consent
Appeal by appellants from their convictions for sexual assault and sexual interference. A 15-year-old complainant (X) alleged she was sexually assaulted by the appellants at one of their homes after she ran away from home.
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July 11, 2025
Courts can override Crown’s non-consent to judge-alone trial if necessary to protect Charter rights: SCC
Elaborating on courts’ jurisdiction to review decisions involving prosecutorial discretion, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in a Quebec homicide case that trial judges can override the Crown’s refusal to agree to a judge-alone trial, if it is necessary to protect the accused’s Charter rights.