Criminal
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November 04, 2025
Border infractions can haunt non-citizens: Why appeals matter for immigration status
The consequences of border infractions under the Customs Act and the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (respectively, the CA and PCMLTFA; collectively, the Acts) are minor in most instances — but for non-citizens in Canada, the circumstances can be very different, as border infractions may produce a significant headache from an immigration status standpoint.
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November 04, 2025
SENTENCING - Possession for the purpose of selling, trafficking, distributing or exporting - Conditional sentence
Appeal by Crown from conditional sentence order. The respondent was found guilty of two counts of possessing illicit drugs for the purpose of trafficking. One of those counts involved fentanyl. The Crown sought a cumulative eight-year prison term.
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November 04, 2025
B.C. appeal decision reinforces court’s focus on punishment rather than rehabilitation
Although public safety is a shared goal, there remains debate over how best to achieve it. The courts generally stress punishment, denunciation and deterrence, imposing long sentences to keep offenders off the streets. In contrast, within the penitentiary system, a different philosophy has emerged: one centred on rehabilitation and reintegration.
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November 04, 2025
When the soul suffers: Why moral injury should be compensable in law
It is a curious paradox of modern professional life that physical injury is readily compensable and psychological injury is increasingly actionable, yet wounds of conscience remain invisible to the law.
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November 03, 2025
Quebec justice system in crisis
Quebec’s beleaguered justice system, already reeling under the weight of chronic underfinancing and an acute personnel shortage, is showing “alarming signs” of a gradual paralysis, prompting the province’s main legal players to call on the provincial government to put a halt to belt-tightening measures.
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November 03, 2025
When a lawyer’s hat draws fire
The fight for our basic freedoms also happens outside our courtrooms. What began as a casual breakfast gathering of local men at a downtown Cobourg, Ont., restaurant turned tense when some members of the group objected to a baseball cap worn by the newest member. The faded red cap displayed the slogan “Make America Great Again.” The cap was on the head of Cobourg criminal lawyer Colin Browne, the only Black man present at the meeting.
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October 31, 2025
Split SCC strikes down one-year mandatory minimums for accessing or possessing child pornography
Dividing over what is too “remote” a hypothetical scenario to qualify as “reasonable” when sentencing judges are assessing the constitutionality of a mandatory minimum penalty (MMP), the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 5-4 that the one-year MMPs for accessing or possessing child pornography are unconstitutional as they would be grossly disproportionate in some hypothetical, but reasonably foreseeable, circumstances.
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October 31, 2025
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES - Legal rights - Protection against cruel and unusual punishment
Appeal by Appellants from a judgment of the Quebec Court of Appeal which declared the mandatory minimum sentences provided for in ss. 163.1(4)(a) and 163.1(4.1)(a) of the Criminal Code unconstitutional under s. 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and of no force or effect pursuant to s. 52 of the Constitution Act, 1982.
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October 31, 2025
B.C. Court of Appeal decides error by trial judge means harsher sentence
In British Columbia, it is well established that a sentence for sexual assault against adults must reflect society’s current understanding of the serious harm and wrongfulness of sexual violence.
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October 30, 2025
Exclusive: Chief Justice Crampton reflects on Federal Court’s successes and ongoing challenges
As he steps down today from the diversified and expert bench he’s recruited over the past 14 years, Federal Court Chief Justice Paul Crampton says he’s confident about the national trial court’s future, even though the full implementation of the court’s “digital shift” awaits the necessary funding from Ottawa.