How a society responds to and deals with its members who break or fail to follow its most basic rules is often rooted in its history and cultural values. Canada’s background is intimately tied to British traditions and practices in light of our history as a colony from the 1760’s up to the 20th … [Read more...]
Stateless but Not Powerless
A novel of Kurdish resistance and the quandary of human rights in our time The most compelling new novel I read in 2020 is Daughters of Smoke and Fire from debut Kurdish-Canadian novelist Ava Homa. This dynamic advocacy piece for Kurds and women’s rights in the Middle East was also the inaugural … [Read more...]
SCC Rules on Intellectual Disabilities and Equality
A recent Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) case, R v Slatter, 2020 SCC 36, provided a strong statement about the treatment of evidence provided by witnesses who have intellectual or developmental disabilities. Thomas Slatter was convicted at trial of sexually assaulting an intellectually disabled … [Read more...]
You Can Officiate Your Friends’ Weddings!
Did you know you can officiate your friends’ and family members’ marriage ceremonies in Alberta? For a long time, only appointed civil marriage commissioners could officiate weddings in Alberta. The provincial government recently changed its policies to allow members of the public to perform these … [Read more...]
What You Didn’t Know was a Crime in Canada
Lesser known offences in the Canadian Criminal Code that are still on the books in 2020 Disclaimer: This article is not meant to be substituted for any legal advice. The Government of Canada recently gave the Criminal Code a legal face lift after conducting a detailed review to eliminate all the … [Read more...]
Property Laws You’ve Maybe Never Heard Of
Did you know that each province in Canada has different property laws? Property laws deal with buying and selling land, dividing property at the end of a relationship, property liens and claims, registering interests in property, buying and selling goods, inheritances, etc. The reason for each … [Read more...]
The Many Faces of ‘Corrections’: A call for universal reform
It is perhaps time (if not long overdue) to re-evaluate what we mean by justice and corrections. In my study of our court and prison methods, I found… a great wastage of human lives – a failure to reclaim and utilize them. Perhaps the least understood part of our criminal justice system is the … [Read more...]
How Inmates in Canadian Prisons Suffer
These are the tip-of-the-iceberg issues faced by inmates in Canada’s federal and provincial prisons. And according to advocates for better inmate treatment, much more needs to be done. According to Statistics Canada, in 2017/2018, Canadian prisons held just under 39,000 adults: Investigations by … [Read more...]
Fraud in 3D: VisuaLABS
How did the justice system deal with this case of major commercial fraud? Between 1993 and 2001, VisuaLABS Inc. – the company built in Calgary, Alberta by Sheldon Zelitt – attracted thousands of investors, raised hundreds of millions of dollars in capital and grabbed the attention of the global … [Read more...]
Transgender Inmates in Canada
How do federal, provincial and territorial laws or policies protect transgender inmates? Individuals may identify with a gender that goes along with their sex given at birth, they may identify with a gender that is different from their sex given at birth, or they may identify with a non-traditional … [Read more...]
