Criminal Law

Choosing whether to plead guilty or go to trial is a big decision

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By LegalMatters Staff • If you are charged with a criminal offence you have an important decision to make – how to respond to the charge. That decision will set the course for the rest of the legal process. Because of the many variables involved and the complexity of the Canadian legal system, it is […]

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All inmates deserve a ‘ray of hope,’ even Paul Bernardo: Dostaler

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By LegalMatters Staff • There was widespread outrage in June when the public learned that schoolgirl-killer Paul Bernardo had been transferred to a medium-security prison in Quebec.  The reasons behind that decision have not been made public, and the move is being reviewed by Corrections Canada. Bernardo was given a life sentence with no parole

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Fingerprinting is one stage of a Canadian criminal trial

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By LegalMatters Staff • Most people have little experience with the criminal trial process. If you or a family member are facing charges, you may be unsure of what lies ahead. Don’t expect it to unfold as it does on television. Most legal dramas are American-based, with the entire process wrapped up in an hour.

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Bail reform proposals may be unfair to the accused

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By LegalMatters Staff • Some high-profile incidents where people released on bail were accused of committing crimes have prompted the federal government to propose reforms to the country’s bail system.  Those events include the fatal shooting of an OPP constable who was investigating a car in a ditch late last year. The driver was out

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Sureties play an important role in our justice system

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By LegalMatters Staff • Once someone is held in custody after their arrest, they are legally entitled to a bail hearing within 24 hours or as soon as a justice is available. Unless the court decides they should be detained – because their release would endanger the safety of others or that there is a

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It is a ‘God-given’ right to flip the bird at someone, judge rules

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By LegalMatters Staff • Offending others with crude hand gestures may not be polite but it does not rise to the level of criminal behaviour, a judge in Montreal recently ruled. The case involved neighbours who lived on a small street in Beaconsfield, Que. According to the judgment, police charged a 45-year-old with criminal harassment

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There will be new sheriffs in town, but is that what Alberta needs?

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By LegalMatters Staff • Alberta is getting more sheriffs to handle specific tasks that are mostly indirectly related to fighting crime. When the provincial budget was released in April, it set aside $2 million to create a Fugitive Apprehension Sheriffs Support Team (FASST) team. This group – consisting of 10 sheriffs based in Calgary and

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Proposed federal amendments to the sex registry fall short

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By LegalMatters Staff • At the end of April the federal government proposed changes to the National Sex Offender Registry. The modifications, contained in Bill S-12, are in response to a 2022 Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decision that found two Criminal Code provisions relating to the registry were inconsistent with the Canadian Charter of

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New Crown prosecutors will speed up Alberta’s justice system

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By LegalMatters Staff • Alberta is implementing an important change in the province’s criminal justice system that should see caseloads drop by one-fifth. The recent provincial budget included $30 million in funding for the Alberta Crown Prosecution, with just under $5 million to be used to hire 16 pre-charges assessment prosecutors. These new prosecutors will

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Canada needs a ‘consistent’ definition of an assault-style weapon

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By LegalMatters Staff • The Criminal Code currently includes long lists of banned weapons in Canada. That may change. According to a government announcement early in May, Bill C-21 would abandon the “approach of spelling out each make and variety of banned firearm in lengthy lists” and instead provide a “clear, consistent” definition of assault-style

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