Opinion

Canada’s extradition procedures in desperate need of an overhaul

/ Criminal Law, Opinion /
Gary Botting
Gary Botting
Principal at G.N.A. Botting, Barrister
garybotting@shaw.ca
Gary Botting
Latest posts by Gary Botting (see all)

“Canada’s laws on extradition are in need of reform.” That is the understatement of the year emanating from the Halifax Colloquium of Extradition Law Reform last month. The report, authored by Dalhousie University law professor Robert J. Currie, is an important contribution to the growing literature demanding changes from top to bottom in Canada’s bureaucratic […]

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Nygard’s ‘consent committal’ signals a whole new round of extradition

/ Criminal Law, Opinion /
Gary Botting
Gary Botting
Principal at G.N.A. Botting, Barrister
garybotting@shaw.ca
Gary Botting
Latest posts by Gary Botting (see all)

CTV National News and even the New York Times got it wrong: Peter Nygard did not consent to extradition when he appeared in court in Winnipeg on Oct. 1. Had he wanted to do so, he would have agreed to a “consent to surrender” (s. 71 of the Extradition Act) – a different beast entirely

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Oberlander’s convoluted deportation process beaten by the clock

/ Criminal Law, Opinion /
Gary Botting
Gary Botting
Principal at G.N.A. Botting, Barrister
garybotting@shaw.ca
Gary Botting
Latest posts by Gary Botting (see all)

When he first arrived in Canada in 1954, Helmut Oberlander undoubtedly presented to immigration officials as a respectable young Ukrainian man in his twenties, downplaying his German ethnicity and exaggerating the location of his birth in Ukraine. To read more, click here.

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Calgary Stampede not the only dangerous game in Alberta

/ COVID-19, Opinion /
Gary Botting
Gary Botting
Principal at G.N.A. Botting, Barrister
garybotting@shaw.ca
Gary Botting
Latest posts by Gary Botting (see all)

Alberta’s rodeo cowboys love living dangerously. Their fans turn out in droves to watch them conquer the beasts bred to buck, gallop or otherwise be roped into the record books. As rodeo season in the province peaked prior to the Calgary Stampede, Premier Jason Kenney declared that, on the advice of Chief Medical Officer of

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15 million urge Canada to do the ‘right thing’ and release Meng

/ Opinion /
Gary Botting
Gary Botting
Principal at G.N.A. Botting, Barrister
garybotting@shaw.ca
Gary Botting
Latest posts by Gary Botting (see all)

More than 15 million people around the world had signed a Global Times petition to free Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou by the time she had completed 1,000 days of detention, reached on Aug. 26, pursuant to a U.S. application for provisional arrest for extradition.  Canada’s minister of justice had the power and authority to turn

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Political courage could end Meng’s ‘stairway to extradition’

/ Opinion /
Gary Botting
Gary Botting
Principal at G.N.A. Botting, Barrister
garybotting@shaw.ca
Gary Botting
Latest posts by Gary Botting (see all)

The stairway to extradition in the case of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has been unnecessarily long and convoluted because the former and current minister of justice have not had the courage or the political will to intervene to stop it in its tracks, as they are entitled to do any time under s. 23 (3)

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Hassan Diab deserves better from the justice minister

/ Opinion /
Gary Botting
Gary Botting
Principal at G.N.A. Botting, Barrister
garybotting@shaw.ca
Gary Botting
Latest posts by Gary Botting (see all)

He’s doing it again! In the Hassan Diab extradition case, as in the ongoing Meng Wanzhou proceedings, Minister of Justice David Lametti appears to be passing the buck to the courts in the name of the “Rule of Law,” thus misrepresenting – indeed enfeebling – that sacred principle of democracy. Parliament gave Lametti full discretion

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Acquittal in death justified when the Crown violates the Charter

/ Opinion /
Gary Botting
Gary Botting
Principal at G.N.A. Botting, Barrister
garybotting@shaw.ca
Gary Botting
Latest posts by Gary Botting (see all)

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) recently published an alarming headline: “B.C. murder cases in jeopardy as accused killer walks free, police slammed for ignoring law.” The article was referring to an alleged road rage incident that left one man dead and his wife seriously injured from gunshot wounds.  To read more, click here.

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Wrongful convictions, right to silence explored by new law journal

/ Opinion /
Gary Botting
Gary Botting
Principal at G.N.A. Botting, Barrister
garybotting@shaw.ca
Gary Botting
Latest posts by Gary Botting (see all)

“Wrongful convictions occur in every country in the world. Canada, despite its claim to be a just society, is no exception” – Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Beverley McLachlin. So reads the foreward in the inaugural issue of The Wrongful Conviction Law Review (WCLR), edited by Algoma University’s Myles McLellan. To

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Meng’s ankle bracelet represents a modern-day ‘Scarlet Letter’

/ Opinion /
Gary Botting
Gary Botting
Principal at G.N.A. Botting, Barrister
garybotting@shaw.ca
Gary Botting
Latest posts by Gary Botting (see all)

Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou appeared in court this week to try to vary her bail conditions. In my opinion, they should be varied. In fact, one of the main conditions – the forced wearing of an ankle bracelet in public – is nothing short of a national disgrace. To date, Meng has not been convicted

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