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Media reports on surging crime rates don’t tell the full story

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By LegalMatters Staff • Violent crime has reached its highest point since 2007 according to media reports, but do the numbers tell the full story? Ottawa criminal lawyer Celine Dostaler urges caution, noting there are multiple factors that must be considered. “One of the prime reasons for a surge in crime is the end of […]

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Another attempt to ban spanking winds its way through Parliament

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By LegalMatters Staff • A bill has been sent to the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs that would repeal s.43 of the Criminal Code, which allows the spanking of children. That section reads: “Every school teacher, parent or person standing in the place of a parent is justified in using force by way

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Future injustices may be prevented by wrongful conviction registry

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By LegalMatters Staff • A fundamental principle of the Canadian justice system is that someone can only be found guilty of a crime if the Crown prosecutor has proven the elements of the offence beyond a reasonable doubt. If not, the accused must be acquitted. Yet wrongful convictions do happen, as David Milgaard’s family knows.

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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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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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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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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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Testifying in your own defence not always the best idea

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By LegalMatters Staff • The presumption of innocence is one of the core principles of the Canadian criminal justice system. This principle means an accused person does not have to prove their innocence. Instead, the Crown prosecutor must establish that a crime was committed. If the Crown fails to show proof beyond a reasonable doubt,

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Canada does not need a new criminal charge of femicide

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By LegalMatters Staff • The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability recently released a report detailing the violent deaths of women and girls between 2018 and 2022 in Canada. According to the organization, 850 females were killed in the past five years, or one every 48 hours. Additionally, between 2019 and 2022 there was

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Social media messages can be important in sexual assault cases

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By LegalMatters Staff • Messages sent on social media platforms are playing an increasingly large role in sexual assault cases, says Ottawa criminal lawyer Céline Dostaler. “In about 80 per cent of the cases I defend, electronic correspondence is part of the evidence. Sometimes it supports the complainant and other times it reinforces the accused’s

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