July 2018

Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume Eight

They say a man who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer. But what if you have a pile of wool for a lawyer? Find out more about this strange situation on this week’s edition of Weird and Wacky Wednesdays. Then, we explore the case of a thirteen-year-old charged with eavesdropping. And because I’m partial to impaired driving, another wacky excuse that didn’t fly in a DUI investigation.

Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume Eight Read More »

Jail Sentences for First-Time Impaired Driving Convictions

Something is rotten in the Province of Ontario.

And if I weren’t so upset by it, I would be inserting jokes at Ontario’s expense here.

Ever since the Newmarket region of Ontario set Canada’s record for the highest sentence ever handed down in an impaired driving case, after the Marco Muzzo sentencing, Ontario has developed a disturbing trend of issuing jail sentences to first time impaired drivers.

This is incredibly problematic and serves only to harm the administration of justice in the long term. And this blog post explains why.

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Kyla Lee in News 1130

Canadians who work for, or have connections to, the cannabis industry are running into problems at the U.S. border, including lifetime travel bans.
Len Saunders, an immigration lawyer based in Blaine, Wash., says he’s received many calls from businesses who tried to travel to the U.S. and were either turned away or banned. He says that’s been accompanied by a spike in applications for waivers. 

​“It used to be that almost all my waiver connections were criminal convictions. Now I would say probably 25 per cent of my waivers, where it used to be one or two per cent, are waivers where people have run into problems because of marijuana,” he said. “When I first started practicing in Blaine 15 years ago, I’d maybe get one or two cases a year, and when they legalized it in Washington state… my cases went up to one or two a month. When Trudeau started legalizing marijuana… my cases went up to one or two a week. So it’s a huge growth industry for immigration lawyers.”

Kyla Lee in News 1130 Read More »

Cannabis and the Border: Your Privacy Rights

A significant issue that has arisen since the announcement of legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada has been cross-border travel. The United States government still considers cannabis to be an illegal drug, and those who admit to using cannabis and working in the cannabis industry face the potential of lifetime bans on entry into the United States.

Practically speaking, this means that if mom and dad admit to smoking pot, they may be prevented from taking the kids to Disneyland on the family vacation. Or a person who works at a dispensary may be denied entry and not permitted to travel to the United States for a medical procedure not available in Canada.

The consequences are significant and there is a lot that is unknown about how Canadian legal cannabis use will impact border travel.

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Driving Law: Episode Thirteen

This week is exciting as I get to announce the creation of the Driving Law Podcast Twitter Account! Driving law is the only legal podcast that I know about that also has its own Twitter page. So that’s super exciting and fun. In addition to our exciting announcement, the Driving Law Podcast is now live for Friday, July 13, 2018.

This week, Paul Doroshenko and I speak about the decision by Greyhound to cease service on all but one of its Western Canada routes. Next, we talk about some of the hurdles the Crown will face in the prosecution of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, and look a little deeper at the bail conditions he was placed on. Finally, we talk about a recent report in Alberta about driver licensing centres and the fraud, bribery, and sexual assault allegations that have recently come to light.

You can catch this week’s episode on iTunes, SoundCloud, or on PlayerFM.

Driving Law: Episode Thirteen Read More »

Law Society could have done more to help Indigenous lawyer

The Law Society of BC’s treatment of an Indigenous lawyer fell short of its anti-discrimination obligations, the Supreme Court of British Columbia has ruled. It found the public body failed to adequately take into account the background and personal circumstances of lawyer Miranda Moore, who is of Anishnaabe ancestry and a member of the Cote First Nation, when deciding on her transfer from the Law Society of Alberta to BC. This case highlights some of the challenges Aboriginal members of the legal profession face and it suggests that, despite recent progress, law societies across Canada are still not doing as much as they should to make the bar and the bench more inclusive.
​
Ms. Moore had applied to the Law Society of BC to transfer from her former regulating body, the Law Society of Alberta (LSA). She also applied to practice in BC on a temporary basis until the transfer was decided.

                                                                        ………………………

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Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume Seven

In the seventh installment of my Weird and Wacky Wednesdays series, we look at the case of a man who was so tired of not getting his fifteen minutes, he made his own made-for-TV experience. Next, we dive into… well, what the police really dove into in a drug trafficking investigation. And finally, we consider yet another really good reason to quit smoking cigarettes.

All on this week’s edition of Weird and Wacky Wednesdays!

Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume Seven Read More »

Driving Law with Kyla Lee: Episode Twelve

On this week’s episode of Driving Law with Kyla Lee, I speak with Paul Doroshenko of Acumen Law Corporation about how high-end vehicle sales in Vancouver may be connected to money laundering. Then, we discuss the recent case of a Burnaby RCMP officer who was struck and injured following a traffic stop for using an electronic device while driving. Finally, we talk about drug-impaired driving laws and what’s in store for constitutional challenges.

You can listen here on Soundcloud or subscribe on iTunes.

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