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​In doing a large number of IRP Judicial Review cases, I get a good sense of the overall fairness of the scheme. The issue is not just one of procedural fairness – a legal term of art – but one of the visceral, very real fairness.  And although we in the business of the justice system like to talk about fairness in justice, the sad reality is that often there are situations of real unfairness that cannot be remedied.

The promise of legal marijuana by July 1, 2018 appears to have gone up in a puff of smoke. The federal government has manufactured a crisis of drug-impaired driving that has led to the delay in the implementation of the Liberal government’s promise to legalize recreational marijuana.

I say “manufactured” because the crisis upon which they are relying to delay this does not exist.

BC’s Motor Vehicle Act allows exemptions for those who carry a valid driver’s licence from their home country, and who are also attending a valid educational institution. As long as that criteria is met, the only requirement is that those who hold foreign licences produce their licence if a police officer demands it.

The CounterAttack roadblock season began once again for British Columbians on Dec. 1. This is the time of year when police officers across the province log overtime hours to set up a series of roadblocks and checkpoints with the aim of catching impaired drivers.
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This CounterAttack program has a lengthy history in BC, dating back four decades when it began in 1977. The funding for the program inevitably comes from a combination of provincial funding, ICBC, and operational money from police departments themselves.

In September, all charges against a man and a woman charged as part of a raid on a clandestine drug lab were dismissed after judge ruled that Vancouver police had wilfully and flagrantly violated their Charter rights, numerous times during the investigation.
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These violations included withholding Shu Tshung Wong and Lena Truong’s access to a lawyer for six hours, multiple incidents of unreasonable search and seizure, unlawfully holding one of the accused in custody for 14 hours, among other breaches of their rights.

Today, RoadSafetyBC made a major announcement regarding how it is going to start dealing with cases of street racing and stunt driving. You can read the announcement here.

 

At first blush, it sounds great for road safety. The Government makes it sound as though the current system allows only for fifteen-day prohibitions for street racing or stunt driving, and that these will now be replaced with longer prohibitions, between three and thirty six months, after this type of driving behaviour is observed. The problem with this announcement is that it sorely misrepresents the current state of affairs, and it misleads the public about why this action is being taken.

To understand this issue it’s necessary to understand the current system.

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Something criminal defence lawyers are often familiar with is the process police use to determine whether suspected narcotics are actually illegal drugs. After all, it can be hard to tell whether that baggy of white power seized from an accused pockets isn’t just flour or baking soda in a bag. While baking soda may often be used as a “cutting” agent, it’s not illegal to possess in any quantity. But to the naked eye, baking soda is essentially indistinguishable from nefarious and illegal substances.
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​The Vancouver Police Department has sparked controversy online by posting about a driver who had his iPad and iPhone mounted to his steering wheel using string. A clever trick to get around the distracted driving laws, but one that the police officer who pulled him over frowned upon. Since they posted the tweet and photographed that revealed the funny details of this traffic stop, a huge debate has erupted online over what penalty this driver should have faced.

The police let him go with an $81 ticket for not producing a license, and a warning about the cell phone mounting system.

Here are my thoughts on whether this is actually an offence.

​This week, Alberta unveiled its proposal for fixing their administrative license suspension law. The Alberta law was declared unconstitutional earlier this year, and the province was given one year to write a new version. Yesterday, they introduced the new version.

Bill 29 creates a new regime to deal with the problem of alcohol and drug-impaired driving but, in my view, does not cure the constitutional defects inherent in the legislation.
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​​In 2008, the small country town of Merritt, British Columbia was rocked when news broke that Allan Schoenborn had stabbed his estranged wife and killed their two children while they slept. He had suffered a psychotic break, and believed that that his children were being sexually assaulted. He killed them, in the horrific, mistaken belief that doing so would somehow save them from the humiliation of the ordeal.