Kyla Lee, shares her thoughts on the recent deployment of Vancouver Police Department’s “public safety trailer” in Chinatown. This controversial surveillance tool has raised concerns among the community, with some calling it “creepy” and “big brothery.” Dive into the full interview with Vancouver Is Awesome to learn more about the debate surrounding this mobile surveillance tower and its potential impact on privacy.
Join Kyla Lee and Jeff Andreas as they talk about the legal woes of Donald Trump. They talk about the possible ways that the case could unfold and how a gag order might come into play. They also discuss how a RCMP officer is suing for defamation for strange reasons and not in the usual court.
“I mean he (Trump) does kind of seem like a cat that has nine lives”
-Kyla Lee on NL Morning News with Jeff Andreas
“Obviously, there are laws that prevent people from publishing something that is defamatory, but simply taking a video of an interaction and either providing your opinion on public events while sharing the video or just sharing the video itself wouldn’t likely rise to the level of defamation”
B.C.’s attorney general and solicitor general said last week’s talks with the federal government over bail reform were a success, but as Emad Agahi reports, there are doubts about what kind of repeat offenders will be affected by the change.
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“Instead of the state having to prove why you should be denied bail, you have to prove why should be granted bail. It’s likely that we’re going to see changes to the Criminal Code to create reverse onus bail in situations of violent offences – probably those specifically involving firearms.”
“I think that we will not see as many changes as what the provinces are asking for. Particularly, when it comes to people who are on bail for repeat property crime offences…”
The province’s distracted driving laws are under the microscope again. Last week we told you about how police and even ICBC — don’t fully understand the rules. Experts tell Global News the confusion is a clear indicator that the laws need to be rewritten. Aaron McArthur reports.
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“So we also have a problem where the federal government is not talking to the provincial government when it comes to regulating technology in vehicles…”
Despite it being Distracted Driving Awareness Month in British Columbia, the public auto insurer’s attempts to spread safety messaging are receiving more criticism than being effective in educating the public.
Although ICBC has attempted to clarify their intention, they posted a tweet on Monday instructing viewers to “Watch this if you’re unsure about where you can and can’t put your phone while you’re driving.”
A member of the ICBC road safety team explains where you are allowed to and not allowed to keep your cellphone in the car
“You probably know that when you’re driving it’s against the law to have your phone in your hand, in your lap, or even on the seat beside you,” Harvey Kooner says in the footage.
However, it’s the last detail that has many calling the insurer out. It’s in fact, totally legal for you to have your phone on the seat next to you — provided you are not using it.
“ICBC is currently running an ad on Twitter that actually misstates the law. I would know because I took the case to B.C. Supreme Court to get a ruling from the court specifically to indicate that it is lawful to have your phone sitting loose in your cupholder, loose in the car, on the passenger seat, so long as you’re not touching it or doing anything that’s defined as use within the Motor Vehicle Act”
Kyla Lee on City News
Kyla Lee, a criminal lawyer in Vancouver, was among those to call ICBC out, urging the insurer to “stop spreading misinformation.”
“R. v. Partridge 2019 BCSC 360 clearly says it’s totally lawful to have it on the seat beside you,” she wrote in a tweet.
Lee explains the prohibition in the Motor Vehicle Act involves “actively using” your phone “and is connected to actions involving the phone.”
A video, presented by a member of the ICBC Road Saftey department, claims that having your phone loose on the seat beside you is illegal, but Vancouver lawyer Kyla Lee says this is not an accurate representation of what the province’s cellphone usage while driving law states.
“ICBC has, since the law was brought in, taken the position that the law prohibits more than it actually does,” she states.
Because of this inaccurate information, numerous tickets have been issued by law enforcement officers for drivers who have their cellphone loose in the vehicle. Lee herself challenged the decision and it went to the BC Supreme Court in 2019.
In the case of R. v Partridge, 2019 BCSC 360 (CanLII), the Crown reportedly conceded that it is indeed lawful to have your phone in the cupholder or on the seat next to you so long as you are not using it.
“We asked for a reported judgment to try to make the law clear as a bell. To my dismay, the misinformation about what is and is not legal with a cell phone continues.”
Kyla Lee on Vancouver Is Awesome
Lee concedes that the distracted driving law may not be clear, but she believes that spreading inaccurate information by ICBC and government agencies is making the lack of clarity worse. Lee also asserts that this misinformation leads to confusion among the public and police officers, resulting in more improper tickets being issued. She has publicly criticized ICBC through social media for their actions.
I was surprised to see it, because it’s very rare for Health Canada to grant these types of exemptions. But the ability of Health Canada to give medical or research companies or scientific companies exemptions to rules around production, distribution, even sale and possession of controlled substances has always existed. That’s actually in use in lots of instances in Canada.
But at the end of the day, it’s really not a decision that is a political one. It’s a decision that is medical and scientific and that’s why it was a decision made by Health Canada, presumably, free from political interference
An opportunity to bring in more diversity to the Supreme Court of British Columbia is coming as B.C.’s current chief justice, Christopher E. Hinkson, is retiring from the position come October, after serving in the role since 2013. It is a chance to implement change to a position that has been historically held by white men.
“I walk down the hallways of the B.C. supreme court, I look at the portraits, and none of them look like me, and that doesn’t make me feel like I belong in this profession, I don’t think [it] reinforces the idea for other people that they need to make sense for people from more diverse backgrounds.”
Vancouver-based Metis lawyer Kyla Lee on CityNews
Lee says the problems candidates for the top job see are compounded by a lack of diversity at all levels in the legal profession.
The first indigenous supreme court justice was only appointed as recently as 2022, with the first justice who is a person of colour appointed in 2019.
The Vancouver Police Department is under scrutiny after Elijah Barnett, an innocent man, was wrongfully arrested and shot with rubber bullets while walking his friend’s dog in Yaletown last week. The police were responding to reports of a suspect in a violent home invasion in Calgary, and believed that Barnett was the suspect. However, they realized their mistake within minutes of taking him into custody. Barnett suffered injuries, cuts, and bruises as a result of the arrest.
“I remember walking out of the apartment building and the next thing I remember I’m on the ground and they attacked me from behind,” said Barnett.
Justice is difficult to get in cases of police misconduct
Kyla Lee explained, “The office of the police complaints commissioner will do an investigation and they’ll determine if there’s been a violation on behalf of the police, but they can’t really award compensation for injuries that were suffered.”
“In order to get compensation you have to sue the police and that can be a lengthy, expensive and time-consuming process,” Lee added.
The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner will conduct an independent review of the circumstances of Barnett’s arrest. Barnett is seeking accountability for the officers involved, including their suspension without pay and ultimately being charged. Meanwhile, the suspects involved in the Calgary home invasion have been arrested and charged.
The province’s three-year experiment on decriminalization of illicit drugs for personal use is under way. For it to succeed, governments, and possibly the courts, will have to tackle the issue of safe supply.
“Nobody wanted to do it. Nobody still really wants to do it, but yet it’s happening.”
That’s how Kennedy Stewart, former mayor of Vancouver, describes how his city and British Columbia became just the second place in North America to decriminalize hard drugs.
As of February, the province’s residents can legally carry up to 2.5 grams of heroin, crack, cocaine, MDMA, or fentanyl. It is arguably the most significant legal change yet in Canada’s effort to stem the rise in deaths from the opioid crisis.
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The long road to decriminalization
The wheels of decriminalization have been in motion for quite some time. “I don’t think that there’s been much significant change yet,” says Kyla Lee, who practises criminal law in Vancouver.
Lee, who is vice-chair of the CBA’s criminal law section, notes that the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) promulgated a new policy in 2020, calling on Crown prosecutors to avoid laying simple drug possession charges, with some exceptions. At the time, lawyers worried that the guidelines would lead to little actual change.
But things did change in Vancouver, particularly in the Downtown Eastside, says Lee.
“I haven’t seen, since PPSC’s policy charge, a single charge approved on its own for possession,” she told CBANational. Even outside the city, charges have declined substantially — save for the occasional arrest in Whistler for cocaine possession, she says. Arrests have been relatively few and far between.
There had been fears that police would charge drug users with more serious offenses — like possession for the purposes of trafficking.
But those have been rare, too, says Lee. “As far as police enforcing that policy through arrests…it wasn’t happening as much, especially not in Vancouver,” she says. The defence bar has been pushing back against those charges when they did arise. The message was that trying to upgrade simple possession charges wouldn’t fly.
