In The News

It’s been almost eight years since an innocent man was fatally stabbed by a stranger on a Kelowna city bus. Tyler Jack Newton was convicted of manslaughter and served time in prison before being released and charged with more offences. Now as Kristen Robinson reports, he’s been released from custody again.

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“Because there’s no suggestion of reoffending and no suggestion that he would leave the jurisdiction, bail would be granted. This isn’t a clear case where bail being imposed for some aggravated assault charges would not be abnormal in the circumstances.”

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An investigation is underway after Surrey RCMP say a group of men “swarmed” an officer’s police cruiser in the Strawberry Hill area of Surrey earlier this month, although a number of witnesses claim the situation was instigated by the officer.

The incident was captured on several videos filmed by members of the public at Surrey’s Strawberry Hill Plaza on Sept. 11, just after 9 p.m., when a confrontation took place between a group of South Asian men and the police officer.

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Kyla Lee, a Vancouver-based criminal lawyer, says the Surrey RCMP officer’s conduct seen in the videos concerned her. 

“The way that the papers were thrown at the person that he was serving the papers to is far below the standard of professionalism that we expect, and more concerning than that was the very dangerous maneuver the officer made when he pulled out of the parking spot.”

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The decision to provide a day off to public sector workers in B.C. on Monday to coincide with the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II is having unintended consequences.

The national holiday means ICBC appointments and court cases will need to be rescheduled. British Columbia announced on Wednesday plans to give all public sector workers and Crown corporation workers the day off.

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“I was very disappointed to hear that the courthouses would need to be shut down to mark the passing of the Queen. There are a lot of matters across the province that have been scheduled for a long time and this will have a domino effect on future cases. Each case that has to be rescheduled for Monday is going to push out another case that needs to be moved in order to accommodate the rescheduling of Monday’s hearings”

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Criminal lawyers Kyla Lee of Vancouver and William Jaksa of Toronto say that while a man’s verbal assault on Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland in Alberta last week doesn’t meet the legal definition of uttering threats, he could be open to charges of harassment and causing a disturbance.

“From a legal perspective, I don’t see the behaviour as being threatening within the criminal definition… From a personal perspective and as a woman who’s also public-facing, I could easily see how somebody would feel threatened in that situation and what the law should do, is it should protect people who feel threatened in situations like that and not protect people from these incidents that are on the rise…”

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A B.C. provincial court judge has issued a scathing rebuke to the environmental group behind Save Old Growth protests in her recent sentencing decision for one of the protesters participating in the highway blockade demonstrations.

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“Comments like this by the courts are likely to be referred to by prosecutors in sentencing hearings going forward if people are convicted or plead guilty” – Kyla Lee

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A high-ranking B.C. RCMP officer says the legal “landscape has changed” in recent years, affecting officers’ abilities to deal with repeat and chronic offenders.

Supt. Syd Lecky made the comments in an interview with CFCJ as he ends four years as the officer in charge of the Kamloops RCMP to take a position as chief superintendent in the Northwest Territories.

“There’s limitations to the authorities that police have now,” he said.

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In the Jordan case, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that accused persons must be tried within 18 months in provincial courts and within 30 months in superior courts, while the Zora case set the precedent that the right to bail can only be infringed where holding someone in custody is the last possible resort ahead of a trial, Vancouver criminal lawyer Kyla Lee explained.

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“The charter guarantees that you are to be released on bail unless it’s absolutely necessary to keep you in custody pending the outcome of your case,” she said.

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RCMP in the Northwest Territories have begun using roadside cannabis-screening technology that has faced criticism from defence lawyers elsewhere in Canada.

Mounties in the territory announced late last month that they had deployed devices designed to take a saliva sample and test for the presence of tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC, the main psychoactive substance in cannabis. They said the technology would help them detect impaired drivers and make roads safer.
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“It can lead to people being arrested who are actually innocent,” said Kyla Lee, a lawyer based in Vancouver.

Lee said research has shown the devices may be more likely to deliver false results in extreme cold temperatures, and movement during analysis could also affect outcomes. She added that while the devices can deliver either a positive or negative test result, they do not indicate how much THC may be in a person’s bloodstream.

Read the full story here.