law

Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume 398

This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: When Court Staff Screw Up

The headlines from a courtroom are usually about whoever is sitting at counsel table. This week the more interesting characters are sitting at the desk along the side of the room, or standing by the door, or in some cases not in the room at all anymore. Three recent stories about court staff who did things that nobody who works in a courtroom is supposed to do.

The first one broke today.

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Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume 396

This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: The Strange Cargo Edition

Every so often the news cycle delivers a run of stories that all seem to circle the same idea, and this past month gave us a good one. The theme is cargo. Specifically, the kind of cargo people are not supposed to be moving, on the kind of conveyance they probably should not be using to move it. We have a horse, a deceased alligator, and 22 Buddhist monks with 242 pounds of explanation to do at customs. None of these people were thinking about Canadian law when they did what they did, but each story is a useful reminder of how Canadian law would have treated them if they had tried any of this here.

Let’s start with the horse.

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Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume 383

This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Just the facts – When truth requires a new category of understanding

In law, we are obsessed with attempting to find the truth. That is, after all, our job.

And of course we are in a strange period of time where lies are put forward as truth each and every day, particularly by the current U.S. executive branch. At the same time, AI hallucinations and the difficulty AI has in sorting out fact from fiction has created a new problem for lawyers and the courts. Add to that the calculated lies that can arise because of the ease and consequent proliferation of deep fakes, and it feels as if we are flooded in lies. 

When the government tells you that you did not see something that you saw with your own eyes, and there’s no responsibility for them lying, it normalizes lies. I think we should all be concerned that we are witnessing the normalization of lies. 

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but in law we have relied on objective and subjective facts. That is often where the determination of truth is resolved. But it seems to me with AI, we may have to add a new category in the consideration of facts. Let’s look at a couple of weird and wacky Wednesday stories so you understand what I’m trying to say. 

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Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume 381

This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Fly sober or get pulled over

I love to fly and I am very thankful to our national air carrier for treating me so well over the years. I wouldn’t call myself a nervous flyer. I also really like these shows where investigators forensically analyze air crashes. So every time I fly and I hear the sober voice of the pilot coming on, I am reassured that I will safely reach my destination on a relaxing flight. But of course there are tens of thousands of airplanes flying every day and occasionally the voice of the pilot is not a sober voice.

This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays we’re going to look at two recent cases where, thankfully, authorities figured out the pilot wasn’t sober before the plane took off, and then a third where we get to see what happens when there is an impaired pilot on the flight deck mid-flight. 

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Your Right to Silence in Police Investigations

Woman in sunglasses sitting in a car, holding up her driver's license while a police officer in uniform writes a ticket outside her window.

If you remember one phrase when dealing with the police, it should be this: “lawyer told me not to talk to you.” That line is more than a meme or a slogan. It captures a core legal protection that exists to shield ordinary people from accidentally harming themselves during police investigations.

Understanding your right to silence can make the difference between protecting yourself and creating evidence the police did not already have.

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Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume 380

This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Bad Science Ends in Court

I learned to love science when I started working with a former RCMP toxicologist in my last year of law school. One of the nice things about DUI law is there is a lot of science, and as my career continued, I discovered there is a lot of bad science backing the assumptions police and prosecutors urge upon the courts. Bad science gets published. It gets funded. It gets defended with remarkable confidence. Most of the time, it only collapses when someone starts asking probing questions.

Here are three weird and wacky law stories where science wandered into the legal system and did not enjoy the experience.

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Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume 376

This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Lottery Law Edition

I’d like to win a big lottery prize. Who wouldn’t? There have been two distillery owners who won big in Canadian lotteries, and I think I should be next. The odds aren’t good, however. But it appears the odds are good that with any winning ticket there will be some legal drama.

A winning ticket can bring out the best in people, although recent news stories about lottery wins suggest the opposite. Here are three recent cases that prove a lottery win may bring big legal headaches.

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BC Supreme Court Chambers Consultation: What Lawyers Said—and What the Court Plans to Do

The BC Supreme Court recently asked for feedback on how to make chambers more efficient and accessible. Over a hundred lawyers and litigants responded. I took part in that process and offered several practical suggestions. The Court has now released its Summary of Feedback and many of the ideas I raised are reflected in it.

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Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume 375

This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Under Age and Over the Line

Often, I give presentations at high schools, and I’m always presenting about the law. I feel somewhat conflicted in some respects. I think perhaps I should speak about the perils of drinking, the dangers of underage alcohol consumption, or the risks associated with alcoholism. Then again, I would feel like a bit of a hypocrite because firstly, I’m part owner of a distillery and, even though I drank quite a bit when I was young, I’ve succeeded in many of my endeavors in life.

Then this article showed up in my feed suggesting that people who are binge drinkers when they’re young are often more successful later in life. That threw a wrench into the works. This week on weird and wacky Wednesdays, we’re looking at a few stories where youthful drinking got people in hot water and my hope is to reconcile my feelings.

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Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Volume 372

This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays: Playoff Loopholes and the Law of the Game

This week the World Series is reminding everyone how creative competitive minds can be. When the pressure is on, players and coaches look not just for skill advantages but for rule advantages. Baseball, like law, evolves by closing loopholes that someone clever exploited first.

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