Sentencing a fellow human being is hard. A judge has to balance punishment for the crime against the circumstances and character of the person who committed that crime. But a recent…

Blog by Cassandra Beaulac “Poor people are not just like rich people without money…” Stephan Wexler, a distinguished professor of the Peter A. Allard School of Law at UBC once said.…

Blog by Nicholas Kandel and Arun S. Maini The biggest overhaul of impaired driving laws recently came into effect across Canada. While the number of deaths caused by impaired driving has…

Justice is blind. Equality before and under the law. Fairness. Integrity. Transparency. These are all hallmarks of a justice system that works. But as is so often cited, but perhaps less…

The presumption of innocence is not only a long-standing principle that has withstood a thousand years of history and politics; it is also a fundamental right enshrined in the Charter of…

Can money buy justice? Not surprisingly, the answer is often Yes. Despite the important principle that justice should be “blind”, and treat each individual equally, the reality is that two defendants,…

How far can a lawyer go in defending his client? What started out for Joseph Peter Paul Groia as a criminal law case in provincial court, in which he was defending…

Everyone has heard of “He said-she said” cases. But what does that mean? Can I be convicted on just the word of another person? Yes you can. It happens every day…

Anyone can be charged with rape; it only takes a statement by a complainant motivated to report to the police. And because sexual assault is a “zero tolerance” offence, it will…

Can a drunk person consent to sex? It happens all the time. Every night, in bars and nightclubs and pool halls, men and women drink and socialize and “hook up”. Alcohol…

The justice system in Canada is in crisis. It is a crisis that has been building for decades, and for many reasons. Despite the steady drop in crime rates, the growth…

Words matter. Newsflash to the media, politicians and activists: an acquittal is not a failure of justice. Canada’s justice system has checks and balances that do work, considering how overburdened it…