Anything related to the court system, sentencing of offenders, or incarceration issues
Lawyers who represented First Nations in their successful $23-billion lawsuit against the federal government over child welfare funding are requesting $80 million in fees. The Justice Department senior general counsel suggests that about half would be more appropriate. [node:read-more:link]
An Oregon man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for using social media to coerce three B.C. children into sharing sexually explicit images. Investigators found that Kevin Robert McCarty threatened to send the images to his victims’ friends and families, telling them to comply with his demands or commit suicide. [node:read-more:link]
Mary Moreau, Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta since 2017, has been nominated by Prime Minister Trudeau to fill a Supreme Court of Canada vacancy left by the resignation of Russell Brown in June. Moreau also has been a member of the Canadian Judicial Council’s advisory committee on ethics. [node:read-more:link]
A Federal Court judge ruled today that more than 300,000 First Nations families are entitled to receive $23 billion in federal government compensation for decades of underfunding child-welfare services on reserves. The verbal ruling comes more than 15 years after indigenous groups launched a human-rights complaint that sparked a years-long legal battle with Ottawa. [node:read-more:link]
A former National Security Agency employee pled guilty October 23 to trying to sell classified information to Russia. Arrested by an undercover FBI agent in Colorado last year, Jareh Sebastian Dalke, who also is a U.S. Army veteran being treated for mental illness, is to be sentenced next April. [node:read-more:link]
The Crown has stayed a criminal charge against “Freedom Convoy” organizer Tamara Lich for allegedly violating bail conditions last summer. Lich and co-accused Chris Barber face mischief and other charges; in dropping the one charge, the prosecution says it hoped to proceed on key issues when the trial resumes October 26. [node:read-more:link]
An Ontario woman who was married a British member of an Islamic State cell linked to the abduction, torture and murder of hostages in Syria, has said she was “oblivious to what was going on.” Insisting that she had not been personally radicalized, Dure Ahmed, who appeared in court in Brampton October 16, said beforehand that she was “a dumb girl in love” who now is “not looking for sympathy or pity.” [node:read-more:link]
The judge presiding over the trial in Ottawa of former RCMP security chief Cameron Ortis was told today by a former colleague that Ortis had been “pretty well given carte blanche” to do his job. Ortis has pled not guilty to having violated the law by sharing operational information. [node:read-more:link]
The City of Surrey is petitioning the B.C. Supreme Court to overturn a provincial order that it must set up its own police force rather than contracting for RCMP services. Keeping the RCMP was a key part of Mayor Brenda Locke’s election campaign a year and the city has retained Peter German, a former RCMP deputy commissioner, as its legal counsel. [node:read-more:link]
In a 5-2 ruling today (Docket No. 40195), the Supreme Court said that key elements of 2019 federal environmental impact legislation challenged by Alberta are unconstitutional. “Parliament has plainly overstepped its […] competence in enacting this designated projects scheme,” Chief Justice Richard Wagner wrote on behalf of the majority. [node:read-more:link]
Salim Henareh, a Toronto resident wanted in the U.S. on felony charges for allegedly helping Iran to evade sanctions was never charged despite being on Canadian law enforcement radar for years. New court documents show that Canada and its Five Eyes intelligent partners believed Henareh’s businesses were central to an international money laundering network. [node:read-more:link]
Ammara Amjad, 29, who returned to Canada from Syria last April, has been charged over her alleged participation in Islamic State activities. She was arrested October 5 in Milton, Ontario, but has been released on bail. [node:read-more:link]
In a unanimous ruling today, the Supreme Court of Canada (Docket Nos. 40175, 40223) said automatic pre-trial publication bans must be upheld by lower courts when juries would not normally be permitted to hear information before they are empanelled. [node:read-more:link]
Four years after he was arrested for allegedly leaking “special operational information”, Cameron Ortis, the RMCP’s former head of intelligence, pled not guilty today at the beginning of his jury trial in Ottawa. [node:read-more:link]
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said today that he will enforce a controversial school “pronoun” policy despite a provincial judge’s decision to issue an injunction. The judge suspended the policy pending the outcome of a legal challenge by the University of Regina Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity. Announced in August, the initiative would require students younger than 16 to have parental consent before changing their pronouns or preferred first names in a school setting. [node:read-more:link]
