Manitoba Law Journal
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Part A Setting the Stage: Recognizing the Importance of the Open Court Principle and Access to Justice in Manitoba During the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textPart A Setting the Stage: Recognizing the Importance of the Open Court Principle and Access to Justice in Manitoba During the COVID-19 Pandemi
A Missing Piece: Frameworks for Analyzing Carceral Attitudes in International Law
No full textA Missing Piece: Frameworks for Analyzing Carceral Attitudes in International La
Canadian Constitutional Reform in Comparative Perspective: Some Reflections Occasioned by Richard Albert’s Global Work on Constitutional Amendments
No full textCanadian Constitutional Reform in Comparative Perspective: Some Reflections Occasioned by Richard Albert’s Global Work on Constitutional Amendment
Bill C-208: Instrument for Intergenerational Prosperity or Tool for Tax Avoidance?
No full textBill C-208: Instrument for Intergenerational Prosperity or Tool for Tax Avoidance
Comment on Shaver-Kudell Manufacturing Inc. v Knight Manufacturing Inc.
No full textComment on Shaver-Kudell Manufacturing Inc. v Knight Manufacturing Inc
The Devil’s Playground: A Case Study of Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC) Demonstrating the System Failings of the Ontario Corrections Regime
No full textDespite numerous calls to action from news outlets, prison activists, and incarcerated individuals themselves, the Ontario corrections regime continues to operate in an unlawful and inhumane manner. The last decade has seen the publication of several prison reform recommendations that are yet to be meaningfully implemented. This paper spotlights four serious issues that plague Ontario correctional institutions through the lens of one of the worst: Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre. Through its discussion of death in custody, drugs in custody, inhumane conditions, and understaffing, this paper seeks to highlight the profound gap between our democratic aspirations and the lived reality of working and living in Ontario jails. This case study urges us to finally take action and implement the roadmap for reform that has already been provided
A Tale of Two Countries: Constitutionalizing the Mandatory Minimum Sentence
No full textMandatory minimum sentences have always played a role in Canadian criminal law, and indeed, in the common law of the United Kingdom (UK). Parliament, especially in recent years, drastically expanded the use of mandatory minimum sentencing, calling for higher sentences to be imposed on offenders. This has resulted in a corresponding increase in challenges to the constitutionality of that legislation, specifically alleging that the impugned mandatory sentences infringe an individual’s right to be free from cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. However, these challenges are often based on an imagined offender, or a reasonable hypothetical, rather than the offender before the court.
The UK also imposes mandatory minimum sentences, including for firearms offences. Moreover, the mandatory sentences in the UK call for significantly more severe sentences than the sentences that Canadian courts struck down as being cruel and unusual punishment. This article, therefore, looks at the firearms laws of the UK and how they have structured the mandatory minimum sentence for firearm offences. The provisions in the UK mandating minimum sentences for particular offences contain an “escape clause” which permits judges to deviate from the mandatory minimum sentence in “exceptional circumstances.” As a result, judges in the UK must deal with the offender and the facts of the case before them, rather than a reasonable hypothetical scenario. This article argues that Parliament’s incorporation of similar language in Canadian sentencing provisions would have two salutary effects: (1) placing the emphasis on the offender before the court, thereby eliminating the reasonable hypothetical and (2) restoring the role of Parliament in providing guidance on sentences while preserving the role of the judiciary to craft a sentence for each offender which does not violate our constitutional principles
Predictive Policing and the Charter
No full textPredictive policing technology uses algorithms trained on past crime data to predict where crime is likely to occur in the future. Given the historical over-policing of minority and low-income communities, there is a concern that this bias will be perpetuated and amplified in the future if the algorithms are not corrected to account for this. Furthermore, there is a concern that when police are deployed to areas flagged as “high-crime,” they will rely on these predictions as justification for detaining individuals — leading to an erosion of s. 9 Charter protections. This paper draws on Canadian and American case law to argue that as long as courts uphold the individualized suspicion requirement for investigative detention, s. 9 rights will likely not be eroded. Given the widespread issues with validating the accuracy of predictive algorithms and the unwillingness of courts to allow generalized suspicion to justify detentions, these tools will likely be given limited weight in the reasonable suspicion analysis moving forward
Bad Law: Rethinking Justice for a Postcolonial Canada
No full textBOOK REVIEW: Bad Law: Rethinking Justice for a Postcolonial Canad