Van Drunen Criminal Defence

12/08/2021

Giving judges the power to make sure the punishment fits the crime is a key part of Canada's justice system. We'll take a second helping of this please!

The Liberal government has tabled legislation to eliminate mandatory minimum penalties for a number of to***co, fi****ms and drug offences.

02/11/2021

We're representing clients in Zoom court a lot these days. So far, we haven't looked like kittens, which happened to a lawyer in Texas recently. Meow!

This is a live stream of virtual court proceedings in the 394th Judicial District Court of Brewster, Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio Counties, J...

12/16/2020

Big congratulations to VDCD partner Erik for his work at the Ontario Court of Appeal this month. While doing it over Zoom wasn't quite the same, its always nice to have the panel reserve their decision.

12/14/2020

A summary of recent SCC rulings in s*x assault cases, from the G&M. Bottom line, SCC says that appeal courts should defer to trial judges' findings regarding reliability and credibility of complainants:

The rulings suggest that in the court’s view, the top courts of provinces are making missteps on s*xual assault, particularly when it comes to how credibility is being assessed by the judges who presided over the trials

10/26/2020

Excellent work by the Globe's Tom Cardoso:

Federal inmates' risk assessments determine everything from where a prisoner is incarcerated to what rehabilitation programs they are offered. After controlling for a number of variables, The Globe found Black and Indigenous inmates are more likely to get worse scores than white inmates, based solel...

08/19/2020

Drug prosecutors in Canada have just been told to only prosecute charges of simple drug possession "in the most serious cases" (often involving young people, weapons or threats):

Federal lawyers are being asked to avoid prosecuting simple drug possession cases unless major public safety concerns are at play — a move that comes amid a push on the federal government to reconsider decriminalization.

08/17/2020

In case you missed this, in July police chiefs from across Canada called for the decriminalization of simple possession of illicit drugs. "Arresting individuals for simple possession of illicit drugs has proven to be ineffective."

The association is calling for the creation of a national task force to look into drug policy reform.

08/05/2020

When the pandemic started, politicians said low-risk offenders should released early, to stop covid from spreading in this country's jails. It didn't happen:

Even though the government said it would look into early releases for low-risk prisoners, records show the number of inmates released during the first...

06/01/2020

"In US, black people are three times as likely to be killed by police as whites."

And for a Canadian perspective, between 2013 and 2017, a black person was 20x more likely than a white person to be shot by Toronto police (from Nov. 2018 report from the Ontario Human Rights Commission).

This killing is so appalling that maybe it can educate U.S. public opinion in a way that might finally make a difference

04/22/2020

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/prison-covid19-blair-zinger-1.5540304

Canada’s prison watchdog says he has not managed to obtain any details on how many federal prisoners have been released early to limit the transmission of COVID-19, but progress appears to be slow.

04/07/2020

FYI. Normally police in Ontario can't ask you to identify yourself for no good reason but now due to COVID-19 and the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, they can. If you don't comply, you can be fined.

Police Officers in Ontario will now have the right to stop and have the public identify themselves or face hefty fines for violating their orders, according to a new power granted by the province of Ontario using the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMCPA).

03/27/2020

As of March 25, 2020, the Stratford courthouse at 100 St. Patrick Street is temporarily closed. However, the court will continue to operate virtually, using audio and video conferencing technology.

If you have an upcoming court appearance in Stratford, please contact our office by phone and we can update you on how your case will be affected. Unless your case is urgent, you can expect your court appearance to be postponed.