700 words; 3 minutes to read. Most of this post is drawn from an article by Dylan Short in the Edmonton Journal on January 26, 2020. ————————– An Edmonton law group is urging Public Safety Canada to pardon all Indigenous...
Read More580 words; 3 minutes to read Many previous posts on this blog continue to be highly relevant. The problems they addressed remain as prevalent as ever. These posts show how many of the issues in our system are well known...
Read More600 words; 3 minutes to read Those who believe in making major reforms to criminal justice in Canada were heartened a few years ago. The new Liberal government in 2015 made many commitments to address at least some of the...
Read More850 words; 4 minutes to read ‘Providing closure’ is one of the comments we often hear in media coverage of verdicts and sentences in criminal cases. The suggestion is that a harsh sentence provides victims of crime, or family members...
Read More930 words; 4 minutes to read Some people are found guilty of crimes they did not commit, and many more people plead guilty to specific charges that are inaccurate. Yet once someone has pled guilty or been convicted, we seem...
Read MoreThe Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is a champion for civil rights in all areas of Canadian life. Criminal justice is one of its focus areas. The organization has been very active in mounting court challenges around some of the...
Read More950 words; 4 minutes to read. A fundamental aspect of justice in Canada is that any accused person has the right to make a proper defense. In practice, this right does not exist for most Canadians because they cannot afford...
Read More950 words; 4 minutes to read Paula Mallea has had a long and distinguished career as a criminal defense lawyer and public policy advocate. Having worked extensively with prisoners, and with Indigenous people in the justice system, she became a...
Read More850 words; 4 minutes to read With only about 10 days to go until election day, there has been very little discussion of anything to do with criminal justice in this campaign. The issue did not come up in the...
Read More1000 words; 4 minutes to read. Many of the debates in criminal justice eventually come down to the question of how we understand wrongful behaviour. For most of human history, we have seen wrongdoing as lying in the individual who...
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