If You Can Be Accused of the Crime...You Can Do the Time
That's how the saying goes is it not?Well in Alberta, it is not only the status quo but it is apparently the express intention of our Minister of Justice to make this an official provincial motto.I...
View ArticleStupid Is As Stupid Does - CPS Get "Rough Ride" at Stampeders Game
When the lovable Forrest Gump finds himself constantly being asked if he is stupid, his pre-loaded retort in effect asks the questioner to judge him by his actions...he's only stupid if he behaves...
View ArticleDaily Affirmations - With Attorney General Alison Redford
I can just see it now...Alberta's Justice Minister with her own cable television show looking over the shoulder of one of her Crown Prosecutors and into the mirror for a delusional...
View Article"Ministers of Justice" Must Actually Seek It - SCC orders police misconduct...
It is a public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all.- Moliere, 1622-1673I suppose in criminal law it happens more often than in other disciplines, but it is still relatively rare for...
View ArticleSTOP!!! Person reasonably likely to do something illegal and reasonably...
Some may say that STOP!!! THIEF!!! rolls off of your tongue better, but catching bad guys is a lot of work, so I can understand why Alberta seems more interested in setting its sights on taking...
View ArticleAcknowledge Constable Zeh's "Good Turn"
"There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it."Seneca (c. 4 BC - AD 65)Some might say this quote means that us armchair quarterbacks think we deserve some type of...
View ArticleBlame It On Bail - And Those Who Dare To Grant It
By now, most citizens of Calgary will have heard of the arrest made and 3 counts of murder laid in the investigation into the triple homicide that occurred at a restaurant in Calgary on January 1,...
View Article"...nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror..."
Selling ice to an Eskimo is supposedly some kind of measure of the prowess of an advocate. Looked at one way, convincing someone they want to part with something of value in exchange for something they...
View ArticleLaziness and Greed Trump Safety in Calgary Parking Lots
I have been absent from writing this page for a long time...criminal law is booming in the recession I guess. But even as I prepare to pick a jury for a murder trial tomorrow, and feverishly work to...
View ArticleFacts Don't Fit Government PR Agenda?
I read with interest and bewilderment the following comment from Alberta Justice Minister Alison Redford in the government's latest self-congratulatory press conference regarding Alberta's civil...
View ArticleCalgary's Secret Service
No, I'm not suggesting that Mayor Bronconnier has managed to put together a detail of sunglasses-clad elite bodyguards whose black suits and earpieces serve as warning to all comers of the veracity...
View ArticleIt Ought to be Illegal to do...Well, Everything
While not strictly a criminal law issue, there are fundamental links between criminal justice and the workings of a free and democratic society like ours...which is why I write this quick...
View ArticleStelmach's Police State
The principles of fundamental justice and ideals of a free and democratic society are being so actively stripped right before our eyes, that as a born and raised Albertan I am contemplating leaving the...
View ArticleWithdrawal for the Non-Attendance of "Mr. Green"
I must write a quick commentary on the just-released judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Cunningham...because it is already being misconstrued by mainstream media and the courts must not...
View ArticleDo as Rick and Alison Say...Not as They Do...
I wonder if any provincially operating pollster will come to my aid on this one. I need to get a sense of how many people in our City can tell me about the firing of Calgary Police Constable O....
View ArticleReal Life is Not Hollywood
I am writing to stand up for Cst. Jens Lind of the Calgary Police Service following what has become, in my view, completely misguided criticism of his lack of heroics following a fiery car crash that...
View ArticlePolice Officers Should Stop Lying
"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men."- George OrwellI think of myself as being at least reasonably intelligent, so here I go..."One day...
View ArticleApathy is Unethical - In my opinion...
As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most...
View ArticleLong Gun Registry Vote
I've decided to try to chime in on this issue in the most simple way possible...by asking this fundamental question...what is the purpose of the long-gun registry?If the purpose is to eliminate gun...
View ArticlePenny for Your Thoughts? You get what you pay for...
There are troubling comments in the media in our province today regarding the effect of the Ontario Superior Court decision striking down the prostitution related provisions of the Criminal Code...and...
View ArticleWhat's the Penalty for "Distracted Lawmaking"?
November 17, 2010 the Calgary Herald runs a story about a 34 year old Albertan who attended at an Edmonton hospital emergency room at around midnight one Friday in September asking nurses for help...
View ArticleThe Sanctity of Assange
This is not a petition to nominate Julian Assange for sainthood...but it is a public plea to the Calgary Police Service and the Attorney General of Alberta:Julian Assange is a person whose life is...
View ArticleCan I Trust You With My Life?
Dear Sgt. Patrick Webb,As Alberta spokesman for the RCMP, I ask you this question. Can I trust the members of Canada's historic national police service with my life and the lives of my family?I expect...
View ArticleHerald Editor Needs Hackers
Okay, maybe just some diligent fact-finding would do.I say this in response to the recent Herald editorial comment entitled "Impaired Judgment" which discusses the impaired driving sentencing decision...
View ArticleWhat are the real costs of Civil Forfeiture?
It is easy to put up statistics and make yourself look good and the Alberta Attorney General / Solicitor General, Jonathan Denis, has just had help from the Calgary Herald / Edmonton Journal in a...
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