LAWYERS THROW down
gauntlet ...................................1
CHRISTOPHER GULY OTTAWA
SYSTEM AT risk, B.C. chief
justice warns............................1
GRITS RECRUIT lawyers to fight
C- 10 .........................................2
PATH TO partner still a seven-year itch................................... 3
LAWYER UP on charges.......... 3
FEDS’ LEGAL spending soars
18 per cent.............................. 4
The Liberal Party of Canada
is recruiting lawyers to oppose
the Conservative government’s
208-clause omnibus crime
legislation.
“In just a few weeks, the way
justice is done in Canada could
change dramatically — unless you
raise your voice,” reads the ad,
signed by interim party Leader
Bob Rae, himself a lawyer. It says
Bill C- 10 is “expensive, ineffective
and fails to take into account the
root causes of crime, like addic-
tion and mental health.”
The ad is set to appear in The
Lawyers Weekly as well as other
Canadian law publications.
It is intended to “appeal to
members of the legal community
to voice objections to the lack of
evidence-based policy being presented in the government’s omnibus crime bill,” which also
“unfairly targets the judiciary,”
according to Liberal Party spokesman Daniel Lauzon.
The Liberals need the legal
community’s “understanding and
expertise” on the proposed legis-
lation because public opinion
about it “may not be as informed
as it should be,” Montreal MP
Irwin Cotler, also a lawyer and
the Liberal justice and human
rights critic, said in an interview.
“There are a whole set of con-
cerns that the legal community is
best positioned to address.”
He explained that one con-
cern is the time allocation the
Conservatives imposed on
debating the bill in committee
(four days).
“People may not realize that
this isn’t just one omnibus bill,”
said Cotler, who served as jus-
tice minister in Paul Martin’s
government. “It’s nine different
bills, each of which is deserving
of its own distinguishable study
and each of them is going to
have an impact, not only on the
criminal justice system but on
society as a whole.”
Bill C- 10, the Safe Streets and
Communities Act, will encompass:
n Protecting Children from
Sexual Predators Act (formerly
Bill C-54);
n;Penalties for Organized Drug
Crime Act (formerly Bill S- 10);
It’s nine different bills, each of which is deserving
of its own distinguishable study, and each of them
is going to have an impact, not only on the criminal
justice system but on society as a whole.
“
MP Irwin Cotler, Liberal justice and human rights critic
TOP B.C. court backs
polygamy ban ........................ 5
Cotler
CHILD COMES first in parent
moving case............................. 8
SCC LIMITS use of insanity
defence .................................. 27
FOCUS
Alternative Dispute Resolution
TESTIFYING IN the ‘tub’ .......... 9
A HOLISTIC approach to
arbitration ............................... 10
EFFECTIVE LITIGATORS need
proficiency in mediation ......... 11
UNCERTAIN POWER of
arbitrator’s subpoena ............. 12
Administrative Law
ADMINISTRATIVE BODIES and
deliberative secrecy ............... 14
Brown v. Plata that ordered
California to reduce its prison
population by more than
30,000 inmates.
“The court commented that
anything above 137.5 per cent
capacity is considered cruel and
unusual punishment.”
Although Findlay was
unaware of California’s incar-
ceration rate, she said the rate in
another large U.S. state, Texas, is
seven times greater than Can-
ada’s. “It’s true, we do have some
overcrowding in prisons, but
some of them are old and anti-
quated.” She said the “hysterical
rhetoric” about the federal gov-
ernment’s plan to build “super-
prisons” for “putting an enor-
mous amount of the population
in them is disingenuous” — funds
are being committed to con-
struct more modern facilities.
Cotler said the Liberals are
also deeply concerned about the
CLARITY AND concern over
legal costs.............................. 15
MEXICO’S BATTLE over sugar
turns sour............................... 16
BUSINESS & CAREERS
LAWYERS ‘CAN be productive
any where’ .............................. 21
LARGE RISKS lurk out there for
small businesses.................... 22
HOW THE Sony website
delivered under pressure........ 24
DEPARTMENTS
Announcements. . . . . . . . . 23
Careers ............... 25
Classified Ads . . . . . . . . . . 19
Lawddities............. 12
Names in the News. . . . . . . 5
Profile ................ 25
Weekly Digest.......... 17
RICHES, MCKENZIE & HERBERT LLP
PATENTS, TRADE MARKS, COPYRIGHT, LITIGATION
BARRISTERS & SOLICITORS - PATENT & TRADE MARK AGENTS
PAUL HERBER T, B.SC., PHM., R.PH, LL.B., J.D., PH.D.
DAN HITCHCOCK, B.ENG. (ELEC. ENG.), LL.B.
JEFF PERVANAS, B.A.SC. (ENG. SCI.), LL.B.
BOBBY ATHWAL, B.A.SC. (MECH. ENG.), M.A.SC., LL.B., J.D.
BYRON THOM, B.A.SC. (ENG. SCI.), LL.B.
BRAN T LATHAM, B.A.SC. B.SC. (CHEM. ENG.), LL.B.
GARY M. TRAVIS, B.SC. (GEOL.), LL.B.
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MICHAEL YUN, B.SC. (BIOCHEM), J.D.
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n;Sébastien’s Law (Protecting
the Public from Violent Young
Offenders, formerly Bill C- 4);
n;Ending House Arrest for Property and Other Serious Crimes by
Serious and Violent Offenders Act
(formerly Bill C- 16);
n;Increasing Offender Accountability Act (formerly Bill C-39);
n;Eliminating Pardons for Serious Crimes Act (formerly Bill
C-23B);
n Keeping Canadians Safe
(International Transfer of
Offenders) Act (formerly Bill
C- 5);
n;Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act and related amendments to the State Immunity
Act (formerly Bill S- 7); and
n;Preventing the Trafficking,
Abuse and Exploitation of Vulnerable Immigrants Act (
formerly Bill C-56).
Vancouver Conservative MP
Kerry-Lynne Findlay, a former
civil litigator who serves as one
of Justice Minister Rob Nicholson’s two parliamentary secretaries, told The Lawyers Weekly
that all the legislation contained
in C- 10 has been debated before
in Parliament. For instance, she
said it’s the fourth time the provision dealing with drug trafficking will have been introduced in the Commons.
“But in the previous minority
Parliament, it got bogged down
in committee or didn’t get
through the [formerly Liberal-
dominated] Senate.”
Cotler said that the more
than 100 new MPs elected on
May 2 never saw all of the bills
now included in C- 10—but
Findlay countered that the new
parliamentarians can always
read Hansard and committee
transcripts.
“The positions taken by the
government are no different
than before and the opposition
hasn’t changed its positions,”
she said. “It’s not like novel
points are being made.”
Cotler said the crime bill
also raises possible Charter vio-
lations, such as prison over-
crowding. He explained that
many Canadian prisons are
already at 200 per cent capacity,
and referred to the U. S. Supreme
Court’s May 23 decision in
Findlay
“host” of mandatory minimum
penalties contained in C- 10 that
“authorize excessive and dispro-
portionate punishment of such a
character that it runs afoul of
the proportionality principles in
our sentencing regime.”
C- 10 does impose mandatory
minimums on some offences,
such as those involving drugs
and organized crime or target-
ing young people, Findlay said,
but it doesn’t eliminate judicial
discretion. She added that there
were 40 mandatory minimum
penalties in the Criminal Code
before the Conservatives took
office in 2006.
“It’s the job of legislators to
decide the law and the job of
judges to apply that law. We’re
just giving parameters at both
ends, instead of just at one end,
which is maximums,” she said,
adding that mandatory min-
imums may be waived if some-
one convicted of a drug offence
agrees to seek treatment. Min-
imum sentences could also serve
as a deterrent for drug traffick-
ers who have previously viewed
house arrest or fines as “the cost
of doing business.”
However, Cotler said that
criminal defence lawyers know
that mandatory minimums are
not a deterrent and will “clog
up” the legal system since the
accused may not enter plea
agreements for fear of facing
longer incarceration by prosecu-
tors eager to leverage the new
sentencing regime.
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