Jonathan’s Jots

Some of you may wonder what goes on in a first interview in a criminal file. First, many people bring a support person, who is often a parent or spouse. This can cause confidentiality concerns, especially if that support person could become a witness for either the government (Crown) or

To understand this topic, one must have a general grasp of what the phrase “civil litigation” means. It can mean a legal dispute between two parties, that is not family law, or criminal law. That is not an all encompassing definition, but it will do for now. You will be filled with

The subject of this column is the very recent Schrenk decision from the British Columbia Court of Appeal. Mr. Shrenk apparently had a head injury some years ago and it made him less likely to bite his tongue- i.e. it made him unpleasantly outspoken. He was a site supervisor for

This sad case involves two of the public’s least favourite professionals- dentists and lawyers. Although I try to make clear that my columns are not legal advice and no legal retainer has been created, I am hoping that my comments at the end will help people in their discussions with

We see this offence quite often in Bruce County’ Provincial Offences Court.   A decision was just released by Justice Quon on this issue- he is one of the most published of all Ontario’s Justices of the Peace. We will call this the Cordoba case, as that is the name

The Supreme Court of Canada just released a decision on Friday striking down the one year minimum sentence for drug trafficking for breaching the cruel and unusual punishment section of the Charter of Rights. The case came from BC and involved an addict selling drugs to feed his habit. The