Jurisprudence and Academy News
In a nutshell: R. v. Ouellette 2025 ABCA 340 Accused s Charter s. 8 rights not engaged by police listening and taking notes about her statements to ambulance attendant during medical assessment about her drug and alcohol consumption. Taking notes ok, audio recording not ok. The accused had driven her motor vehicle through a red Continue reading
R. v. Singer 2026 SCC 8 in March of 2019, two RCMP officers were investigating an impaired driving complaint in a small Saskatchewan First Nations community. At around midnight, after about an hour of investigating, they located a truck matching the description from the complaint parked in a residential driveway with its lights on Continue reading
Hot off the press! Warning, this post is a long one! Although not a new legal debate, and something that I ve invested many hours of the law program here detailing to the police recruits (and others), the SCC has made it quite clear this time around. The general arrest authority of a peace officer under Continue reading
In 2017, Parliament enacted the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act which added Section 4.1 to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Section 4.1(2) of the CDSA provides immunity from being “charged or convicted” for possession of a controlled substance under s. 4(1) of the CDSA to those who call for help or remain at the Continue reading
While this is not a law post per se, I wanted to make you aware of two very important SCC cases on the horizon to keep an eye out for:
At the onset, I want to highlight that this is a provincial court case out of Saskatchewan, R. v. Kopperud, [2024] SJ No 315, and thus not binding by any means, and the wording of that province s legislation varies greatly from ours in Atlantic Canada, but I did want to discuss some concepts nonetheless. An Continue reading
Although the case R. v. Brown 2024 ONCA 453 litigated other concepts in law, the focus here will be concerning the Feeney Warrant and the dynamic entry undertaken by the arresting officers. Coles notes, from a project, Brown was the subject of an investigation into trafficking in cocaine and possession for the purpose of trafficking Continue reading
It s been a minute since my last post, but most cases of late are simply reaffirming earlier decisions and practices, and so is this one for the most part, but given its significance, I thought it worthy of a post. The facts around this case began back in 2014, which cumulated to arrests and charges Continue reading
Mr. Walker was charged with unlawfully resisting an arrest and with assault P.O. causing bodily harm. Both charges hinged on proof that the officer was acting in the execution of his duty. Mr. Walker proved in a pre-trial application however that his arrest was unlawful. Here is the court s reasoning (R. v. Walker 2023 ABKB Continue reading
R. v. Breault 2023 SCC 9 in April of 2017, two police officers were informed by forest trail patrollers that an individual who was intoxicated was driving an all-terrain vehicle ( ATV ). At about 1:35 p.m., the police officers arrived at the scene, saw B and stopped him as he was about to leave the Continue reading