“Justice”

A temporary resident named Karandeep Singh was convicted of sexual assault in Prince George, B.C., last month, but — after the judge heard that Singh faced potential deportation — he was exempt from the national sex offender registry.

There was a time when this would have been impossible, as the written law requires all sexual assault convicts to be placed on the registry. In 2022, however, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled this to be unconstitutional and downgraded the registration of sex offenders from mandatory to optional. Whether to put someone on the list was left up to individual judges, who were much more merciful than Parliament.

Last week, Alberta’s top court ruled that a deaf man who never learned to communicate can’t be tried for sex crimes, or even assessed for mental fitness to stand trial, because it would violate his Charter rights. This means the man is functionally exempt from the Criminal Code, and is thus free to rape and even murder if he so wishes.

In April, Alberta prosecutors announced that sexual assault charges against a prominent spiritual leader and his wife would be stayed due to a combination of trial delays and prosecutorial misconduct. After years of waiting, one complainant told The Globe and Mail that those who had come forward felt “betrayed,” that there was “no accountability,” and that they had become “victims of the system.”

A judge defended the one-day sentence he handed a carjacker who stole a Toronto driver’s Mercedes at gunpoint, blaming the man’s jailers for failing the community.

Jaiden Robinson, who spent 809 days (two years and 79 days) in pre-trial custody, pleaded guilty in the Ontario Court of Justice to robbery with a prohibited weapon for a March 2024, mid-afternoon carjacking at the Shops at Don Mills. Both the Crown and Robinson’s lawyer recommended he get the mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison.

h/t Mauser

When Roy Romanow was premier of Saskatchewan, he had a saying that can be paraphrased: when observers or commentators offer political statements or opinions, they are in my bailiwick and I shall be free to respond as I see fit.

Romanow’s dictum came to mind in reading Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner’s warning against “attacks” on the judicial system and portraying judges as “political actors” or “obstacles to the will of the people.”

The city of Edmonton has successfully quashed a judicial review of the Alberta Human Rights Commission’s (AHRC) refusal to hear a complaint about women’s sex-based rights. The city was also awarded $625 in costs for their successful application against the woman seeking the review.

The city’s application was heard at the Court of King’s Bench Alberta on June 10.

A much-convicted, 71-year-old schizophrenic man now free after brutally strangling a cellmate remains “a significant threat to the safety of the public,” according to a new ruling that singles out his unauthorized use of marijuana for concern.

George Veerman of Hamilton, Ont., was released in 2015, seven years after being found not criminally responsible for the murder, and now lives with his brother.