Archive for the - General

by Kirk Dobrowolski* and Jared Craig   Critics claim that isolated confinement can amount to inhumane treatment bordering on torture. Isolated confinement can cause severe mental pain and suffering. In fact, studies have found that lasting mental damage is caused after just a few days of social isolation.[i] The main body of scientific opinion on the […]

The Case of Lukis Anderson In 2012, Lukis Anderson was charged with murder. The case against Anderson was circumstantial – based solely on evidence of DNA transference. But it was later learned that his DNA had made it to the crime scene by way of the paramedics who had treated Anderson earlier on the same […]

On July 19, 2019, Dennis Oland was found not guilty in the bloody, bludgeoning death of his father, New Brunswick multimillionaire Richard Oland. Proceedings spanned eight years — including a conviction, successful appeal, retrial, mistrial, and ultimately, an acquittal. In the wake of Oland’s acquittal, much has, and will continue to be written, and discussed […]

The doctrine of collateral consequences ensures that incidental consequences for unusual cases are “fairly and sympathetically addressed” with an appreciation of the “vicissitudes of human experience”.[1] In this post, the author surveys three interesting decisions which have considered the doctrine of ‘collateral consequences’ in the 8 months since the SCC rendered its judgment in R […]

Our bail system is failing. In Canada, over 250,000 pre-trial persons, are held in provincial and territorial detention centres across the country, more than triple that a decade ago,[1] exceeding even the population of sentenced inmates – [2] housed in environments that that fuel “crowding, violence and inhumane conditions”.[3] But it appears that this crisis in […]

Criminal law is the quintessential benchmark of community values in a society -The Honourable Judge A.J. Brown In the decision of R v Maskell (1981),[1] the Alberta Court of Appeal established a 3-year starting point sentence for commercial trafficking in cocaine. Since it’s inception, and particularly in recent years, the interpretation and application of starting […]

A primary task for neuroscience is to explain how a two-and-a-half-pound hunk of organic matter produces consciousness intentionality, responsiveness, mental causation, and all the other mental apparatus that is so central to our lives…”[1] We are witness to an age of tremendous developments in the fields of clinical and theoretical neuroscience. Contemporary advancements continue to […]

“The system comes down hardest on those without the means to defend themselves… It’s easy to prosecute those people and put them away and not think twice about it because no one is speaking for them”   The Battle of Thermopylae Thermopylae is a mountain pass near the sea in northern Greece. It has been […]