Generally, people don’t sign up to go to jail. Sentencing is not an optional exercise. Society has made peace with the basic punishments of prison life: deprivation of liberty, personal security, goods, privacy. COVID-19 has skipped the line. The virus has added to the list of punishments without going through the proper channels (i.e. the...Read More

We are at the S-O-S stage of the fentanyl and opioid crisis. Predictably, our first response was to blame the addicts, throwing them in jail for as long as possible. Shockingly, the crisis didn’t go away. A wider net was cast. Prescribing doctors in the U.S. were next. On Oct. 24, the New York Court...Read More

Collect evidence now, ask questions later. That is the approach of police and FBI in the U.S. using GEDmatch, a DNA data collection site that combines results from the popular 23andMe and Ancestry sites. The site was praised for helping solve the mystery of the Golden State serial killer. Before any courts can weigh in,...Read More

The final report of the Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) national inquiry, published June 3, 2019, evokes mixed feelings. Do I believe that it is a genocide? No. Labelling it as such implies that there is a single villain. They are the forgotten people. Neglected and vulnerable to crimes of violence. I have been a...Read More

A child in imminent danger needs to be saved from their abductor. This is the goal of the amber alert system. Like any emergency response system, it needs to be updated. I’m willing to stick my neck out to suggest we take this a step further and ask: does the amber alert system cause more...Read More

Up until this past week Justin Trudeau has been regarded as soft. Dealing with Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott has forced him to begin the growth process into a role his father played well: decisive political leader. The past two months have been rough for Justin. The decision to expel Wilson-Raybould and Philpott is one...Read More

A name change is key step in shedding an identity. Transitioning into a new and exiting life. Marrying the love of your life. Moving to a new country full of opportunities. Transitioning to your true gender. What about changing your name after being released from prison for molesting children? What if you also happen to...Read More

Courtroom civility, though important, must never come at the expense of mounting a vigorous defence, says Toronto criminal lawyer and civil litigator Laurelly Dale. “If you need to make the decision between civility and defending your client, the defence of your client will win because you need to make sure they have a fair trial,” says...Read More

We are loyal to those that retain us. Biologists at the Centre of Forensic Sciences (CFS) are assigned case files to process exhibits submitted to them from the police. These cases are almost always of a serious nature, involving dozens to hundreds of exhibits. What ensues are ongoing teleconferences, meetings and e-mail correspondence between the...Read More

Two reports that address “systemic racism” within the Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) should be viewed as a call to action to build trust with Indigenous people, Toronto criminal lawyer Laurelly Dale tells The Lawyer’s Daily. However, Dale, principal of Dale Law Professional Corporation, tells the online publication that she worries that media coverage of these reports could lead to further distrust. “Yes, it’s upsetting that...Read More