The Constitutional Elephant in the Room: Section 8 Charter Issues with The Animal Care Act
ABSTRACTThe Animal Care Act (Manitoba) is touted as one of the most comprehensive animal protection statutes in Canada.
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Sealed warrants aim to ensure fair trial for accused
Calgary criminal lawyer Ian McKay worries that the man accused of being the Toronto serial killer won't get a fair trial if the legal battle to have warrants in the case unsealed is successful.
Federal law on intoxication sex assault defence unconstitutional: Ontario judge
TORONTO — People accused of sexual assault in Ontario are once again allowed to use excessive intoxication as a defence against criminal charges, a judge has ruled, finding that a federal law...
Extradition process to U.S. must change: McKay
Canadian extradition law is badly tilted in favour of prosecutors, and Canadians facing criminal charges in the United States are being forced into plea bargains because of the absence of...
How will the new drug-driving law play out?
The combination of legalized marijuana and the introduction of random drug testing on Canada’s roads is likely to cause a traffic jam in Canadian courts starting this fall, says Ian McKay.
Criminal defence runs in the blood for feisty McKay
When the Crown makes an offer to Calgary criminal lawyer Ian McKay, it has to be something pretty special to get his attention.
Rape shield law unfairly applied; court quashes sex assault conviction
Canada's so-called rape-shield law, which aims to protect sexual-assault complainants from unfair and irrelevant scrutiny of their sex lives, cannot be used to prevent an accused from mounting a reasonable...
Charter Basics: The Right to Silence
The right to remain silent is one of the most basic and fundamentally important rights in Canadian criminal law.
Understanding Impaired Driving Offences
When people talk about impaired driving, it’s often about someone getting a “DUI” or being stopped for “drunk driving.” While most people are generally aware that impaired driving is against...
R v Anthony-Cook: The Supreme Court Re-Visits Joint Submissions
Whenever an accused person pleads guilty, there is always an element of uncertainty with respect to sentence.
Does the Sender of a Text Message Have an Expectation of Privacy? An Alberta Court says No.
One of the fastest evolving and most important areas of Canadian criminal law is electronic privacy.
Supreme Court of Canada Outlines a New Test for Unreasonable Delay
On July 8, 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada released R v Jordan1 and R v Williamson2; in these two cases, the Court set out a new framework for determining...