CCLA Rights Watch
La veille sur les
droits et libertés

BC Lawyers who act as duty counsel have withdrawn their services as part of their campaign to pressure the government to restore funding for legal aid. The two-week withdrawal of services, that began on February 1, is phase two of the action, which will see the withdrawal of services escalate each month until a full withdrawal for the entire month of April.

The Trial Lawyers’ Association, the organization behind the action, has estimated that approximately two-thirds of BC’s provincial courthouses will be impacted by the withdrawal. They note that a provincial tax on legal fees generates $140 million each year that is meant to fund legal aid, yet the government puts less than half of it into the program. Their news release can be viewed here.

The Coalition for Public Legal Services, a group made up of a number of advocacy groups and legal organizations in BC, endorsed the action and the call to restore funding to legal aid, noting that BC is the third lowest province in per capita spending on legal aid. The result, according to the Coalition, is that low-income and marginalized people have nowhere to turn for legal representation with issues relating to family law, tenancy, employment standards and immigration.

The next phase of withdrawals is scheduled for March 1-21. For more information, click here.

150 University of Windsor students marched through campus on Wednesday February 1, 2012.  Students complained that the election-campaign promise of a $1600 tuition break applies only to one-third of Ontario’s 900,000 post-secondary students.  A day later, Ontario’s Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Glen Murray stated at the University of Windsor that “This is not the end of the line”.  Murray stated that the grant, aimed at full-time undergraduates dependent on their parents, in fact covers 310,000 of Ontario’s 600,000 undergrads.  He noted that this is the largest student aid increase in Ontario’s history.  Taking into account other student aid, he stated that 475,000 students get government help.  Murray confirmed that next he will be turning his attention to the remaining 125,000 students, many of them part-time students who cannot afford to go to school full-time.

Read the full article here.

Jill Clayton was sworn in as privacy commissioner at the Alberta Legislature on Wednesday, replacing Frank Work, who stepped down in December.  She returns to Alberta from her previous post with the Privacy and Freedom of Information Department for the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.  Clayton is expecting many challenges considering the changing landscape of information access due to “new technology, public-private partnerships, information sharing and social media.”  Both the new commission and Premier Redford asserted Alberta’s ongoing commitment to openness and transparency in government.

See the full Edmonton Journal story here

Amendments to the constitution are not easy. In fact, procedure for amendments to the constitution vary depend on the nature of the change and the matter in question. Procedures are lengthy and complicated, and the threshold for assent is generally fairly high (majority assent is required). For some, the complexity and detailed requirements for constitutional amendment is a comfort – as it acts to safeguard important pieces of the constitution, namely, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Globe and Mail reports here that there are renewed and active discussions about constitutional amendment. The article highlights the different attempts over the last decade to make important changes in law and policy, but which have been constrained by the constitution.

Alan Hutchinson, professor at Osgoode Hall Law School has provided an interesting analysis in the Globe and Mail opinion piece he recently wrote, and challenges the notion that the constitution restrains government and political actors from making changes, or achieving their purpose.  According to  Hutchinson, despite all the requirements to make formal changes to the constitution:

“For the most part, change has continued apace while the texts of the Constitution have remained unaltered. The various actors – politicians, government leaders, bureaucrats, judges, and citizens – have gone about their business and been relatively unimpeded by the actual words of the Constitution…The fact is that where there is a political will (i.e., federal and provincial governments agree), there is usually a constitutional way. So, although the courts have interpreted the Constitution to prohibit the formal swapping of powers between federal and provincial governments, ingenious political devices have been used to achieve the same goals.”

Hutchinson also brings attention to the fact that Canada’s constitution is not entirely written down. The “unwritten principles” which are to inform the political system and judiciary are able to evolve. The practicality of this is not only desirable, it is undeniable and more effective.

For Professor Alan Hutchinson’s full article, click here.

For Norman Spector’s Globe and Mail article, “Demands for constitutional reform only builds”, click here.

Pivot Legal Society, on behalf of client Christopher Evans, filed a lawsuit against the City of Vancouver on Thursday, January 26th 2012, for alleged careless and excessive use of a police dog. During the incident in question, which occurred last summer, Mr. Evans was bitten on his right calf and thigh during an arrest, and says that he was not aware he was being pursued by the police until the point of attack. As a result of the incident, Mr. Evans required nearly 100 staples to close the wounds and subsequently lost his job at a warehouse because he could not put weight on the leg for two months. The lawsuit comes a week after Pivot obtained statistics from the Police Complaints Commission that Vancouver accounts for nearly three-quarters of all police dog bite injuries in municipal police districts in the province since March 2010, and that 46 percent of all serious injuries caused and reported by municipal police in BC are caused by police dog bites. Pivot is hoping the lawsuit will prompt the Vancouver Police Department to reconsider the legal society’s prior request to change from a “bite and hold” to a “bark and hold” method. Read articles here and here for more information.

John Ibbitson of the Globe and Mail reports here that privacy commissioners are concerned about “lawful access” legislation that the Conservatives are going to introduce in Parliament. It would allow police to access information from someone’s Internet service provider such as his or her cell phone number, IP address, and email address without a warrant. Ibbitson writes that:

The privacy commissioners believe that the federal government should not be giving police the power to acquire detailed information about who you are online without a judge’s say-so. The government says that the new powers are necessary to deter crime and terrorism.

The Conservatives argue that allowing the police to access this information is not a breach of privacy because this information just says who a person is. It is similar to what is found in a phone book. While the police could access this information without a warrant, they would need to obtain a warrant to actually monitor someone. The privacy commissioners, however, believe that the police should have to obtain a warrant to access this digital information.

Police in Fredericton, New Brunswick are investigating a resident who is accused of defamatory libel due to comments found on his blog. According to University of New Brunswick associate law professor Julia Hughes, defamatory libel as a criminal (rather than civil) offence is something very rare in Canada.

The blogger’s apartment was searched and his computer was seized. The individual  has commented and associates the defamatory libel investigation to something he said about a police offer on his website.

From a civil rights perspective it will be interesting to follow the outcome of this very rare case. Considering the investigation was launched by a police officer as a criminal case it is very unique. Also, it may have wide reaching repercussions due to its originating from the internet. For instance, should bloggers have the same freedom of press as a journalist enjoys? There are a lot of questions being raised here.

This case may lead one to think that criticizing the police may result in them being criminally charged while not necessarily having free speech as a defense.

“The court said yes, it does infringe free speech, but if it gets grave enough or serious enough, if you really have this objective intention to defame . . . to untruthfully demolish their reputation in the public eye, then you ought not to be able to bring yourself under that free-speech protection,” said Hughes (Fredericton Gleaner).

Former pot dealer, Cristopher Quigley, claims he was brutally beaten, robbed, and illegally searched by Toronto drug squad officers 14 years ago. Officers John Schertzer, Steven Correia, Nebojsa Maodus, Joseph Miched and Raymond Pollard are accused of corruption, involving the beating and robbing of drug dealers, and falsifying police records.

The charges concern Cristopher Quigley’s arrest in April 1998. While he was arrested for possessing stolen sunglasses,  Quigley alleges that he was repeatedly beaten to divulge information about his cash and drugs. The officers allegedly threatened to ransack his apartment if he didn’t comply, and punched, kicked and choked Quigley until he lost consciousness. “I was terrified, I really thought I was going to die,” Quigley claims.

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Recently, both the SOPA and PIPA bills were halted indefinitely following a massive online protest by Wikipedia and other large websites. Despite this, the bills are expected to be revived in February, and following the abandonment the U.S. responded by shutting down the “cyber locker” storage website Megaupload.com.

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The Children’s Aid Society closed its last group home in London, ON on Friday, Jan 27th due to underfunding. While the CAS does have other placement options, particularly foster care, some fear the closures could seriously compromise the quality of care for troubled youths and that some of the hardest to place may end up “falling through the cracks” as a result.  Ellen Long, a representative of the CAS, cautions that this may be only the beginning of much greater cuts to social services in London and in Ontario in general. Read the full story here.