Jun 12, 2013 0
A Calgary teen has been arrested and charged with making child pornography after sending unsolicited text messages of a sexual nature to a classmate. According to Sun News, the boy has been charged with criminal harassment and making child pornography for sending the texts.
Jun 10, 2013 0
Last week federal Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq introduced a new bill on exemptions for safe injection sites from criminal provisions on drug trafficking and possession.
Currently there is only one safe injection site in Canada, Vancouver’s InSite, which won a legal battle in 2011 when the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to issue an exemption. But that exemption is not permanent. InSite will have to re-apply as will other facilities that would like to set up operations in other cities. According to the Court, the trafficking and possession provisions in the Controlled Drug Substances Act (CDSA) continue to apply to such facilities, but can violate the right to life, liberty and security if an exemption is not made in a way that respects Charter rights.
Jun 10, 2013 0
In a 5-4 decision released last week, the US Supreme Court ruled that police may take DNA samples from suspects arrested for serious offenses. The majority ruled that the DNA gathering process, accomplished by means of a cheek swab, did constitute a search subject to Fourth Amendment protections, but that the practice was a “reasonable search” given the need for police to identify suspects taken into custody.
Jun 10, 2013 0
CBC News recently reported that the Court of the Queen’s Bench of New Brunswick overruled two eviction notices of public housing tenants issued by the New Brunswick Housing Corporation (NBHC), citing “inadequate and superficial investigations.” Read the rest of this entry »
May 30, 2013 0
Two incidents within a few days of each other have raised concerns about police brutality in Edmonton. Const. Frank Quaidoo was fired for punching a handcuffed suspect and lying about it, only a few days after another video alleging police brutality surfaced.
May 30, 2013 1
The Whitehorse Star reports that police officers have finally taken the stand at a Yukon court in the first-degree murder trial of Yukoner Normal Larue. The officers’ names are under a publication ban. The two who testified this week include the officer who became closest to Larue’s girlfriend, Christina Asp. She is not testifying in Larue’s case and has already been convicted in Seybold’s murder. The jury has already heard that Asp brought Larue into the ‘criminal organization’ for which she believed she was working. During his recruitment, Larue allegedly told the undercover officers how he murdered Seybold, then set fire to his cabin.
However, everyone Asp and Larue had been in contact with in relation to this ‘organization’ was a police officer involved in an elaborate sting operation known as a “Mr. Big”-style investigation. Such an investigation involves undercover police posing as members of a powerful criminal organization in order to elicit a confession from their target.
CCLA has been granted leave to intervene in two Mr. Big-style cases (Hart and Mack) at the Supreme Court.
May 28, 2013 0
Thousands of Britons arrested and bailed by police waited more than six months to find out if they would be charged with a crime, according to data gathered by the BBC.
May 24, 2013 0
London Mayor Boris Johnson has added his voice to those supporting a Bill that would grant new powers to UK intelligence agencies to track emails and phone calls. But Conservative Minister Eric Pickles says he doubts that any such measures could have prevented the death of soldier Lee Rigby, who was killed in a knife attack in London that has been described as a terrorist act.
May 23, 2013 0
Inuit organizations stated that they intend to fight “tendencies of linguicide” and to promote linguistic diversity in the face of development pressures at the 12th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York this week.
According to Nunatsiaq Online, the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) stated that the Inuit language is rapidly disappearing in North America. The ICC represents Inuit across the Arctic Circle and has embarked on an “Arctic Indigenous Language Project”.
The ICC stated also that Arctic cultures must be a “focal point” in development decisions, particularly because culture and environment are inextricably linked. They stressed the importance of democratic decision-making and consent of local peoples in agreements with resource extraction companies, in ways that are both inclusive and preserving of culture.
May 23, 2013 0
The U.S. government has acknowledged that four U.S. citizens have been killed during its controversial drone attack program. One of the four, Anwar al-Awlaki, was deliberately targeted, while the other three were not targeted but were reportedly killed during drone strikes aimed at others suspected of being terrorists.
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