Criminal
-
January 20, 2026
CRIMINAL CODE OFFENCES – Offences against person and reputation - Homicide - First degree murder
Appeal by Demetroff from his conviction for first-degree murder in the shooting death of Parker. The appellant and co-accused Saddleback were tried together before a judge and jury. The Crown conceded it could not prove the murder was planned and deliberate but argued first degree murder, asserting Parker was killed while being forcibly confined in his SUV.
-
January 19, 2026
Feds launch banned firearms buyback program for individuals
Canada has announced the launch of the Assault-Style Firearms Compensation Program (ASFCP) for all eligible firearms owners. The voluntary program aims to remove dangerous, assault-style firearms from communities and give law-abiding gun owners an opportunity for fair compensation.
-
January 19, 2026
B.C. Appeal Court judge’s bail decision conforms to law, not public pressure
A recent CBC News report stated that overcrowding at the Niagara Detention Centre in Thorold, Ont., reached its highest level since 2019 in the first half of 2025. Its occupancy rate stands at 136 per cent. The report further states that, in 2024, 89 per cent of the jail’s population were awaiting trial and presumed innocent. It also quotes University of Ottawa criminology professor Justin Piché as saying, “Several of those folks will exit prison, never having been convicted of anything.”
-
January 16, 2026
SCC’s packed winter session features momentous appeal on Charter s. 33 override provision
The Supreme Court of Canada began hearings in its very busy winter session this week, which features a potentially watershed constitutional appeal and the surprise announcement that Justice Sheilah Martin, the court’s senior western judge, will retire next spring.
-
January 16, 2026
N.B. opening anti-racism office, launching website
New Brunswick’s Liberal government is opening an anti-racism office to promote “equity and inclusion” in the province — and is now stating it has completed a little more than half the recommendations made in a commissioner’s report on the prevalence of systemic racism.
-
January 16, 2026
Privacy commissioner investigates social media company due to reports of sexualized deepfake images
Canada’s privacy commissioner is expanding a current investigation into X Corp., the company that operates social media platform X, after reports that the platform’s chatbot is “being used to create explicit images of individuals without their consent.”
-
January 16, 2026
N.B. adopts ‘standardized’ discharge planning for all provincial prisons
New Brunswick has introduced a “standardized discharge-planning process” for all its provincial correctional centres. According to a Jan. 14 news release, the new discharge planning system will better connect all departing inmates to housing, identification, health care and community supports.
-
January 16, 2026
Accused’s eloquence, good intentions insufficient to hit appeal target
The cynical remark “No good deed goes unpunished” will be remembered by Joacquin Rowe. He did a good deed, but he was punished for it.
-
January 15, 2026
Ontario protection order regime in need of urgent reform: law commission
A major law reform agency is saying that Ontario’s system for protection orders needs urgent reform to better prevent intimate partner and family violence in the province.
-
January 15, 2026
A few words on prison lawyers
In response to Kurt Suss’s column Prison lawyers: Contraband smugglers or misunderstood advocates? and as a prison lawyer since 1975, let me add the following observations: