Legal Blog - Criminal Law - Derstine Penman Law Firm

How to Apply for Legal Aid in Ontario

by: Victoria Braillard Poccard, Co-op Student Legal Aid Ontario promotes access to justice for economically disadvantaged people facing criminal charges. The program was created for people who do not earn enough income to afford a private lawyer. If you are a Legal Aid Ontario client and have current files with us, we can […]

The Admissibility of Rap Lyrics in Criminal Proceedings

by: Sabrina Shillingford, Articling Student Increasingly, the Crown is relying on rap videos as evidence of guilt in criminal proceedings. Derstine Penman has been privy to this in cases including allegations of drug trafficking, involvement in a criminal organization, and murder. The reliance on rap as evidence of criminality has the greatest impact […]

Getting drunk is NOT a defence to sexual assault: Misleading Headlines in the Media

by: Laura Remigio, Associate “Ontario Court of Appeal rules intoxication can be used as a defence in sexual assault and violent crimes cases”. This was the headline on CP24 and other news outlets in relation to the Ontario Court of Appeal decision in R. v. Sullivan, 2020 ONCA 333. (The full decision can be read […]

The Broad Power to Search: A Racial Profiling Veil

by: Renée E.M. Gregor, Associate As Professor Tanovich states in his oft-cited text, “The colour of justice in Canada is white”.[1] In Ontario specifically, our courts and jails are plagued by a vast over-representation of black males in the South and Indigenous males in the North. The GTA is no stranger to the targeting of […]

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