Do Police Need a Warrant to Access my Facebook Direct Messages?

by Keiisha Pillai, Articling Student Be careful what you write in your Facebook direct messages. Last month, Justice Bawden of the Ontario Superior Court released a decision, R. v. Patterson (2018 ONSC 4467), which suggests that when the direct messages sent on Facebook make up the action, or the “actus reus”of a crime, you do not […]

Driving High in Ontario: Still Illegal

by Geoff Haskell, Associate, Derstine Penman Criminal Lawyers Chong asked Cheech more than 40 years ago, “Hey man – am I driving ok?” Back then it was illegal to smoke pot and drive. Today, it still is. In fact, impaired driving has been a crime since 1925. Although it was originally intended to deal with drunk driving, […]

We Need to Do More to Support Our Colleagues

By: Tamar Bitton, Articling Student at Derstine Penman I’m always asked why I decided to pursue a career in criminal law. “How can you defend those people?” or “How can you defend someone if you know they’re guilty?” are questions that I answer regularly. I welcome those questions. Why? Because it gives me an opportunity […]

Back to the Future: Statutory interpretation of section 119 and the Youth Criminal Justice Act

By: Adam Philip Newman, Associate, Derstine Penman Criminal Lawyers The Youth Criminal Justice Act(“YCJA”) was meant to reflect the understanding of Canadians that young persons involved in the criminal justice system have diminished moral blameworthiness when compared to that of adults. As such, the sentence imposed on a young person should be dealt with […]

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Do Police Need a Warrant to Access my Facebook Direct Messages?

Driving High in Ontario: Still Illegal

We Need to Do More to Support Our Colleagues

Back to the Future: Statutory interpretation of section 119 and the Youth Criminal Justice Act