The Prairie Lawyer
177 Lombard Avenue R3B0W5 Winnipeg, MB, Canada

I was contacted by the CBC and asked to do an on-camera interview because of my time in the Professional Standards Special Task Force investigating corruption in the Toronto Police Service. See: http://www.cbc.ca//deadly-force-police-criminal-charges-1.

Bill C 75 was tabled in Ottawa at the end of last month. It is not good news and appears to be a political knee jerk reaction to the high-profile media accounts of acquittals that have recently taken place. For instance, your lawyer will now have disclosure obligations in certain circumstances. Think of it, your lawyer will now have to advise the prosecuting Crown Attorney about emails that an accuser has sent to you that may well have resulted in you being found not guilty ...at trial. Instead of your accuser having to answer truthfully in cross examination when they are put to him or her at the moment, they will have weeks to concoct a story as to why they were sent if the presiding Judge even lets them in at all. Preliminary Inquiries will now only be an option when you face a charge where you could receive life imprisonment. I have recently used a preliminary inquiry to tie down witnesses, get testimony on the record, then have them recant or change their testimony at the actual trial and have successfully called their credibility into question. Often times when a case is heard at a preliminary inquiry the Crown realizes that they do not have a strong case and it is quickly resolved or the charges stayed. Your lawyer will no longer have this tool available to assist you! A further change will be the in the offence structure of the Criminal Code so that the Crown can proceed by summary conviction on a charge that carries a maximum sentence of ten years. You would have been eligible to have a jury, have 12 people from your community hear the charge against you, but this is no longer the case. These are just a few of the changes As the President of the Criminal Lawyers of Ontario has recently said, Most of the proposed changes were not the subject of consultation. The CLA did not have the opportunity to argue against many of the proposed amendments. We are of the view many provisions in Bill C75 undermine important substantive and procedural safeguards that protect against miscarriages of justice and will disproportionately affect vulnerable accused people in a negative way. By the way, the Bill was tabled just before the long weekend as people generally are too busy to follow the news properly and have other concerns.

The expenses of being a lawyer Many people are hesitant to spend money on a proper legal defence without realizing the costs your lawyer incurs. This is the time of year when a lawyer’s practicing fees are due. They are just under $3,000.00. The next expense is the lawyer’s yearly insurance of $1,800.00. Both of these fees must be paid to the provincial law society or you cannot practice. You then have the membership dues that you pay to the Canadian Bar Association, $696.40 ...and to a lesser extent the Defence Lawyers Association. As a lawyer you are also required to attend yearly Continuing Legal Education programing. The cost to attend the National Criminal Law Program hosted by the Canadian Federation of Law Societies is $812.13, and since it is held across the country you are responsible for your own travel and accommodation. This year it is in Newfoundland, the year previous Vancouver you get the idea. So, before you are out of the gate the cost of being a lawyer is around $10,000. With this in mind be aware of the fact that legal aid has not increased the tariff in this province since 2008. Now think of the expenses of renting an office, insuring the office, of hiring a secretary, of acquiring a legal research data base, computers, maintaining and acquiring a web site, telephone bills, utility bills and office supplies.

I usually receive at least one phone call a week from people wanting to change lawyers and hire me. This becomes a problem when they are on Legal Aid. Legal Aid Manitoba requires that a person must have a very good reason to change lawyers and most times they will assign the requesting person to a Legal Aid Staff lawyer and not their lawyer of choice. That is why it is very important that you practice due diligence when choosing a lawyer if you are dependent upon legal aid. ...Don't go on what one person tells you, do some research. Also, if you change your lawyer, your original lawyer will "bill out" on the Legal Aid Certificate for the work that she or he has already done such as file opening, consultation, filings such as a designation of counsel, discussions with the assigned Crown Attorney, appearances at Pre-Trial Coordinators remand court and printing out disclosure. Your Legal Aid Certificate now becomes half-tariff and you would be hard pressed to get a lawyer to represent you, hence you will be assigned a Legal Aid Staff Lawyer. Having said that most lawyers with Legal Aid are excellent lawyers. It is also important for you to remember that you are not your lawyers only client. Most lawyers carry over 100 clients and they cannot return calls immediately or meet with you at a moment's notice. I myself do not carry over 100 clients, as a matter of fact I keep my practice well below that, so I can pay clients the personal attention they need.

I have a lot of my clients ask me about entry into the United States when they have previously been convicted of an offence in Canada. This is especially true at this time of the year when people like to head south to Florida, Arizona and California. Some years ago I was in U.S. Customs pre-clearance at Pearson Airport in Toronto. There was a very happy group of fellas travelling to Las Vegas for a bachelor’s stag, happy that was until one of them was denied entry. The reaso...n? A conviction for simple possession of marijuana. He foolishly tried to argue with the customs official that he had received a conditional discharge and that wasn’t a criminal record. That lasted about 1 minute before the rest of the group said their farewells leaving him behind with an un-refundable ticket and hotel reservations. Lets get something straight to begin with, U.S. Border Officials have access to C.P.I.C. (the Canadian Police Information Computer system) as well as FPS and CR Checks, just like our Custom’s Officers have access to the American NCIC system and other data bases. The minute the U.S. Custom’s officer swipes the MAG Stripe on your passport you are being run on the system. Further, the Americans do not recognize our conditional discharge findings and treat them as a conviction and forget about pardon, or what is now called a record suspension. Canadian law enforcement does not have access to that information the Americans sure do. Why? Because they do not recognize a Canadian record suspension and it is part of a cross border treaty arrangement. The other day I was in Court and a younger fella and his father approached me. The son wanted to plead guilty to a charge and I immediately recognized that a conviction for that offence would bar him from entering the United States. Unfortunately Dad, without any legal training thought he knew everything and was going to save the family money from hiring a lawyer and contesting the charge. Turns out that they visit relatives in the United States and made annual trips to Las Vegas, or in this case used to. So here is what you have to be very careful of if you travel to the United States. Crimes involving moral turpitude and this includes attempts or conspiracies, with the exception of young offenders not sentenced as adults. The Americans look at the risk of harm to society, the seriousness of the conviction and the nature of reasons for you entering. What is included? Well you start with Assault Cause Bodily Harm, Assault with a Weapon, sexual assault, theft, break and enter, trespass, endangerment, child abuse, fraud, forgery, prostitution, human trafficking, money laundering and most drug convictions. It is important to remember that it is up to the individual customs officer whether he denies you entry. And just in case you didn’t know, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply at US Customs or anywhere in the United States for that matter.