No-fault auto insurance is sold as the simple answer: fewer lawsuits, faster benefits, lower premiums. But what happens when the crash is not a fender bender, and someone’s life is permanently changed? We walk through why BC’s ICBC no-fault model has erupted into a provincial election fight, and why the promise of “enhanced care” […]
A criminal trafficking charge sounds straightforward until you look at what’s happening on the ground in British Columbia’s overdose crisis. We dig into a BC Supreme Court decision sparked by the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF), a group that received Vancouver Coastal Health funding for drug checking and overdose prevention, then went further by […]
Government changing the rules for how lawyers are regulated sounds technical until you ask one blunt question: can a legal system stay fair if the bar is not independent from the state? We dig into British Columbia’s Bill 21 (the Legal Professions Act) and the ongoing court challenge over whether the independence of the […]
One missing question can be the whole appeal, and that’s where we start. We walk through a B.C. Court of Appeal decision arising from a judge-alone second-degree murder trial where the accused admits indignity to human remains but denies murder, claiming an accidental death during consensual sex and blaming memory gaps on intoxication. The […]
A judge relying on AI that invents case law is the stuff of nightmares, but it already happened, and Quebec’s courts are responding. We walk through brand-new guidance aimed at keeping generative AI out of the core judicial function while still acknowledging that the tools are everywhere. The key idea is simple: judges can’t […]
Someone can’t outrun the Criminal Code by crossing a provincial line, so why does it sometimes feel that way in Victoria? We dig into the real mechanics of out-of-province warrants in British Columbia, including when a warrant applies Canada-wide and when it needs a local endorsement under section 528 of the Criminal Code. Then we […]
“Everyone gets the same benefit” sounds like the definition of fairness until you look at who gets squeezed when the rules change. We start with a Surrey teachers’ parental leave top-up dispute that has taken a surprising turn: adoptive parents argue that equal top-up pay can still be discriminatory because adoption can bring immediate, […]
A government can detain someone for mental health reasons, but can it also force treatment without first asking a harder question: are they actually capable of deciding for themselves? We walk through a major British Columbia decision on involuntary treatment under the Mental Health Act, where the court finds a section 7 Charter breach […]
One word can change everything when it comes from a legal regulator. We dig into the BC Law Society’s mandatory Indigenous education course, the controversy over how it described the Kamloops Residential School site, and why some lawyers pushed to add a qualifier like “potential” when claims have not been independently confirmed. When that […]
Bail has become the go-to explanation for everything people hate about crime and disorder, but the law is more stubborn than the politics. We sit down with Michael Mulligan to sort out what Bill C-14 actually does, what it cannot do because of the Charter, and why the presumption of innocence and section 11(e) […]
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