Victoria lawyer Michael Mulligan commenting in CHEK News story by April Lawrence.

The online backlash caused by the abuse of a cat in Duncan, has expanded to include information identifying young suspects and threatening them with death and bodily harm.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act makes it a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years in jail, to publish the identity of young people being dealt with under the act. Publication can include online publication.

The reason for the prohibition on publishing the identify of young people is the desirability of rehabilitating young people and not permanently marking them as a result of a youthful transgression.

Threatening death or bodily harm, or counselling others to commit an offence, are also criminal offences.

Watch the story here: https://www.cheknews.ca/online-backlash-grows-cat-abused-duncan-390763/

Victoria Lawyer Michael Mulligan on CFAX 1070 – Legally Speaking – discussing the evidence of an RCMP Agent who admitted to killing two people under oath.

During a Victoria drug trafficking trial, an RCMP agent admitted to killing two unrelated people. The RCMP agent, Matthew Holland, has a criminal record for offences including manslaughter, but has not been arrested or charged with respect to the two people additional people he testified that he killed.

Mr. Holland testified that one of the people he killed picked him up hitchhiking. He testified that he beat the man severely, dragged him from his car, and left him for dead somewhere along the Malahat. He testified that he did this twenty years ago.

He also admitted to beating, stomping on, and leaving a man, apparently dead, behind a bar in Courtenay.

Because Mr. Holland’s admissions occurred in court they could not be used against him in a prosecution for the offences he admitted to. Independent evidence would be required.

The decision by the RCMP to employ someone like Mr. Holland raises important questions about the need for civilian oversight of the RCMP. Mr. Holland was paid more than $100,000 by the RCMP to work for them and purchase cocaine as part of a drug investigation and has not been arrested for the crimes he has admitted committing.

Listen to the show here.

Read the transcript of Mr. Holland’s admissions here.

Legally Speaking is live on CFAX 1070 Thursdays at 2:00pm.

Victoria Lawyer Michael Mulligan on CHEK News proposing an alternative to a 30% ICBC rate hike: adding a deductible for drivers who cause accidents. Requiring divers who cause an accident to pay a deductible, such as that which applies if you make a claim for a broken window, would save ICBC money directly and encourage safe driving without requiring substantially increased premiums for drivers who don’t cause accidents.

Victoria Lawyer Michael Mulligan comments in a story by April Lawrence on CHECK news:

Nobody was answering at the Chemainus home where Harold Backer has been ordered to stay while awaiting trial on fraud charges.

The home belongs to his mother, who told CHEK News by phone she is glad to have her son home to help her.

When asked where he disappeared to for a year and a half, she said she couldn’t tell.

Early Monday evening a scruffy and gaunt looking Backer walked out of the Victoria courthouse after more than two weeks in custody.

He was granted $50,000 bail, and was picked up by his son, refusing to answer any questions, including where he was or why he turned himself in.

It was that act, of coming forward to police, that one criminal lawyer says is likely the reason the 54-year-old was released.

“Where you have an individual who has no previous record, who turns himself in, those would be important considerations for a judge in deciding whether a person needs to be held in custody before they’ve had a trial,” said Michael Mulligan, a criminal lawyer with Mulligan, Tam Pearson in Victoria.

Backer has to abide by 14 conditions while out on bail — they include staying at the home in Chemainus and following a curfew from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., he has to report to a bail supervisor once a week, he can’t trade any securities or work as an investment advisor and he had to surrender all travel documents including his passport.

Mulligan says for the most part, Canada’s bail system of conditions and supervision is effective.

“If you kept everyone in jail waiting for their trial that’s going to make the presumption of innocence pretty hollow sounding for someone who’s alleged to have committed an offense,” said Mulligan.

The former Olympian is being represented by a criminal lawyer from Vancouver who isn’t commenting on the case for now.

Backer is facing two charges of fraud over $5000 dollars, and is also the subject of a civil suit.

One of the alleged victims tells CHEK News the images of Backer emerging from the courthouse show he is “suffering”.

Harold Backer will return to court June 5.

Victoria Lawyer Michael Mulligan on CFAX 1070 – Legally Speaking – discussing the legal implications of Christy Clark making false claims that the NDP hacked into the BC Liberal web page.

John Horgan categorically denied the allegation and advised that he had consulted a lawyer concerning a possible civil actions for slander.

The episode is discussed in the context of former premier Vader Zalm being successful sued for $60,000 by  Ted Hughes for false claims made a book written by Vander Zalm.

While MLAs cannot be sued for making defamatory statements in the legislature they enjoy no such privilege for statements made elsewhere. False statements that damage someones reputation are actionable. Repeating the statements can aggravate damages, while retracting them and apologizing can mitigate the damages.

Independent MLA Vicki Huntington later advised that the BC Liberal web site had no password protection and that private donor information was accessible by simply clicking on a link.

Christy Clark has now apologized for her false claim of NDP hacking and promised to improve security on the web page.

Also discussed on the show are reports that Esquimalt Mayor Barbara Desjardins plans to seek a nomination to run for the BC Liberals in the next provincial election and how the forthcoming report with respect to suspended Victoria Police Chief Elsner may impact her.

Michael Mulligan is a lawyer at Mulligan Tam Pearson in Victoria. Legally Speaking is live on CFAX 1070 Thursdays at 2:00pm.