In Criminal Charges, Charter Jurisdiction is a very important point to keep in mind during preliminary inquiries, because a justice conducting a preliminary hearing is not “a court of competent jurisdiction” under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter), and has no power to grant remedies for Charter breaches. Those provisions also exclude power to make evidentiary rulings based on Charter violations.

Procedural rules for preliminary inquiries are given in Part 18 of the Criminal Code (Code). In order to protect an accused from being subjected to a public trial improperly or unnecessarily, a preliminary inquiry (or hearing) is held to ensure that the Crown has sufficient evidence to warrant a trial.  Primarily and most importantly, a charge-screening device, the preliminary inquiries serve a host of other

Although generally the real estate market in Ontario has been robust, the frenzied market of the past has caused an increase in mortgage defaults as a result of an overall weakened economy and a tighter lending market.  Many clients of Levy Zavet PC are both lenders (“mortgagees”) who make investments in mortgaged property and borrowers (“mortgagors”) who are making real estate investments.  When

A time is reached in the course of disclosure when the onus is on the accused to settle the “likely relevance” of information withheld by the Crown in their disclosure obligation. Established in R. v. O’Connor, the threshold of likely relevance is that the trial judge must be satisfied that “there is a reasonable possibility that the information is logically probative to an issue at trial or the competence of a witness to testify”.

The Crown counsel (prosecutor) has limited discretion to withhold disclosure where disclosure would reveal information protected by privilege.  Such exceptions are solicitor-client privilege, police informer privilege, and the privilege to maintain the confidentiality of investigative techniques. The investigative techniques consists of any Crown work product.  Standard Crown work product, generally,

A constitutional right to disclosure is part of one’s right to provide a full answer and defence, guaranteed by section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter), when charged with an offence. Likewise, the Crown’s duty to disclose all relevant evidence to the defence is recognized at common law as a component of the accused’s right to a fair trial. This obligation to fulfill that guarantee under

On being arrested and charged with an offence, an individual could be released by a police officer on his own or held for a bail hearing before a judicial officer. There are means along with applicable procedural requirements by which an adult accused can also seek release from custody.

A variety of powers is exercised by the police to assist in the investigation of crime and in the collection of evidence. The methods employed among others are:search and seizure;production orders;proceeds of crime legislation;the questioning of suspects; andsome miscellaneous investigative tests.

Criminal trials for adults (people age 18 or over) in Ontario, are carried out in two trial courts, the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court of Justice. Trials taking place in the Ontario Court of Justice are presided over by a lone judge, while those taking place in the Superior Court of Justice are heard by a lone judge or by a judge and jury.

The purpose was that more modest claims should proceed by a simplified procedure that still provided ample due process but reduced the high costs and delays traditionally associated with civil proceedings. Enacted in 1996, for a four-year trial period, it is now a permanent part of the Rules, even though substantially amended in January 1, 2002, introducing important changes, like an increase in the monetary