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DISCLAIMER: Please note that the information contained in this post does not constitute legal advice. The law is in perpetual evolution, and this information may be outdated. Furthermore, this information may have little or no relevance for your particular legal predicament. Retaining a lawyer is the surest way to obtain useful and accurate legal advice.
Hello! My Practicum is coming to an end, in approximately 2 weeks. However, before my final post, I’d like to talk a bit about the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Mr. Garih suggested I read some sections of the Charter: here is a summary of some parts of section 7, 9 and 10. It is impossible to talk about all the rights comprised of in the Charter, but I will try to sum up parts of it. Section 7: “everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.” For me, the most important topic of section 7 is the right to silence: “the right to remain silent is protected as a principle of fundamental justice and is broader than the common law confession rule and the rule against self-incrimination”. A person arrested has the right to remain silent, and has the right to counsel: “ss. 7 and 11(d) of the Charter require funded counsel to be provided if the accused wishes counsel, but cannot pay a lawyer, and representation of the accused by counsel is essential to a fair trial.” Section 10 expresses the right to know and access to Counsel: 10. everyone has the right to know on arrest or detention a) to be informed promptly of the reasons therefor; b) to retain and instruct counsel without delay and to be informed of that right; Finally, one of the most fundamental rights is expressed in section 9. It is “the right not to be arbitrary detained or imprisoned”. See you in a couple of weeks for my final post!
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DISCLAIMER: Please note that the information contained in this post does not constitute legal advice. The law is in perpetual evolution, and this information may be outdated. Furthermore, this information may have little or no relevance for your particular legal predicament. Retaining a lawyer is the surest way to obtain useful and accurate legal advice.
Here we go, I’m already half way through this practicum and I have to say, I never thought I would be learning so much! Guillaume is truly passionate about his profession and has the soul of a pedagogue. I learn from every conversation I have with him. I’ve been involved in every stages of a trial proceeding, every parts of a lawyer's duty, and I feel the trust, the importance and the appreciation of my inputs in every case I’m working on. It pushes me to work harder for him. It seems very hard to summarize all that I’ve learned. All I can say is that coming to the office has become a real pleasure over the last few weeks. We evoked mental illness (Not Criminally Responsible due to Mental Disorder), the rules of evidence, principles of closing submissions, cross-examination, all the psychological aspects when dealing with clients, how to organize a joint submission, resolution discussions, etc. However, Guillaume has asked me to read and to talk a bit about section 718 of the Criminal Code for this post. What must be underlined from this section is that: “a sentence must be proportionate to the gravity of the offence and degree of responsibility of the offender.” According to section 718.01 and 718.02, sentencing judges MUST give primary consideration to deterrence and denunciation when sentencing offenders, in many cases. I’d like to focus on these 2 aspects of this section of the Criminal Code, and rehabilitation. Why? Because these 3 factors are, in my opinion, the most important and what judges, Crown counsel and Defence counsel consider to be the most important topics of that section of the criminal code. Deterrence (section 718 (b)): The primary goal of deterrence is to discourage members of society from committing criminal acts out of fear of punishment. The objective of deterrence in a sentencing is to ensure that a person guilty of a crime will be punished sufficiently to deter the guilty person from committing the same crime. Denunciation is a principle that the sentence sends a clear message to the general public that the offence is serious and the punishment just. Finally, Rehabilitation of the accused is an aspect in a sentencing hearing that takes more and more importance. The Court wants to ensure that the accused will be re-inserted into society without committing new crimes. There also are other aspects, like the principle of parity or totality. For example, parity is the principle that a sentence should be similar to sentences imposed on similar offenders for similar offences in similar circumstances. According to section 718.2(e), imprisonment should be considered as last resort: all available sanctions other than imprisonment that are reasonable in the circumstances should be considered for offenders of Indigenous descent. On another note, next week will be particularly exciting as I will be accompanying Guillaume on his day, going from court appearances to court appearances! I can’t wait to discover that part of Guillaume’s duty! Till next time! |
AuthorDavid Cohen Archives
December 2019
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