Criminal Liability

Bruce McMeekin Law

A Commercial Truck Driver Has Been Convicted on Multiple Charges of Criminal Negligence Causing Death. But What About His Employer?

Highway 400 southbound in Toronto just north of its intersection with the 401 is problematic. Four lanes feed into the 401 with another two proceeding into the city by way…
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The Criminal Money Laundering Offence: Knowledge, Wilful Blindness, Belief and Recklessness; What Does it All Mean? How Can Regulated Entities Protect Themselves?

Previously, I wrote about the meaning of the newly-added fault requirement of recklessness to the criminal money-laundering prohibition and how it differs from knowledge, wilful blindness as its legal equivalent,…
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Corporations Are Not Entitled to the Charter Protection Against Cruel and Unusual Punishment

That is the November 5 finding of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) in Quebec (Attorney General) v. 9147-0732 Québec Inc., 2020 SCC 32, on appeal from the Quebec Court…
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Unreasonable Trial Delay: Some Recent Caselaw

  The delay arising from reserved judgements should not be included in calculating its length: R. v. K.G.K., 2020 S.C.C. 7 (CANLII). In K.G.K. the defendant was charged in April…
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Having Trouble Deciding Whether There Are Reasonable Grounds to Suspect?

Well, you are in good company. So does the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court of Appeal for Ontario too. In Canada, entrapment is a full defence to a criminal…
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Can a Sentencing Court Order Officers and Directors of a Convicted Corporation to Complete Probationary Requirements on its Behalf?

An Alberta Queen’s Bench Justice has found that, in exceptional circumstances, it can. In R. v. D&J Isley & Sons Contracting Ltd., the family owned, corporate defendant had been convicted…
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Are There Two Tiers of Criminal Liability for Strictly Regulated Organizations and Their Management Arising From Workplace or Other Operationally Related Fatalities?

On November 14, 2019 the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) released its decision in R. v. Javanmardi in which it simplified the test for wrongful act manslaughter (“manslaughter”). In so doing,…
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Can The Municipal Owner Of A Road Construction Project Be Liable As An Employer For Violations Of The OHSA When It Has Contracted Out The Work?

Conventional wisdom might suggest not. But this is the very question the Court of Appeal for Ontario agreed to consider on October 28 when it granted the Ministry of Labour (MOL)…
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