Tag: criminal justice

Posted in: Recent News

Alleged Real Estate Fraudster With “Charges Old Enough to Drive” Still Has Not Stood Trial and Continues to Do Business

In 2002, the Vancouver police, with the help of the RCMP, “mounted what was described as the largest commercial crime investigation in the department’s history,” writes Dan Fumano for the Vancouver Sun. In 2008, criminal charges were laid against alleged real estate fraudster Tarsem Gill and Martin Wirick, Gill’s lawyer. Wirick cooperated with the investigation. He pleaded guilty in 2009 and he was disbarred and …

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Joel SmithLeave a comment
Legal Delays
Posted in: The Problem

Delay Is A Terrible Thing. But It’s Not The Only Thing.

Does delay affect different groups in substantially different ways? If so, should constitutional guarantees of trial within “a reasonable time” result in different standards for different groups? The Supreme Court of Canada, in R. v. K.J.M., 2019 SCC 55 answered yes to the first question, putting significant emphasis on the subjective and practical experience of delay on young offenders. However, it answered no to the second question …

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Geoff CowperLeave a comment
Posted in: Stories

Too Late to Make it Right

In 1988, nearly a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Leonard Forte was convicted in Vermont of repeatedly raping and molesting his daughter’s twelve-year-old friend. Ten months later, the trial judge ordered a retrial on the basis the female prosecutor was “overly emotional” in her conduct of the case. Thirty years later, Forte was living in Florida, having never faced a new trial. …

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Geoff CowperLeave a comment