Canada’s opioid crisis has been even deadlier than COVID-19. There were 16,364 apparent opioid-related deaths between January 2016 and March 2020, with the situation worsening during the current pandemic.
When the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in R v Bingley, 2015 ONCA [Bingley] (recently heard by the SCC, awaiting decision) was released last April, I was shocked. The case raises intriguing legal issues, sure, but I was perhaps more stunned by the nature of our drug-testing regime in Canada, and particularly the lack of […]
After finding the mandatory minimum sentence for drug possession for the purpose of trafficking (contrary to s. 5(2) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, SC 1996, c 19 [CDSA]) violated s. 12 of the Charter (R v Lloyd, 2014 BCPC 8 (CanLII) [Lloyd]) in January 2014, Galati J. of the Provincial Court of British Columbia has […]