Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan  The Provincial and Supreme Court in British Columbia recently introduced practice directives requiring lawyers to indicate the proper gender pronoun for themselves, and their clients, before each hearing.  Lawyers have been directed to indicate if they, and the client, wish to be referred to as he/him/his, she/her/hers or they/them/their. This w...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The mayors of Victoria and Esquimalt, who serve as co-chairs of the Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board, have issued a press release suggesting that to prevent police officers from being assaulted and to reduce criminal activity by mentally ill people, more people should be kept in jail before they have a trial.  In Canada, people are presumed t...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Some people opposed to the requirement to be vaccinated for COVID-19 to attend non-essential businesses such as restaurants and bars have suggested that they have a right to do these things because of the BC Human Rights Code .  While the BC Human Rights Code does have a provision that precludes discrimination in the provision of service based o...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Anti-vaccination protesters have been holding up copies of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and arguing that it prohibits restrictions on unvaccinated people entering restaurants, bars, gyms, and other locations.  British Columbia, and several other provinces, are implementing systems to provide digital proof of vaccination against CO...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Since the beginning of COVID, civil jury trials have been suspended in British Columbia. Unlike criminal jury trials, which are constitutionally required as an option for people facing more than 5 years in jail, there is no similar protection for civil jury trials. While civil jury trials were the norm at the time of confederation, their use has...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: In British Columbia, the Wills, Estates and Succession Act sets out requirements for a will to be valid. These include a requirement that a will be signed by the will-maker as well as two or more witnesses.  In a case discussed on the show, a 76-year-old woman was living in a care facility and provided instructions to her lawyer to draft a new w...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: An increasing number of jurisdictions, including New York, Quebec, France, and Israel are prohibiting people who are not vaccinated for COVID-19 from being in public places where people are in close contact, such as restaurants, bars, concerts, and museums. In Canada, the federal government has announced that it will be providing electronic vacc...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The former Clerk of the BC Legislative Assembly, Craig James, was successful in having one of the charges he was facing dismissed.  Mr. James was charged on a six-count direct indictment.  To be charged by direct indictment, either the Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General need to provide their consent. When this happens, an accused person...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The City of New Westminster cancelled a meeting room rental that had been booked by The Redeemed Church of God for a "Youth Conference".  The City of New Westminster has a booking policy that “restricts or prohibits user groups if they promote racism, hate, violence, censorship, crime or unethical pursuits.” Following an email complain...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: A City of Victoria Councillor was caught on video offering money to a tow truck driver and arguing with an RCMP office, in an unsuccessful attempt to dissuade the tow truck driver from removing cars associated with a logging blockade that has been enjoined by a BC Supreme Court injunction.  This activity is discussed in the context of the reason...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: After accepting $40,000 for expenses, a surrogate mother is asking to be declared the mother of a four-year-old, and obtain access to the child, on the basis that she claims to have become pregnant as a result of an affair with the child’s father, rather than through the use of a home artificial insemination kit.  For his part, the father has ad...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: In 1976, when Canada eliminated the death penalty for murder, the compromise was a mandatory life sentence for people convicted of murder.  One of the circumstances where mandatory life sentences can result in an excessively long period of time in jail is for people who are subject to long periods of domestic abuse who eventually kill their part...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Budway, a Vancouver marijuana store, has been using a logo similar to the Subway sandwich logo. Budway also had a mascot in the form of a submarine sandwich filled with cannabis leaves, with bloodshot, half-open eyes.  Subway sued Budway, alleging various breaches of the Trademarks Act .  One of the issues in the case was whether what Budway was...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The BC Supreme Court has inherent jurisdiction to control its own process. This includes the authority to find people who breach court orders to be in contempt. The purpose of this is to uphold the rule of law.  The rule of law requires people to comply with court orders, even if they don’t agree with them. If people were permitted to decide whi...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Annaca Kobayashi, a 19-year-old woman from Langford, falsely reported to the police that a young man she knows had threatened her with a knife and sexually assaulted her.  A police investigation, including a review of a video recording where she claimed to have been threatened with the knife, revealed her story to be false.  Only after a third p...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Duress is a defence, sometimes referred to as an excuse, for the commission of a criminal offence.  The rationale for the defence is the idea of moral involuntariness.  These are the requirements for the defence: There must be an explicit or implicit threat of present or future death or bodily harm. The threat can be directed at the accused or a...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Acts have, perhaps, the least exciting names imaginable.  Sometimes, however, these acts bundle together legal changes that can be significant.  If passes in BC, a recently introduced Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act will make changes that will have meaningful consequences for people.  On the show, two of the...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Many criminal cases are resolved by way of joint sentencing submissions by Crown and defence counsel.  This means that the accused person is agreeing to plead guilty and both lawyers have agreed on what the appropriate sentence should be.  The Supreme Court of Canada has held that, in these circumstances, judges are not permitted to impose a sen...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The BC Government has proposed police roadblocks to enforce travel restrictions between health authorities, in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Because there are significantly different rates of infection in different parts of the province, this objective is understandable.  Unfortunately, contrary to the premier’s assertion that police w...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The USA and Canada have a treaty that provides for mutual legal assistance in the investigation of criminal matters.  Pursuant to this treaty, the Minister of Justice of Canada, at the request of the USA, applied for and obtained a search warrant for two Vancouver companies being investigated for sending fraudulent mass-mailed solicitations that...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: In August of 2015, Mr. Upton was attempting to straighten a bent metal plate from the steering mechanism of his 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. He had removed it from the vehicle, placed it on a concrete step in his backyard, and was hitting it with a sledgehammer. Mr. Sexsmith was visiting Mr. Upton and watching his car repair efforts. Unfortunately, o...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Land title fraud can result in the loss of your home.  Efforts to fraudulently impersonate property owners have increased along with the use of remote transactions.  With property, other than real estate, if someone steals something and then sells it to an innocent third party, the original owner of the property stills owns it. The legal concept...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: In 2003 there was a coastal forestry worker strike in BC. It involved thousands of employees and multiple unions. After three weeks the strike was eventually ended by back-to-work legislation.  One of the impacted union locals, led by Sonny Ghag, was not happy about this. Mr. Singh organized the storming of a sawmill owned by Mainland Sawmills L...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Mr. Eisler was born in 1932. He left school at age 14 and started work as a farmer and shepherd. By age 18 he was working in the Alberta oil fields. By 22 he was a field supervisor and by age 31 he had started his first company.  At age 79 Mr. Eisler was fired by the board of directors of a mining company he started and had worked at for twenty-...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The Douglas Lake Cattle Company is the largest cattle range in Canada. It is owned by US billionaire Stan Kroenke, who also owns the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets, amongst other things. The ranch is so large it completely surrounds two lakes that belong to the Province of BC. For years Mr. Kroenke has been trying to stop people, incl...