Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: In 1983 Tomas Yebes was convicted by a Vancouver jury of murdering his two adopted sons, ages 6 and 7. The conviction was upheld by the BC Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. Now, at the age of 77, after having spent a decade in jail, and 26 years on parole, thanks to work by the UBC Innocence Project, he has been acquitted.  The tw...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan:  The Municipality of North Cowichan’s decision to refuse approval for the expansion of the Vancouver Island Motorsport Circuit is found to be unreasonable following a judicial review.  At issue was whether a racetrack is a permitted use pursuant to the zoning that is in place.  The proposed expansion of the facility was to be on land zoned in th...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: For some legal purposes, corporations are treated like people: they can enter into contracts, own property, engage in litigation, and be charged with committing offences.  Some constitutional protections also apply to corporations: the right to be free from “unreasonable search and seizure” and the right to a trial within a reasonable period of...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Sentencing considerations for dangerous driving causing bodily harm: why do we sentence someone who drives dangerously and has an accident that causes serious bodily harm differently from someone who drives in the same way but is lucky and does not cause an accident? The Criminal Code sets out various factors, and principles, that a judge is req...

This week on legally speaking with Michael Mulligan: While attempting to count ballots cast for the election of a board of directors for the Shon Yee Benevolent Association things went sideways when water spilled on a table during the vote count.  Once this was cleaned up it was unclear whether a disputed ballot had been included in a count on a whiteboard, or where the ballot had been put.  Vario...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Two fathers with children and family members that have pre-existing medical conditions were unsuccessful in an application for an interim injunction to require British Columbia schools to implement additional COVID-19 protections such as social distancing, and mandatory mask-wearing in classrooms. The judge on the application was not prepared to...

The mandatory ICBC no-fault insurance system that has been proposed for British Columbia is intended to save money by no longer spending time determining who was at fault in an accident. Someone who caused an accident would receive the same benefits as the person they crashed into.  Disputes would, however, still arise with respect to how seriously some was injured, or how much compensation they s...

Because the British Columbia provincial election was called suddenly none of the political parties have candidates nominated in all ridings. As a result of COVID-19, many people have also requested mail-in ballots. Without candidates having been determined yet, the mail-in ballots being distributed simply have a blank space to write in the name of the candidate you wish to vote for.  When asked ab...

The premier of a province doesn’t actually have the authority to call an election. Authority to dissolve the legislature and call an election resides with the Lieutenant Governor. Ordinarily, the Lieutenant Governor would call an election at the request of the premier. In unusual circumstances, such as those that currently exist in British Columbia, she will have a choice to make. The circumstance...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: As schools attempt to reopen for in-person instruction, amidst increasing COVID-19 infection rates, disputes between separated parents over sending children back to school have started showing up in court.  Disputes of this kind are analyzed based on the best interest of the child.  In a recent case of this kind, despite the increased risk to a...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: A claim for an alleged breach of contract to rent a property so as to permit it to be used as an Airbnb is denied on the basis that the short-term rentals are not lawfully permitted. Contracts involving illegal activity are not enforceable in court. You can't sue if someone breaches an agreement to pay for illegal drugs, for example.  This...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Two fathers have filed a petition in the British Columbia Supreme Court to prevent schools from reopening without adequate COVID-19 safety protocols. In order to permit schools to reopen, the latest provincial Public Health Act order that sets out safety requirements for virtually any public gathering simply exempts schools.  The protocols that...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: In 2018 a BC man made an agreement to sell 50 bitcoins for $10,700 each for a total of $535,000. The purchaser didn’t complete the purchase of the bitcoin, so the prospective seller sued. The person who was sued claimed that he didn’t enter into the contract personally, but did so on behalf of a company, Einstein Exchange Inc. that went bankrupt...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: A long-running neighbour dispute over garbage, grass clippings, dog feces, a dead snake on a trampoline, and a retaining wall consumes 13 days of court time and results in a $16,000 award. One of the feuding neighbours spray painted and then jackhammered a concrete retaining wall that protruded a few inches onto his property. Absent a danger to...

In 2011 a black, 22-year-old, UBC student went to the upper deck of a SkyTrain station to meet a friend. As he was not planning to ride the SkyTrain, he did not purchase a ticket, despite being in a “fare paid” zone. When he received a message from his friend, advising of a change of plans, he started to walk down the stairs at the SkyTrain station.  Two transit police officers approached the stud...

As a result of the City of Victoria deciding not to enforce a bylaw that prohibits camping in Beacon Hill Park, 78 structures have been erected in the park.  Following weeks of complaints from nearby residents, and other people wishing to use the park, the City of Victoria obtained an interim injunction requiring people living in the park to remove the structures form portions of the park that are...

Jury trials have proven to be the most challenging parts of the justice system in the age of COVID-19.  The Court of Appeal has been conducting appeals using Zoom. The Provincial Court has been conducting sentencing and judicial interim release hearings by telephone conference. Both the Provincial Court, and the Supreme Court, have been utilizing video connections for witnesses, and relatively sim...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: When are the police permitted to arrest or detain someone? In the context of discussions concerning unbiased policing and identification checks, various common circumstances that do permit a police officer to arrest or detain someone are discussed: 1)    If they have reasonable grounds to believe they have committed a criminal offence. 2)    If...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The British Columbia Court of Appeal finds that the Director of Child, Family and Community Services acted unreasonably, and without authority, in telling a single father that children under 10 years of age could not ride the public bus without supervision. The children that were riding the public bus together, to get to school, were 10, 9, 8 an...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The Supreme Court of Canada has declared an arbitration clause, used by Uber, to be unconscionable, and therefore invalid.  The clause, included in a 14-page agreement that prospective Uber drivers were required to click “I accept” on, twice, purported to require any disputes with Uber to be dealt with by arbitration, in the Netherlands, rather...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: From March to May 2020, the number of people who have died as a result of drug overdoses in British Columbia has been more than double the number of people who have died from COVID-19: 401 vs 164. January COVID-19 deaths: 0  Overdose deaths: 77 February COVID-19 deaths: 0  Overdose deaths: 76 March  COVID-19 deaths: 24 Overdose deaths: 113 April...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: In a recent decision the Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed that when someone is arrested and charged with an offence, the presumption is that they should be released without the imposition of any conditions. Any conditions of release that are imposed must be clearly articulated, minimal in number, necessary, reasonable, the least onerous in t...

In 2015 a BC conservation officer was dismissed from his position for refusing to kill two bear cubs.  Initially, the conservation officer didn’t have the assistance of a lawyer and the issue of his dismissal was dealt with by a union representative and the Labour Relations Board.  Eventually, the conservation officer retained a lawyer who identified that conservation officers are peace officers a...

Can you be entrapped by phone? The Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed that you can. One of the ways that entrapment can occur is if the police engage in random virtue testing: presenting an opportunity to commit a crime without a reasonable suspicion that the person being tested is already committing the crime, or that the crime is already occurring in the place where the police are testing ran...

In Canada, the decision about whether or not to extradite someone to another country to face criminal charges has both a legal and political aspect.  The courts decide if the legal requirements for extradition have been met. If they have, it is then up to the Minister of Justice to determine if the person should actually be extradited. The recent decision concerning Wanzhou Meng of Huawei dealt wi...