Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: To ensure their independence, Superior Court Judges hold office on good behavior, until age 75, and can only be removed by the Governor General on address of the Senate and House of Commons.  The point of this is that you don’t want judges to be fired when they made decisions that the government doesn’t like. If you have a dispute with the gover...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Several churches in the Fraser Valley have been refusing to comply with COVID-19 health rules and have been conducting in-person services.  The churches have started a legal challenge to the public health orders on the basis that they believe them to be unconstitutional given constitutional protection for “freedom of conscience and religion”. Th...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: What happens when someone, repeatedly, pretends to be a medical doctor, despite repeated injunctions and fines being imposed? They go to jail.  The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia is responsible for bringing applications to the BC Supreme Court to stop someone who is not qualified from using titles like “Dr.” or “Physician...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: In 1999 the Supreme Court of Canada, in a case called Gladue, set out principles to be considered when indigenous people are involved in the criminal justice system. Judges were directed to consider all available sanctions other than imprisonment and to pay particular attention to the circumstances of aboriginal offenders.  Despite the admonishm...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Google has agreed to settle a Canadian Class Action based on an alleged breach of privacy arising from the collection and transmission of Android smartphone data. The data in question consists of the identification number or code of the cell towers used to connect Android phones.  The Cell ID Data would identify the Android phone by unit serial...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: A BC Supreme Court Judge describes the BC COVID-19 public health orders as “fraught with inconsistency and ambiguity” and that it’s “not surprising that reasonable people can reasonably disagree about their interpretation and application in any given circumstance.” This case is one of many that have arisen where separated parents disagree about...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The Supreme Court of Canada has granted the Crown leave to appeal a BC Supreme Court decision that found a new law that required people accused of various sexual offences to provide advance notice of records they wish to rely on to the complaint and Crown to be unconstitutional.  The law in question was passed following the Jian Ghomeshi case wh...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Provisions of the British Columbia Public Health Act allow for the enforcement of public health orders by means other than the imposition of fines.  If someone is refusing to comply with an order to remain in quarantine or isolation, a judge can issue a warrant for their arrest and to require that they remain detained in a location and on condit...

Rather than using collection agencies to collect COVID-19 related fines, the province of BC shouldn’t be sending $1,000 COVID-19 benefits to people who have outstanding fines for breaching orders of the Provincial Health Officer.  As the payment are gratuitous, they could simply be withheld to pay outstanding fines for breaching orders made pursuant to the Public Health Act .  The idea that someon...

Renowned constitutional lawyer Joe Arvay passed away unexpectedly at the age of 71. Over the course of a remarkable career focused on public interest constitutional litigation he had a profound impact on the lives of many people.  A few of the many cases he was involved with are discussed on the show, ranging from the Little Sisters bookstore case, that dealt with freedom of expression and equalit...

Mr. Big investigations involve tricking a suspect into believing they are being recruited into a fictitious criminal organization. Often a large number of undercover RCMP officers are involved. Typically, the undercover police officers will spend months having the suspect perform tasks for the fictitious criminal organization, paying them to do so. Eventually, the suspect will be introduced to the...

The Douglas Lake Ranch is the largest private landholding in British Columbia. It’s owned by Stan Kroenke, a US billionaire who also owns the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche and the NFL’s L.A. Rams.  The ranch has been involved in a legal dispute for years attempting to stop people from using a road the runs through the ranch, and two lakes that are surrounded by ranch property but owned by the Province...

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...