Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan

Who decides if, how, and when, protesters who are blocking rail lines, ferries, driveways, or bridges are to be removed? Both protesters, and politicians, have suggested that either the Premier of BC, or the Prime Minister of Canada should, or should not, remove protesters who are obstructing transportation infrastructure or natural gas pipeline construction. In many cases, these suggestions demon...

This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The ICBC no-fault system proposed by the NDP would save money by not providing compensation for the loss of future earning capacity. Currently, with our fault-based system, if someone is seriously injured by a careless driver, they would be entitled to be put back into the position they would have been in had they not been injured. This could in...

On the show this week: The Canadian Quarantine Act, and BC Public Health Act powers to quarantine people or order treatment in response to the Wuhan Coronavirus, as well as an analysis of the NDP government’s latest proposal for no-fault car insurance. The Canadian Quarantine Act and BC Public Health Act provide broad powers to control communicable diseases such as the Wuhan Coronavirus. These inc...

On the show this week: ICBC. The government-owned insurance company has run into financial difficulty as a result of both how the company has been operated, and political decisions to take money that it had been saved for the purpose of paying claims out of the company in order to balance the provincial budget. Currently, drivers who are at fault for an accident are responsible for it. In some cir...

Topics discussed on the show this week include the Supreme Court of Canada refusing an application by the City of Victoria for leave to appeal a decision by the BC Court of Appeal that the city lacked jurisdiction to ban plastic bags. In addition, various politicians have mischaracterized the nature of an interim injunction prohibiting blockades, and other self-help remedies, by individuals oppose...

Two new British Columbia Court of Appeal decisions are discussed on the show this week.  When can you sue a municipality for an injury caused by poorly cleared snow?  The Court of Appeal provided some clarity in a recent case against the City of Nelson. The plaintiff suffered a serious leg injury after stepping into a snowbank trying to get from an angled parking spot to the sidewalk. While a muni...

The Motor Vehicle Act distracted driving provisions are in need of an update in order to both provide clarity, and to address technological changes that have taken place over the past ten years. As a result of the outdated, and confusing, legislative scheme even police officers who are charged with enforcing the scheme are having difficulty interpreting the provisions.  Recent advice, offered by a...

Three Chinese scientists were sentenced to jail for editing the genes of three fetuses in an attempt to provide immunity from HIV. The scientist used CRISPR in an attempt to disable the gene that allows the HIV virus to enter a cell.  The fathers of the children, who appear to be healthy, had HIV. Their mothers did not.  The three scientists announced what they had done at a 2018 conference in Hon...

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a man, born in Canada, to parents who were undercover Russian spies, is a Canadian citizen. This decision, and two others, including a finding that the CRTC does not have the power to require US Super Bowl ads to be shown in Canada, formed the basis of an effort to clarify how courts should deal with the review of administrative decisions. There are two s...

The first topic on the show: Sperm, recovered from a man shortly after his death, pursuant to an interim court order, will not be provided to the man’s wife because the man had not provided his written consent before he died.  The Assisted Human Reproduction Act requires written consent for the “removal of human reproductive material” from a donor’s body, after death, for the purpose of creating a...

Police officers in Montreal believed that a warning picture on an escalator, suggesting that people hold the handrail, made this a legal requirement. The police officers ordered a woman to hold onto the handrail and, when she refused, they arrested her, placed her in handcuffs, searched her purse, and issued her a ticket for not holding onto the handrail. After being acquitted of the non-existent...

What’s required for three people to be listed as parents on birth certificates, for children of a same-sex couple, who were conceived with sperm from a friend, who also wished to participate in raising the children? The British Columbia Family Law Act attempts to contemplate a wide range of modern scenarios, involving surrogates and other assisted reproduction. Unfortunately, not every eventuality...

In British Columbia witnesses who are testifying in court are required to choose between swearing a religious oath, or making an affirmation, to tell the truth.  Children under 14 are only asked to promise to tell the truth.  The origin of oaths, to tell the truth, was a belief that divine retribution would visit those who lied under oath.  While witnesses are not told they have the option to swea...

With Saanich schools closed for a third week as a result of a strike, 2019 amendments to the Labour Relations Code are discussed. These amendments removed a specific provision that declared “the provision of educational programs for students and eligible children under the School Act” to be an essential service. This change was an example of the labour relations changes made each time the NDP is e...

After almost two weeks Saanich schools are still closed as a result of a strike by support staff. Support staff are seeking a wage increase to match other school districts. The support staff ended up with lower salaries as a result of past contracts that provided for greater benefits, instead of larger salary increases.  The Saanich School District has offered all of the money they are permitted t...

Canada, and British Columbia, have a very unfortunate history of racist legislation intended to restrict Chinese immigration. This includes the Chinese Immigration Act (1885), which imposed a head tax, the Opium Act (1908) which was passed following anti-Asian riots in 1907 that involved destruction in Vancouver’s Chinatown as well as Japanese neighbourhoods, and the Chinese Immigration Act (1923)...

A new BC Supreme Court policy concerning bans on publication, and closed courtrooms, permits automatic notification of applications for the media as well as a web site listing publication bans, to make it easier to determine if there is a publication ban is in place. Judicial Recounts : what is required for an automatic, or discretionary, judicial recount, and how the recount proceeds when one is...

Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan Diplomatic Immunity – The wife of a US diplomat killed a British teenager in a car accident but was able to avoid prosecution and leave the UK as a result of diplomatic immunity. Topics discussed include the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and how this is implemented in Canada . Other related issued include diplomats not having to pay parking ticket...

Legally Speaking with Victoria Lawyer Michael Mulligan on CFAX 1070. A new Supreme Court of Canada case, Fleming v. Ontario , concluded that the police did not have the authority to arrest a protester who was carrying a Canadian flag and walking down the road, in order to avert a possible, future, disruption. The police officers and the province of Ontario claimed that the police were authorized t...

Legally Speaking with Victoria Lawyer Michael Mulligan on CFAX 1070 Issues discussed include overrides of federal prisoner security classifications which result in inmates classified as medium security, being transferred to minimum security institutions. This was an issue recently as a result of two inmates escaping from the William Head Institution, which is a minimum-security facility, despite h...

Legally Speaking with Victoria Lawyer Michael Mulligan on CFAX 1070 Issues discussed include jury deliberations, sequestration, the fact that the substance of jury deliberations are secret in Canada, what information is included in a charge to the jury, information not provided to the jury, including the possible sentence if there is a conviction, and how judges deal with jury questions or cases w...

The British Columbia Director of Civil Forfeiture ordered to return $2 million in cash that was seized as part of the largest money-laundering case in BC history, due to misconduct at an ex parte hearing. The decision can be found here and the reasons on the original ex parte hearing here . "The Court must take the misconduct very seriously, because misleading statements in an ex parte hearin...

CFAX 1070 60th Anniversary Special - retrospective on 60 years of CFAX 1070 in Victoria, BC and themes from past episodes including legal aid funding and the importance of meaningful explanations of legal issues and decisions. Legally Speaking is live in CFAX 1070 every Thursday at 10:30. Michael Mulligan is a lawyer at Mulligan Defence Lawyers in Victoria, BC, Canada.