The Supreme Court of Canada will be hearing the appeals on four criminal matters this month. Two of the four raise the same issue and will be heard together. Each of these three issues differ dramatically – highlighting the amazing breadth of the criminal law and why practicing in the area of criminal law is so engaging and interesting.
The first case to be argued is the Pham case from Alberta raising the issue of the appropriateness of sentencing an accused to a reduced length of imprisonment on the basis of deportation consequences. The second case from Newfoundland, R v W.H., will be argued on January 21 and is concerned with an unreasonable jury verdict where credibility is the sole issue at trial. Finally, the two remaining cases, the Mackenzie case from Saskatchewan and the Chehil case from Nova Scotia, are vitally important cases on the use of sniffer dogs in searching for drugs.
Over the course of the next ten days, I will post an analysis of these cases as a primer for these hearings. So be posted for searches, verdicts, and sentences.