Category: Criminal

The Day was as bright and hard as a diamond, and filled with tiny sparks of ice, like confetti in the morning sun. It was a day much like my first Christmas in Canada, and it felt like all my Christmases, rolled into one. I was middle-aged, dressed in my brand-new robes, and about to be called to the Bar. It was twenty years ago, and the memory of that day is as bright and fresh and wonderful to me

Note: This article was originally published for the Ontario Trial Lawyers’ Association. Reporter Sheryl Ubelacker reported on October 26, 2016 that 1 in 18 Canadian hospital patients experience harm from preventable errors. Ms. Ubelacker reports on a study that 138,000 Canadians admitted in a Canadian hospital in 2014-2015 suffered some kind of harmful event that could potentially have been prevented. Of these 138,000 patients, the study finds that more than one adverse event compromised their care. Unfortunately, the Canadian civil justice system has not

Note: This article originally appeared in Robichaud’s Criminal Defence Litigation. When an accused is sentenced to custody they will be serving their sentence in either a Provincial or Federal institution. Sentences of two years less a day will be served in a Provincial facility. Sentences of two years or more will be served in a Federal penitentiary. Federal inmates are under the auspices of Corrections Services Canada. This pamphlet is intended as a guideline only. For more detailed information, contact the institution

Many years ago, in Life Before Law School, I was an elected official in municipal politics. Shortly after I was sworn in, one of the senior administrators with whom I worked kindly gave me the three rules he felt were all I really needed to know. The first rule was: get elected. The second was: stay elected. And the third was: deny rules one and two. Cynical? Perhaps. But it had a ring of truth to it. And in today’s

Sometimes snapshots from the past creep up on us at unexpected times. Sometimes they are bright pictures that make us smile; at other times they remind us of something that made us who we are. I recently had one of those latter snapshots. In 1998 I was writing my Bar admission exams in Toronto. Two days before one of my exams my mother died, and I flew out West for her funeral. While my brother and sister ran errands, I

I was at a great criminal defence lawyers’ conference earlier this month, listening to some of the finest members of my profession offer advice and new techniques to help us better fight for our clients. The information that was shared was excellent and thought-provoking. And, as so happens at these things, some of what was said triggered other ideas, and reminders for me of skills that are important, and sometimes under-utilized. One of those skills is listening, something that I