On January 3, 2017, Afghanistan war veteran Lionel Desmond shot and killed his wife, daughter, and mother and subsequently committed suicide — all with a semi-automatic rifle he bought a few hours earlier. Seven years later, the final report was just released yesterday on January 31, 2024. Ever since this macabre event, the biggest question the public has been wondering is how? How can someone …

Continue reading Final Report on the Lionel Desmond Murder Suicide Released After Seven Years

On December 31, 2023, Joe Mahr and Megan Crepeau released an article on the progress Cook County has made in delivering speedier justice titled, “Stalled justice: Slow Cook County courts see progress in 2023, but some decade-old cases still linger on dockets.” Since the reforms made in the fall, Mahr and Crepeau report, the number of cases that are completed within Cook County’s two-year goal …

Continue reading Chicago Tribune reporters investigate criminal justice delays in Cook County

On August 11, 2021, 78-year-old John Fox and 75-year-old Glenys Fox were killed in a collision when Christopher Boucha, now 52 years-old crossed the median line of the road with his five-tonne Penske truck. A crown witness, who was behind Boucha at the time of the accident, believed that Boucha veered off because he was either sleeping or texting. Boucha has been charged with eight …

Continue reading Defence of Lethal Collision Case not Seeking Stay for Delay

On November 24, 2023, a man from Langley B.C. was finally convicted of manslaughter after his arrest almost two and a half years ago. Jacob Cook was 20 years old when he stabbed his 28-year-old brother Jesse to death on May 30, 2021. The two brothers were at home with their mother and step-father when the killing took place. Jesse had relapsed to his opioid …

Continue reading Langley Manslaughter Case Comes to Conclusion After Almost Two and a Half Years

According to the Globe and Mail, the number of criminal cases stayed in Quebec has more than quadrupled this year due to court delays. There were 18 cases stayed in 2022 and 75 cases have been stayed in 2023 so far. Between March 1 and September 22 this year, Quebec ended an additional 196 criminal cases by nolle prosequi, a procedure where the prosecution declines …

Continue reading Stays of Proceedings Quadruple in Quebec Due to Court Delays

            On November 8, 2023, Alberta, one of the most delay-conscious provinces in Canada, amended the Rules of Court, replacing summary trials with the new “streamlined trial” process. This amendment will take effect on January 1, 2024. Summary trials were intended to be an efficient option for cases that were too complex or important for summary judgment but did not require a full standard trial. …

Continue reading Alberta Amends Rules of Court Replacing Summary Trials with “Streamlined Trials”

Concerns for the backlogs in the Ontario justice system are becoming mainstream. According to Howard Levitt for the Financial Post, the backlog in small claims courts was “so outrageous that many lawyers were choosing to risk filing their claims in Superior Court — with serious adverse cost consequences — in order to have their matter heard on a more timely basis.”[1] Small claims court backlog …

Continue reading Outrageous Backlog in the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

After 28 years, 68-year-old Sosthene Munyemana, a former doctor in Rwanda now living in France, has finally been put on trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in the Rwandan genocide. In 1995, a complaint was filed in Bordeaux against Munyemana, one year after the genocide. He has been accused of organising torture and killings and almost 70 witnesses are expected to testify. …

Continue reading Former Rwandan Doctor Living in France Brought to Trial After Twenty-Eight Year Delay

In only eleven months, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested, charged, and found guilty of all seven charges of fraud and conspiracy. FTX, a cryptocurrency empire, toppled last year due to a spike in withdrawals that exposed $8 billion missing. Bankman-Fried was accused by the prosecution for stealing $10 billion from FTX and moving it to his hedge-fund, Alameda Research. Between Bankman-Fried’s attempts at …

Continue reading Bankman-Fried Arrested and Tried in Eleven Months

Trevor Cadieu, a retired lieutenant-general for the Canadian Armed Forces has received a stay of proceedings regarding two sexual assault charges from 1994 by Kingston judge Larry O’Brien. Justice O’Brien found that, given the trial was expected to conclude by mid-February 2024, the case will have exceeded the 18-month Jordan ceiling by a month and a half. He laid the blame at the feet of …

Continue reading Military Sexual Assault Case Stayed