Lisa Kerr

The four alleged errors are a perfect match to what I’ve done from my Evidence syllabus at this point in the term! Should I send it out or make it an exam fact pattern ….

R. v. Marshall, 2025 ONCA 638 at para. 148: "The trial Crown’s closing was graphic, inflammatory, and contained rhetoric that falls below the expected standard of Crown counsel." But the Court of Appeal is going to let this one pass.
coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/i...

R. v. Sheppard, 2025 SCC 29: Friesen applies to historical sexual abuse against children. Sentences for historical offences are properly determined in accordance with the sentencing regimes and societal perspectives that prevail at the time of sentencing
decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-...

R. v. Bowie, 2025 ONCA 661 at para 27: Justice Trotter dismisses a bail pending appeal application from a convicted criminal lawyer through the public safety arm of the Oland test. This is rare.
coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/i...

R. v. Storey, 2025 ONCA 599 at para. 66: At sentencing, don't conflate NCR with moral blameworthiness. An offender's cognitive challenges can be mitigating even if the challenges don't rise to the NCR level.
coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/i...

R. v. Pierre, 2025 ONCA 589 at para 60: The Court overturns a murder conviction entered by their now-colleague. The jury instruction failed to fully explain what the after-the-fact conduct could not do: inform the mens rea generally.
coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/i...

R. v. Leclaire, 2025 ONSC 4203 (CanLII): Justice Kathy Jalali refused to impose a mandatory minimum prison sentence. The appeal court (SCJ) basically called this judicial misconduct.
canlii.ca/t/kdntc

I hear you. Some people might need to send their kid somewhere other than Conestoga tho

a close up of a bald man 's face with his eyes closed and a serious look on his face . ALT: a close up of a bald man 's face with his eyes closed and a serious look on his face .

R. v. D.B., 2025 ONCA 577 at para 19: Failing to meaningfully engage with the collateral consequences of family separation is an error in principle.
coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/i...

Opinion: Ontario universities must be released from their financial chokehold Declining funding, in concert with fewer international students, has placed the province’s post-secondary system in peril. It’s time for a change

Great piece. Stop subsidizing families who don’t need it through artificially constrained tuition. Take steps to support students in need.

Tuition freeze should not be populist. It does not level the playing field, just destroys our universities.

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Heather Mallick does a disservice to the women of the criminal defence bar by implying that their male clients hire them for the optics. I'm proud to have learned from many of the brilliant women who are leading our profession. Their clients hire them because they are excellent lawyers.

Opinion: It’s time to let lawyers come back to the Supreme Court of Canada Restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic have yet to be lifted, to the detriment of the court

"No other court in the country has a rigid policy denying physical access to counsel."

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

R. v. Griffiths, 2025 ONCA 511, citing in R. v. Lu, 2022 ONSC 1918, at para. 58, per Di Luca J.: A person can be remorseful for having committed an offence while nonetheless exercising their constitutional right to a trial. The two are not incompatible.
coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/i...

R. v. Gilmore, 2025 ONCA 517 at para. 47, citing Easterbrook, 2022 ONCJ 647, at paras. 43-44, per @brockbjones.bsky.social: It is an aggravating sentencing factor that an assault was committed on public transit. In this case, it was the TTC subway.
coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/i...

R. v. Mariani, 2025 BCSC 1298: the retroactive elimination of "Faint Hope" is unconstitutional. Faint Hope applications are now permissible for anyone convicted of the applicable offences before or after December 2011. Another "Truth in Sentencing" provision is struck down.

R. v. Kinamore, 2025 SCC 19: The Supreme Court attempts to even the ledger on 276/Seaboyer/sexual history evidence. The Crown must bring an application that mirrors s. 276's procedural requirements to introduce this evidence. [1/5]
decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-...

I am pleased to announce that Peck and Company will be accepting articling applications for 2026/2027. Please submit your applications by July 15, 2025. If interested, please direct message me for further application details.

R. v. Attachie, 2025 BCCA 183: the mitigating effect of a guilty plea is enhanced if the Crown's case is weak. "A fragile Crown's case is a fundamentally important circumstance of the pleas, if not the most fundamentally important".

Hurry up and wait: The Ontario court's relentless commitment to inefficiency Our criminal justice system has turned scheduling into a spectacle of wasted resources and hollow rituals

Hurry up and wait. That’s the unofficial motto of Ontario’s criminal courts — and it’s breaking the system. My latest for Canadian Lawyer on inefficiency, inconsistency, and how scheduling a trial can take longer than actually holding one.

www.canadianlawyermag.com/news/opinion...

R. v. Singh, 2025 ONCA 460 at para 11: A judge cannot reason that as a matter of logic and common sense, one would expect a sexual abuse victim to demonstrate behaviour consistent with that abuse or change behaviour such as avoiding the perpetrator.
coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/i...

To get first access to new issues, be sure to subscribe via our website: crimhighlights.ca.

The Spring 2025 issue of "Criminological Highlights" is out now! In it we highlight studies exploring race and risk assessment, pretrial release, the right to remain silent, and much more. View the issue here:
www.crimhighlights.ca/criminologic...

R. v. Anderson, 2025 ONCA 408: This case is going to the SCC on two issues:
1️⃣ fabrication instruction
2️⃣ unreasonable verdict
coadecisions.ontariocourts.ca/coa/coa/en/i...

Weinrib on Constitutional Rights Jacob Weinrib (Queens University) has posted The Impasse of Constitutional Rights on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Constitutional rights are often seen as invitations to engage in all things considered...

Weinrib on Constitutional Rights, buff.ly/mJ2KQbn - Jacob Weinrib (Queens University) has posted The Impasse of Constitutional Rights on SSRN.

Rethinking the defence-law business model Daniel Brown is on a mission to build a new kind of criminal-defence firm

Dan is building a different defence firm, alongside brilliant Lindsay Board, *and* he also does meaningful work for students at his alma mater, @queensulaw.bsky.social. We will celebrate tomorrow in Toronto when he receives an alumni award! @colleenmflood.bsky.social

lawandstyle.ca/news/rethink...

A “sufficient evidentiary basis” is fine, but the notion that there was one here is wild to me. Zero evidence that programming would be made promptly available to him. Prison service may well just keep him longer on a wait list.

We are proud to share the publication of the first article of 56:1 by @adelinaiftene.bsky.social and Allison Hearns! Read the full article in Volume 56, Issue 1 of the OLR! rdo-olr.org/sentencing-v...

Marie Henein receives our honorary doctorate this year @queensulaw.bsky.social and gives a barn burner of a talk to our graduating Queen’s law students - calling on them to fight for justice in these difficult times. So much joy!

Today was a great, great convocation @queensulaw.bsky.social. We honoured Marie Henein for all she has done for the legal system. She honoured us with her always powerful words and fearless way of being. @colleenmflood.bsky.social

Lisa Kelly told me to read this book and I know enough to listen to her. 40 pages in and my thinking is altered. Mandatory one for the legal profession: profs, students, judges alike.