Tag: legal news today

4 min read

Canada stands down from bill making First Nations police essential

  • April 5, 2023
OTTAWA – The federal government is backing away from setting a timeline to introduce legislation that would declare First Nations policing an essential service, but at least one regional chief hopes to see it this spring. Ghislain Picard, a member of the Assembly of First Nations executive, said it has been fighting for improvements to First Nations policing on two fronts: securing better funding for existing services and helping to draft new legislation. “We’ve been talking about this for years,” said Picard, one of the leads on justice and policing issues for the national advocacy organization that represents more than…
4 min read

Canada-US border asylum seekers struggle to get legal counsel

  • March 28, 2023
TORONTO – An influx of asylum seekers into Canada via unofficial border crossings has prompted the federal government to relocate refugees from Quebec as far as the Atlantic provinces, some more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away, and hire a risk mitigation company to deal with the record surge . The government’s latest measures underscore the human fallout of the situation at the US-Canada border. After almost 40,000 asylum seekers entered Canada from the US through irregular border crossings last year, the two countries revised their two-decade-old asylum pact last week to stem the flow of asylum seekers. But those…
7 min read

Indigenous groups signal upcoming legal battle over Sask. First Act

  • March 26, 2023
The Saskatchewan First Act was borne out of meetings and consultations, but its a lack of consultation with Indigenous communities that has the act destined for a courtroom. On Thursday, Saskatchewan Party government members voted unanimously to pass the act, known as Bill 88. The government has said the bill is meant to assert provincial jurisdiction and prevent federal government intrusion. Usually, bills pass with little fanfare outside of cheers and the sound of hands slapping desks on the governing party’s side of the aisle. That happened on Thursday, but it was the presence of a great opposition in the…
2 min read

Hawkesbury lawyer lost license for conspiracy to import cocaine

  • March 18, 2023
Article content Ray Lachapelle’s cocaine addiction was an open secret among colleagues, clients and staff. It was an addiction so severe he lost his liberty and now his license to practice law. Article content In a Feb. 24 ruling, the Law Society of Ontario’s disciplinary tribunal revoked Lachapelle’s license, effective immediately, for conduct unbecoming — notably his role in a 2017 conspiracy to import more than a tonne of cocaine from Colombia to Canada. The Hawkesbury-based lawyer was found guilty in a Halifax court in 2018 and sentenced to seven years in prison. The Mounties dubbed the project “Operation Halfpenny”…
2 min read

Courthouse named for Harvard law professor who taught Obamas

  • February 23, 2023
A California courthouse has been named for a native son who went on to a distinguished career at Harvard Law School, where he taught future President Barack Obama and his wife ByThe Associated Press February 18, 2023, 4:47 PM MERCED, Calif. — A courthouse in California’s agricultural heartland was named for a native son who went from working in the fields to a distinguished career at Harvard Law School, where he taught Barack and Michelle Obama. Family members and supporters attended a ceremony Friday naming the Merced County courthouse to honor Charles James Ogletree Jr.’s contributions to law, education and…