Law Times

Page 16 June 2, 2014 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com HARPER NOMINATES NEXT PRIVACY COMMISSIONER Prime Minister Stephen Harper has nominated assistant deputy attorney general Daniel Therrien as the next federal privacy commissioner. A member of the Quebec bar since 1981, Therrien has held several senior federal legal roles throughout his ca- reer with his current position includ- ing the public safety, defence, and immigration portfolio. He'll replace interim privacy commissioner Chan- tal Bernier, who has been in the role since December 2013. The nomination still requires approval of the House of Commons and the Senate. "He is a well-qualified candidate who would bring significant expertise in law and privacy issues to the position," said Harper. Therrien's nomination is a controversial one with critics point- ing to his direct role in the government's security policies as an impairment to his job as privacy commissioner. TEEN GETS UP TO 15 YEARS IN LIEU OF 180-DAY JOINT SUBMISSION SALT LAKE CITY — We all know U.S. courts can be harsh, but adherents to the rehabilita- tive principles in the Youth Criminal Justice Act and proponents of the importance of joint sentencing submissions would shudder at this story. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, a judge has sentenced a 16-year-old boy to up to 15 years in a maximum-security facility over his role in a home invasion last year. Cooper Van Huizen had pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree felony robbery and his parents expected he'd get 180 days in jail. According to the Tribune, the judge felt the sentence recommended by the defence and prosecutors was "too so " and instead im- posed the harsher punishment. "He's 16 years old," said the off ender's father, Marc Van Huizen. According to the Tribune, the youth was part of a group of teens who robbed two peo- ple in their home at gunpoint on Nov. 13. Another teen got 180 days in April and, ac- cording to the Tribune, Van Huizen's parents are fi ghting the sentence. His mother suggest- ed his previous lawyer had led them to believe her son would be eligible for a reduction of the felonies to misdemeanors once he completed probation, the Tribune reported. SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY GROWS TOO BIG, UNWIELDY SAN FRANCISCO — It seems California has an excess of sex off enders or, more likely, is simply keeping track of too many of them. In a potential warning to Canada as it looks at a publicly accessible sex off ender registry, California is looking at scaling back its own program as the list has gotten too big and un- wieldy. According to sfgate.com, the California Sex Off ender Management Board is suggesting that only high-risk off enders should have to register for life. At the same time, it would be able to remove other off enders 10 to 20 years a er the off ence. As expected, the proposal has sparked the usual debates over being so on crime. "I think all sex off enders are dangerous, period," sfgate.com reported Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen as saying. e suggestion to trim the list centres on the fact it has grown to more than 100,000 sex off enders. California law requires all sex off enders to register for life, meaning it includes many people who pose no risk, according to a report from the board. On the list are 900 people whose last sex crime was more than 55 years ago. " ere is no need to continue to monitor some low-level off enders and waste those re- sources," sfgate.com quoted Butte County, Ca- lif., district attorney Mike Ramsey as saying. "We have to prioritize." According to sfgate.com, part of the con- cern stems from the fact that people not on the registry commit 95 per cent of solved sex crimes. As a result, the information casts doubt on the eff ectiveness of the registry in stopping sex crimes. Here in Canada, establishing a publicly ac- cessible registry of child sex off enders forms one of nine key measures included in bill C-26, the tougher penalties for child predators act. e bill passed fi rst reading in the House of Commons on Feb. 26 a er its introduction by Federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay. In addition to creating the public database of child sex off enders, the proposed legislation would also require registered sex off enders to provide more information about their travel abroad and would allow information sharing between offi cials of the national sex off ender registry and the Canada Border Services Agency. LT ARE YOU RECEIVING CANADIAN LEGAL NEWSWIRE? Keep abreast of essential late-breaking legal news and developments with our electronic newswire. VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM AND LOOK UNDER "LINKS" SIGN UP FOR FREE From the publisher of and u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story $30K PUNITIVE DAMAGES AWARD AGAINST LAWYER A Superior Court judge has found a Toronto lawyer orches- trated a mortgage fraud that bilked a senior citizen out of $75,000 and has ordered him to pay damages including a $30,000 punitive award. David Molson acted for both the lender and borrower in a mortgage transaction. The borrower, Dr. Leslie Toth, has admitted to being a party to the fraud but has since died, accord- ing to the ruling in Himel v. Mol- son on May 23. "Mr. Molson was the archi- tect and prime beneficiary of the fraud," wrote Justice David Corbett. Molson, who has a practice restriction listed on the Law Society of Upper Canada's web site, has pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud and settled a mortgage fraud case with the Royal Bank of Canada for several million dollars, Cor- bett noted. He ordered Molson to pay $75,000 for the amount the lender lost along with the punitive damages and costs of $50,000. LEGAL AID TRENDS Criminal charges that are eligi- ble for legal aid certificates have gone down along with all crimi- nal charges in Canada, accord- ing to Legal Aid Ontario. "Criminal charges received in Ontario's courts have de- creased by 5.7 per cent over the past three years, and charges which were covered by LAO have decreased by 8.5 per cent," LAO said in a recent analysis. "Charges covered by certifi- cates and duty counsel assists very closely follow the trends of the charges received in the On- tario Court of Justice. Total applications received have de- creased by eight per cent com- pared to the same period last year." New refugee legislation has also decreased certificate appli- cations by 50 to 60 per cent, ac- cording to LAO, but calls to its telephone service have increased as a result. Since 2010, the number of as- sistance calls answered through LAO's toll-free line has in- creased by 101 per cent, it noted in its update. POLL RESULTS The results of the latest Law Times online poll are in. According to the poll, 75 per cent of respondents believe the Law Society of Upper Cana- da should find a way to report lawyers suspected of crimes to police. The remaining participants felt there are too many legal bar- riers preventing the law society from reporting cases to police who have other ways of getting the information. While critics feel the cur- rent system allows people to get away with crime, others say the law society can't pass along the information it has gathered because while lawyers have the right to remain silent before the police, the same privilege doesn't apply with law society investigations. LT "I'm terribly sorry, but as there is a mandatory minimum sentence for this offence, I have to kick you a few more times." Stephen Harper Photo: Trevor Hagan (Reuters)

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