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Trump administration 2024-2028

An interesting article from the CBC.


At first, when Trump was going on about 'drugs from Canada' I was pretty dismissive, but this article speaks to related money laundering through Canadian banks as well as the impact of Charter rulings on joint investigations; issues I had not thought of.
Ding ding ding!

I posted recently about this from articles from both the Globe and CBC talking about how these are the real things the Americans are concerned with us about, not the gruntings of their incoming illiterate president.

Honest question: can the government use the NWC on Stinchcombe and Jordan?
 
Ding ding ding!

I posted recently about this from articles from both the Globe and CBC talking about how these are the real things the Americans are concerned with us about, not the gruntings of their incoming illiterate president.

Honest question: can the government use the NWC on Stinchcombe and Jordan?
Indirectly yes. They could pass legislation governing evidentiary disclosure and trial timeliness that notwithstanding the sections of the Charter that led to those decisions. But, particularly in the case of Jordan, that’s a terrible idea because it leaves the system even more underwater. What Jordan calls for is both federal and provincial action to operate more courtrooms every day. More crowns, more judges, more court staff.
 
Ding ding ding!

I posted recently about this from articles from both the Globe and CBC talking about how these are the real things the Americans are concerned with us about, not the gruntings of their incoming illiterate president.

Honest question: can the government use the NWC on Stinchcombe and Jordan?

So refusing to provide evidence to an accused and refusing to provide a timely trial are the solution?
 
An interesting article from the CBC.


At first, when Trump was going on about 'drugs from Canada' I was pretty dismissive, but this article speaks to related money laundering through Canadian banks as well as the impact of Charter rulings on joint investigations; issues I had not thought of.

Stinchcombe is a real challenge. US police will share info with us, but often for leads/intelligence only. Getting them to release information for overt steps like getting judicial authorizations, or laying and prosecuting charges can be a challenge, and they absolutely will not in most cases subject their police to coming up here to testify. Given how much crime goes cross border, being hamstrung from leveraging evidence gleaned in the U.S. can be a real challenge. I’m dealing with this right now and it’s delayed us by probably a couple months, trying to clear some very basic information from their end for use up here.

And yeah, Canada is a massive haven for money laundering and very little is being done about it. It’s a problem that needs a bunch of dedicated cops and intelligence analysts thrown at it. But those are exactly the resources needed everywhere else.

Because ‘terrorism’ has a very specific meaning in the Criminal Code, and UFWD foreign interference is not it. Their activities are more the sort of thing intended to be covered by the new Foreign Interference offences and the pending foreign agents registry.

Am I getting a sense of commonality here?

Our Supreme Court and Parliament have had been able to play around in our little pond for the last 42 years. Now it appears that we may have been splashing into the neighbour's pond and they are not best impressed.

Our laws don't meet our neighbour's expectations.

....

Also fentanyl, casinos, money laundering, political interference, Canadian banks and the UFWD all seem to show up in the same articles, if not the same paragraphs.

...

The Canadian power brokers are massively discomfited currently.
 
To clarify - using US gov systems is the weak security practice?
No. Using non-governmental systems, using email address aliases to evade regulations governing public records, using Gmail, etc are all weak security practices. Some non-governmental systems might be more secure, but most won't. Use of aliases and alternates even on governmental systems reduces security because it evades accountability and practices which enforce security - guidelines can't be applied by the guardians to things they don't know about.
 
Am I getting a sense of commonality here?

Our Supreme Court and Parliament have had been able to play around in our little pond for the last 42 years. Now it appears that we may have been splashing into the neighbour's pond and they are not best impressed.

Our laws don't meet our neighbour's expectations.

....

Also fentanyl, casinos, money laundering, political interference, Canadian banks and the UFWD all seem to show up in the same articles, if not the same paragraphs.

...

The Canadian power brokers are massively discomfited currently.
Some overlapping problems, some that are very distinct and particular.

In general, the administrative demands imposed by complex disclosures have greatly added to the time it takes to move major investigations forward into prosecution. That leaves police less time to move on to subsequent or concurrent investigations. So that sucks. The type of evidence we bring in has become much more time consuming; searching a house and documenting what you find takes no a lot of time. Searching and documenting the contents of a phone, computer, or server can be a very significant workload. And then right into disclosure.

In the national security realm, there are the intelligence to evidence challenges that Canada struggles with more than most. Classified material can be difficult or impossible to build a case on.

Following the money can be fruitful but it requires people who really know what they’re looking at. And each step in the money flow can be another month to get documents and data from a new account by production order.

The system is designed to protect all of our rights from unjustified state intrusion. Which is good and how it should be. But articulating those justification and getting the courts to order it to be so takes time and resources too.

So yeah, actually building cases and bringing them home can be a TON of work. Figuring out the actual investigative steps to take is often the least difficult part.
 
So refusing to provide evidence to an accused and refusing to provide a timely trial are the solution?
No, but in my view, the SCC imposed unreasonable conditions on the police, Crown and courts to investigate and prosecute very serious files. Our liberal democratic peers do not share our inability to prosecute complex criminal and national security trans-national files. But we have these two decisions that have tied our hands behind our backs to deal with this stuff.

As I’ve said before, we should be spending a lot more on courtrooms, prisons, judges, court staff, prosecutors and police so we can meet the conditions of Jordan. However, governments seem unwilling to make those investments even after murderers, rapists, child molesters and trans-national criminal organizations get off because too much time has passed. One of the pillars of our justice system is is justice must be seen to be done. And as I’ve said before, if liberals won’t ensure justice is seen to be done, the people will elect fascists who will, and there won’t be any protections for the accused.

All I’m saying if there’s a way to overturn these two terrible decisions without infringing on basic Charter rights, it should be explored.
 
I'm certain Guy Paul Morin will totally agree that protecting the rights of the accused is a terrible thing.
 
Our laws don't meet our neighbour's expectations.
We have a dumpster fire of a neighbour who insists that their citizens' propensity to snort, inject, smoke, lick, inhale, drink, rub, and otherwise consume every upper, downer, hallucinogen, and combination thereof known to nature and chemistry is somehow other countries' problem and is regrettably powerful enough and uncouth enough to not simply get told to do one when they whine about the drug industry meeting US citizens' desire to alter their minds.
 
No, but in my view, the SCC imposed unreasonable conditions on the police, Crown and courts to investigate and prosecute very serious files. Our liberal democratic peers do not share our inability to prosecute complex criminal and national security trans-national files. But we have these two decisions that have tied our hands behind our backs to deal with this stuff.

As I’ve said before, we should be spending a lot more on courtrooms, prisons, judges, court staff, prosecutors and police so we can meet the conditions of Jordan. However, governments seem unwilling to make those investments even after murderers, rapists, child molesters and trans-national criminal organizations get off because too much time has passed. One of the pillars of our justice system is is justice must be seen to be done. And as I’ve said before, if liberals won’t ensure justice is seen to be done, the people will elect fascists who will, and there won’t be any protections for the accused.

All I’m saying if there’s a way to overturn these two terrible decisions without infringing on basic Charter rights, it should be explored.

Hold on. Canadian police are able to work complex files and bring them home; there are just some additional challenges. Americans have a significant disclosure burden too, just not as far as ours goes.

Resourcing is most of it. Some challenges won’t be solved that way, like I2E, but we’ve changed practices to do disclosure better and faster. Some increased hiring is happening in the courts, though it’s slow. And most of the court issues are provincial; the Ben if superior court judges are federally appointed, the province has to pay for and resource the courts system itself that they’re working in. Not doing so is a policy choice.

I’m not personally convinced that using the Notwithstanding Clause to dispense with Canadians’ rights to be protected from abuse at the hands of the state is the way to tackle these issues. There’s nothing about, for instance, the Jordan decision that’s unreasonable or unfair. It just came as a shock to a system that had gotten far too complacent. I definitely think anyone charged with offences deserves to see the matter dealt with in a timely manner. If I were charged I would absolutely want that.
 
I guess I just don’t see the NWC as a nuclear bomb like some do. It was brought in so Parliament would have oversight when the Supreme Court makes bad decisions, which they do from time-to-time.

Having said that, I haven’t been a fan of how some provinces have used it to pre-emptively block the courts on some pretty dodgy shit.

My opinion is because a lot of parliamentarians are hesitant to judiciously use this tool, it tends to only get used by those with an ideological axe to grind.
 
Had Parliament acted in many areas the courts would have been deferential.

It's when Parliament fails to act that the courts intervene.

But it does permit politicians to claim that it's not their fault...
 
And yeah, Canada is a massive haven for money laundering and very little is being done about it. It’s a problem that needs a bunch of dedicated cops and intelligence analysts thrown at it. But those are exactly the resources needed everywhere else.
Plus banking regulatory enforcement with teeth as well as CRA forensic investigations. International money laundering is massively complex, as you are well aware, and the state needs to employ highly trained and highly skilled staff, and pay them well to keep them. The skill sets are both in forensic accounting as well as computer technology.

In addition to investigative expertise, we need prosecutorial and judicial expertise. The best assembled case in the world can fall apart if a Crown or judge can't distill it, in particular if it is before a jury. It doesn't work if a technically complex case is met with blank stares from the jury box.

Another problem is the length of time it takes a case to get to trial often results in a loss of interest by prosecutors and their bosses. Headlines and press releases come and go.

For good or ill, US DOJ prosecutors seem to be more 'crusading' in some of their high profile cases.

I'm certain Guy Paul Morin will totally agree that protecting the rights of the accused is a terrible thing.
There is reasonable ground between something out of Les Miserables and 'won't somebody please think of the children'. People forget that, prior to the Charter and its rulings, we had a fair and reasonable criminal justice system. Although it is merely an 'investigative tool', it is often felt in jest (or derision) that the amount of evidence you need to swear before a justice to get an Information to Obtain a Search Warrant is such that you really don't need the warrant in the first place to make your case. I'm sure @brihard experiences something similar with authorizations. Warrant and authorization writing is now a specialty.
 
Plus banking regulatory enforcement with teeth as well as CRA forensic investigations. International money laundering is massively complex, as you are well aware, and the state needs to employ highly trained and highly skilled staff, and pay them well to keep them. The skill sets are both in forensic accounting as well as computer technology.

In addition to investigative expertise, we need prosecutorial and judicial expertise. The best assembled case in the world can fall apart if a Crown or judge can't distill it, in particular if it is before a jury. It doesn't work if a technically complex case is met with blank stares from the jury box.

Another problem is the length of time it takes a case to get to trial often results in a loss of interest by prosecutors and their bosses. Headlines and press releases come and go.

For good or ill, US DOJ prosecutors seem to be more 'crusading' in some of their high profile cases.


There is reasonable ground between something out of Les Miserables and 'won't somebody please think of the children'. People forget that, prior to the Charter and its rulings, we had a fair and reasonable criminal justice system. Although it is merely an 'investigative tool', it is often felt in jest (or derision) that the amount of evidence you need to swear before a justice to get an Information to Obtain a Search Warrant is such that you really don't need the warrant in the first place to make your case. I'm sure @brihard experiences something similar with authorizations. Warrant and authorization writing is now a specialty.
U.S. prosecutors are more actively involved in guiding investigations. They’ll help with investigative strategy, and of course they have the Grand Jury system of compelled testimony that we completely lack.

Some police units here in Canada have embedded advisory crowns, but they aren’t usually prosecuting the files. My experience is that they usually help with assessing the evidence elements of offences, and checking over applications for judicial authorizations. My experience has been that they very clearly and explicitly tell us “I’m not telling you how to do your file”, whereas prosecutors in the U.S. can have a much more guiding role contrary to the advisory crowns some organizations have here. It makes a difference.
 
Although it is merely an 'investigative tool', it is often felt in jest (or derision) that the amount of evidence you need to swear before a justice to get an Information to Obtain a Search Warrant is such that you really don't need the warrant in the first place to make your case. I'm sure @brihard experiences something similar with authorizations. Warrant and authorization writing is now a specialty.
Sorry, missed this. Yeah, it’s definitely a specialty. Lots of officers avoid writing authorizations. Some of us do a week long warrant writing course, and a scant few of us do the wiretap writing course - toughest cop course I’ve ever taken, but great learning, personally I really enjoy writing, but I’m a weirdo. My office has a couple full time warrant writers who do the most complex intercept applications. I could see myself liking that, though I’m not sure I’ll cut the mustard to get a spot. Those guys are girls are GOOD.

Getting authorizations can definitely be a heavy lift. The disclosure expectations for an ex parte warrant application are high, with good reason.
 
There is reasonable ground between something out of Les Miserables and 'won't somebody please think of the children'. People forget that, prior to the Charter and its rulings, we had a fair and reasonable criminal justice system. Although it is merely an 'investigative tool', it is often felt in jest (or derision) that the amount of evidence you need to swear before a justice to get an Information to Obtain a Search Warrant is such that you really don't need the warrant in the first place to make your case. I'm sure @brihard experiences something similar with authorizations. Warrant and authorization writing is now a specialty.
David Milgaard, Donald Marshall Junior and others might disagree with the characterization of the pre-Charter system, where, for example, informants were paid for testimony and those payments not disclosed to defendants as "fair and reasonable".
 
U.S. prosecutors are more actively involved in guiding investigations. They’ll help with investigative strategy, and of course they have the Grand Jury system of compelled testimony that we completely lack.

Some police units here in Canada have embedded advisory crowns, but they aren’t usually prosecuting the files. My experience is that they usually help with assessing the evidence elements of offences, and checking over applications for judicial authorizations. My experience has been that they very clearly and explicitly tell us “I’m not telling you how to do your file”, whereas prosecutors in the U.S. can have a much more guiding role contrary to the advisory crowns some organizations have here. It makes a difference.
Good point, and some countries have 'investigative judges'; although I'm not clear on the details.

In my recollection, advisory Crowns, embedded or not, would never 'have carriage' of a case when it gets to court. While it is beneficial to have 'learned oversight' on certain elements of an investigation, it does tend to bog down the investigation, particularly if the Crown is not embedded. A file goes off to MAG/DOJ and can languish there for months.
 
David Milgaard, Donald Marshall Junior and others might disagree with the characterization of the pre-Charter system, where, for example, informants were paid for testimony and those payments not disclosed to defendants as "fair and reasonable".
Dark spots for sure, but no system of people judging people is going to be absolute. The best we can hope is effective guardrails on the power of the State, but the guardrails shouldn't be roadblocks. If people want law enforcement to be done in a glass house, crimes like money laundering and security offences will get the best of us.

The point was made that the government needs to invest more in the courts so cases aren't tossed. That's a start.
 
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