Subway vs Budway, Highlands mine in the BCCA, and privacy vs open courts
This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Budway, a Vancouver marijuana store, has been using a logo similar to the Subway sandwich logo. Budway also had a mascot in the form of a submarine sandwich filled with cannabis leaves, with bloodshot, half-open eyes. Subway sued Budway, alleging various breaches of the Trademarks Act. One of the issues in the case was whether what Budway was doing amounted to “passing off” This can occur if consumers could be misled into believ...
17 Juni 202122min
Criminal contempt controlled by the court and not AG, oil tank leak bill is okay, and the SCC on child support
This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The BC Supreme Court has inherent jurisdiction to control its own process. This includes the authority to find people who breach court orders to be in contempt. The purpose of this is to uphold the rule of law. The rule of law requires people to comply with court orders, even if they don’t agree with them. If people were permitted to decide which laws they wished to comply with, the strongest mob would prevail, and the result would be...
10 Juni 202121min
False sexual assault claim gets a discharge and an accused person is not required to explain why a complainant would lie
This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Annaca Kobayashi, a 19-year-old woman from Langford, falsely reported to the police that a young man she knows had threatened her with a knife and sexually assaulted her. A police investigation, including a review of a video recording where she claimed to have been threatened with the knife, revealed her story to be false. Only after a third police interview did Ms. Kobayashi, who had a boyfriend at the time, admit that she made...
27 Maj 202122min
Big Newf and duress, 11 years for carfentanil trafficking, and an increased award for firing an articling student
This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Duress is a defence, sometimes referred to as an excuse, for the commission of a criminal offence. The rationale for the defence is the idea of moral involuntariness. These are the requirements for the defence: There must be an explicit or implicit threat of present or future death or bodily harm. The threat can be directed at the accused or a third party. The accused must reasonably believe that the threat will be carried ...
26 Maj 202121min
Miscellaneous but important amendments, and the BC COVID-19 data leak
This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Acts have, perhaps, the least exciting names imaginable. Sometimes, however, these acts bundle together legal changes that can be significant. If passes in BC, a recently introduced Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act will make changes that will have meaningful consequences for people. On the show, two of these changes are discussed. One of the proposed changes will require ICBC to w...
19 Maj 202122min
Joint sentencing submissions, prosecutorial immunity, and absolute privilege
This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: Many criminal cases are resolved by way of joint sentencing submissions by Crown and defence counsel. This means that the accused person is agreeing to plead guilty and both lawyers have agreed on what the appropriate sentence should be. The Supreme Court of Canada has held that, in these circumstances, judges are not permitted to impose a sentence different than what is proposed unless the proposed sentence was “so unhinged fro...
6 Maj 202122min
Police COVID roadblocks, Quarantine Act breached by Flat Earth conference attendee, and Small Claims online
This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The BC Government has proposed police roadblocks to enforce travel restrictions between health authorities, in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Because there are significantly different rates of infection in different parts of the province, this objective is understandable. Unfortunately, contrary to the premier’s assertion that police will be able to conduct roadblocks of this kind without any new authority, that is not the ca...
22 Apr 202121min
Fraudulent mass mailing search warrant, bulk COVID adjournments and unsightly garbage bin acquittal
This week on Legally Speaking with Michael Mulligan: The USA and Canada have a treaty that provides for mutual legal assistance in the investigation of criminal matters. Pursuant to this treaty, the Minister of Justice of Canada, at the request of the USA, applied for and obtained a search warrant for two Vancouver companies being investigated for sending fraudulent mass-mailed solicitations that were believed to be financially exploiting vulnerable people. Applications for search...
15 Apr 202123min
