Abergel Goldstein & Partners
116 Lisgar St. K2P 0C2 Ottawa, ON, Canada

I have a small thesis for your consideration: the United States of America’s justice system is broken. First, some facts. The American criminal justice system not only inhumanly deals out death in judgement, but until 2005 juveniles could be sentenced to death. The American legal system, in many cases, casts aside judicial independence in favour of the mob rule of judicial elections. At the same time, millions of Americans who are disproportionately minorities are denied the ...right to vote because of criminal convictions. And for some odd reason the doctrine of originalism the idea that the original intentions of the drafters of the Constitution should inform its interpretation has gained legitimacy. Let’s not forget that the 231-year-old Constitution was drafted by white, privileged men who were just a wee bit racist. These problems are often pushed out of the spotlight of public scrutiny. It is easy to ignore voices that are already marginalized, turn a blind eye to suffering behind bars, or be seduced by the snake-oil salesmen of originalism. But there is one high-profile and very public example of our neighbour to the south’s broken justice system, and we need look no further than last week’s hypocritical political pantomime, the confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump's newest Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. Click through to read more of our view from Ottawa on America's justice system and how Canada is different https://www.agpllp.ca/a-view-from-ottawa-on-american-justi/

More tragedy at the hands of the Ottawa police. Maybe it is time the police listen to warnings from the court? AGP partner Michael Spratt comments. https://www.vice.com//anthony-aust-a-black-man-fell-to-his

It is time to offer the Ottawa police some simple and free legal advice: it is not a criminal offence to chalk a sidewalk. It is not a crime to chalk a hopscotch diagram. It is not a crime to chalk art. It is not even a crime to chalk messages critical of the police. Sure, it can be a criminal offence to make permanent markings on public property. But chalk is not permanent. It can also be a crime to interfere with lawful enjoyment of public spaces. Chalk does not do that.... It is definitely a criminal offence to spread hate speech, even in chalk. But not only are non-hateful messages written in temporary chalk legal, they are exactly the type of free expression that is guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It seems, however, that cop fragility runs high when they are confronted with chalk criticisms. There have been at least three incidents of threats of arrest and prolonged detentions of chalkers by the Ottawa police. Click through to read more... https://www.agpllp.ca/dear-ottawa-police-chalking-is-not-a/

AGP partner Michael Spratt spoke with the CBC yesterday about the government's plan to amend the Criminal Code to "explicitly penalize those who neglect seniors under their care, putting them in danger." Criminal Code amendments are not usually a good answer to complex societal problems - especially when the government is to blame for the problem in the first place. https://youtu.be/dHtJS2t3TX4?t=795

Sober second thought on police body cameras The bottom line is that in many cases body cameras just don’t live up to the hype. "The secret the police don’t want us to know is that we are the chickens and they are the foxes. And for a brief moment the foxes convinced me that it was a good idea to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to prop up the status quo, instead of fixing a broken system from the ground up."... Click through to read the whole article and for information on how to contact us if you need a lawyer. https://www.agpllp.ca/second-thoughts-on-police-body-camer/