Stuart O'Connell Criminal Law Blog

  Written by Stuart O’Connell (Barrister/Solicitor), Toronto. There is a fantastic online safety ad created by the New Zealand government as part of its public awareness campaign, Keep It Real Online . The 2020 ad has rightly gone viral and is one of my all-time favourites. In it two adult film actors (played by Cassandra Woodhouse and Paris Theodosiou) arrive naked at the front door of a young teenager’s house and tell his stunned mother “Hiya …We just came over because your 14-year-old son has been watching us…online… . Online we just get to it, we never really talk about consent. …We usually perform for adults but your son’s just a kid.” The dumbfounded son emerges from inside the house holding his laptop. His shocked mother (hair wrapped in a towel) reels from the disclosure that her son has been accessing pornography from his computer, and from the fact that two nude people have come to her door to explain—with hilarious nonchalance—that the online pornographic scenarios they are

Most Canadians would be likely be surprised to learn just how many of their fellow citizens have a criminal record.     According to Public Safety Canada, 3.8 million Canadians had criminal records in 2016. [FN1] To give you a sense of just how many among us have criminal records, the current population of Canada is approximately 38 million. The percentage of Canada’s adult population with a criminal record (approximately 10%) does not appear to have changed significantly in the last two decades.   [FN2] Most of those who have a criminal record go on to live law-abiding lives (or on a less optimistic view: are not convicted again if they do not).   But as they go forward, they can find their options limited. There is stigma to having a criminal record. That will surprise few. Consider how many people you know have disclosed to you that they have a criminal record.   If you are like me (at least outside my professional work as a defence lawyer), very few.   Yet it is likely that w

The standard upon which sufficiency of reasons is to be assessed in the criminal context is whether the reasons are inadequate and if so whether they prevent appellate review:  R. v. Gagnon ,  2006 SCC 17 , [2006] 1 S.C.R. 621, at para  13 ;  R. v. Sheppard ,  2002 SCC 26 , [2002] 1 S.C.R. 869, at para.  20 ;  R. v. Slatter ,  2019 ONCA 807 , 452 D.L.R. (4th) 4, at paras.  107-111 .   The reasons must show why the trial judge made a certain decision:   R. v. Vuradin ,  2013 SCC 38 , [2013] 2 S.C.R. 639, at para.  15 .   As R. v. Suganaqueb , 2022 ONCA 193 demonstrates, these standards for the sufficiency of reasons operate even when the accused consents to the imposition of an order.  In Suganaqueb , the accused consented to the imposition of a dangerous offender designation (and an indeterminate sentence).   The sentencing judge was satisfied that the accused’s consent was informed and volitional.   The accused thereafter appealed on the basis that the sentencing judge