Jennifer Conroy

The appellant appealed his sentence for two counts of possession of morphine and heroin for the purpose of trafficking while incarcerated in a federal penitentiary.

The sentencing judge imposed a two-year sentence but did not specify whether it was concurrent or consecutive to the appellant's existing robbery sentence.

The sentencing judge later amended the Information to indicate the sentence was consecutive without notifying or reconvening the parties.

The appellant was released on statutory release based on the concurrent interpretation, but was re-arrested after the amendment.

The Court of Appeal held that the sentencing judge was functus officio and lacked jurisdiction to amend the sentence, as the amendment was not consistent with the judge's manifest intentions and the failure to notify and reconvene the parties seriously compromised the appearance of fairness.

The accused appealed convictions for firearms and drug trafficking offences, challenging production orders used to obtain historical text messages from a telecommunications provider.

The Court held the accused had standing under s. 8 of the Charter because he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the electronic conversation records.

The majority concluded that seizure of already sent and received messages from provider storage was lawfully authorized by the production order regime and did not require a Part VI wiretap authorization.

A dissent would have treated acquisition of those messages as requiring Part VI authorization and would have excluded the evidence under s. 24(2).

The applicants challenged three Part VI authorizations to intercept private communications, arguing a lack of reasonable and probable grounds and investigative necessity.

The court found that the Information to Obtain (ITO) relied almost entirely on unproven tipsters, lacked sufficient detail and corroboration, and contained misleading information regarding applicant travel.

The court also found that investigative necessity was not established as other reasonable investigative methods were not adequately explored.

Consequently, the authorizations were deemed invalid, and the intercepted communications were excluded under s. 24(2) of the Charter.

The appellant was convicted of importing and possession for the purpose of trafficking 175 kilograms of cocaine and sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment.

He appealed the sentence, arguing the sentencing judge placed undue emphasis on denunciation and deterrence and insufficient weight on his rehabilitation and first-time offender status.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding the sentencing judge properly weighed all relevant factors, including the appellant's age and positive pre-sentence report, and that the sentence was not demonstrably unfit given the large quantity of cocaine involved.

The applicant, Kevin Wallace, charged under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, sought leave to cross-examine the affiant of an Information to Obtain (ITO) used to secure an authorization for private communications interception.

This application was part of a Garofoli challenge to the authorization.

The court granted leave to cross-examine on two specific areas: alleged misrepresentations and omissions regarding tipsters #1 and #4, and the asserted involvement of the applicant in a meeting in Dubai, particularly concerning conflicting travel information.

Leave was denied for questions regarding independent investigation/corroboration of tipster information and investigative necessity, as sufficient information was already available or cross-examination would not materially assist.

The accused, a political worker during the 2011 federal election, was convicted under the Canada Elections Act for his role in a 'robo-calls' scheme that directed voters to false polling stations.

He was sentenced to nine months' incarceration and 12 months' probation.

Both the accused and the Crown appealed the sentence.

The Court of Appeal dismissed both appeals, finding that the sentencing judge properly balanced the mitigating factors of the youthful first-time offender with the need for denunciation and deterrence for an unprecedented electoral fraud offence.

The Court declined the Crown's request to establish a sentencing range of two to five years for electoral fraud.

The appellant was convicted of multiple offences relating to the attempted exportation of restricted pressure transducers to Iran, including violations of the United Nations Act, Customs Act, and Criminal Code.

On appeal, he challenged the trial judge's interpretation of the technical specifications for the restricted goods and the reasonableness of the verdict.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the conviction appeal, finding the trial judge correctly interpreted the specifications and reasonably concluded the appellant knowingly attempted to supply the goods to a person in Iran.

However, the Court allowed the sentence appeal in part, reducing the sentence on the UN offence because the trial judge erred in treating an unproven link to Iran's nuclear enrichment program as an aggravating factor.

The applicant witnessed an alleged unprovoked assault by a police officer and filed a public complaint under the Police Services Act.

The Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services refused to process the complaint, finding the applicant was not 'directly affected' by the conduct.

The Divisional Court overturned this decision, but the Court of Appeal allowed the Commission's appeal, holding that 'directly affected' requires a personal and individual interest, not merely a general interest, and thus a mere witness lacks standing to bring a public complaint.

The appellant appealed a motion judge's decision finding that the respondent had fulfilled its obligations under Minutes of Settlement regarding the remediation of a former service station property.

The appellant argued that the respondent failed to conduct 'appropriate further testing' as required by the settlement.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, holding that the Minutes of Settlement, read as a whole, delegated the authority to determine what constituted appropriate further testing to an independent environmental consultant, and the respondent had complied with the consultant's determinations.