Ian Mulgrew: B.C. civil disobedience trumps law enforcement at Fairy Creek
Opinion: Injunctions have long and often turned the court into a tool for Big Business and Bad Government. This time it didn’t work.

Mohandas Gandhi would be proud — civil disobedience won another round in B.C. Supreme Court and the rule of law was defined as much more than simply law enforcement.

Justice Douglas Thompson’s refusal to extend a one-year injunction restricting protests against logging in the Fairy Creek watershed emphasized the impartial status of courts and civil rights are equally important societal values.

A top lawyer involved in the case, Steven Kelliher said the injunction raised serious concerns and should never have been issued:

“The courts get drawn into an enforcement role, stepping aside from their adjudicative role that we expect them to have, and they run the risk that they are going to be tainted both by the politics of the day — which is significant when there is large public disagreement and civil disobedience — and they are also going to be tainted by the manner in which the injunction was enforced.”

Read The Full Article In The Vancouver Sun
Ian Mulgrew: Dirty money, legal deadlines tough on police
Prosecutors “spend a good deal of time answering basic questions from law enforcement about commercial crime, how to prepare reports to Crown counsel, and questions on the fundamentals of commercial investigations.”

The inquiry into money laundering must wrestle with the nettlesome issue of the inability or failure of police to provide admissible evidence to support more than a handful of dirty-money prosecutions.

Many witnesses addressed the thorny problem during the commission’s hearings, and proposed solutions included creating an expensive new agency to tackle economic crime or beefing up the current response — aggressive use of the self-financing civil forfeiture office.

Senior Crown counsel — who approve charges and shepherd money-laundering and proceeds-of-crime cases through trial — were surveyed by the commission in November and February and their responses are contained in an overview report that has been filed as an exhibit.

Read The Full Article In The Vancouver Sun
Ian Mulgrew: Casino cash tied to property-backed loans
″(I am) a member of a private lending business serving a clientele with diverse needs. Sometimes, I lend my money. At times, I lend my associates’ money.”

Paul King Jin, aka “Brother Bao,” has failed to stop the release of a report prepared for the inquiry into money laundering alleging he provided millions to gamblers who pledged property to secure loans.

The 653-page document titled, “Paul Jin Debt Enforcement Against B.C. Real Estate,” details more than 20 big-time gamblers accused of owing massive debts to him as well as possible competitors — suspected loan sharks and private lenders.

Jin was granted participant status at the two-year-old inquiry last Nov. 5 out of fairness because he was barred from casinos starting in 2012 and was accused of being a major supplier of the tide of cash that swamped the gaming facilities from roughly 2010 to 2015.

He was also a target of the 2015 RCMP E-Pirate investigation that focused on a Richmond money service business believed to be supplying the currency. Jin was not charged.

Read The Full Article In The Vancouver Sun
Ian Mulgrew: Is challenging new B.C. court pronouns policy OK or akin to hate speech?
Resolution before the Law Society of B.C.’s annual general meeting poised to put a contentious issue through the gender blender.

In a profession still using M’Lord and M’Lady, some B.C. lawyers have balked at new court rules that ask participants in legal proceedings which pronouns they, he or she prefers.

But the brush fire of controversy sparked earlier this year by the changes has kindled into a blaze with a resolution before the Law Society of B.C. annual general meeting calling for a debate on the directives about consideration for gender differences.

In a world of gay pride parades and respect for transgender individuals, the Canadian Bar Association-B.C. Branch denounced the motion as akin to hate speech.

“This is not a benign resolution,” president Clare Jennings maintained in a message to the roughly 7,000 provincial members of the lobby group.

Read The Full Article In The Vancouver Sun