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.”

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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.

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Lawsuit claims CN and CP railways at fault for sparking fire that wiped out Lytton
A proposed class-action lawsuit alleges CP and CN railways caused or contributed to the wildfire that destroyed the Village of Lytton.

A woman whose home, art and cherished memorabilia were incinerated by the wildfire that destroyed Lytton has filed a class-action lawsuit against Canada’s two main railroads, CN and CP.

Carel Moiseiwitsch says she lost almost everything when the inferno razed the village and her one-and-a-half-storey, three-bedroom home on Alonzo Way that contained personal belongings as well as her art and rug collection.

In her B.C. Supreme Court statement of claim, she alleges the Lytton fire was caused June 30 by heat or sparks from a Canadian Pacific freight train operated by Canadian National Rail employees on tracks owned by CN.

The suit claims the trains have been causing fires for more than a century, and the railroads should have known it was unsafe to operate that day because of the high heat and winds.

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Ian Mulgrew: Man behind revenge website targeting ex-wife gets ‘limited’ support for latest appeal
Opinion: Decision is hard to fathom given Patrick Henry Fox is behind one of the worst examples of vile Internet revenge against his ex-wife

A man who has threatened and tormented his ex-wife despite convictions, jail time, and a restraining order — simultaneously insulting the courts and B.C.’s attorney-general — will get “limited” support for one of his latest appeals.

In a difficult-to-fathom decision, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Gregory Fitch agreed “in the interests of justice” that a lawyer can be appointed to assist Patrick Henry Fox, who is behind one of the worst examples of vile Internet revenge.

The appointed lawyer will evaluate the proposed grounds of appeal from Fox’s conviction for breaching an Aug. 19, 2020, probation order.

Fitch concluded Fox did not need help with his sentence appeal, partly because he gets out this Thursday after his latest stint of incarceration.

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Ian Mulgrew: ‘Reasonable doubt’ should be scrapped
“It is an exacting standard of proof rarely encountered in everyday life, and there is no universally intelligible illustration of the concept.”

Another B.C. trial has been thrown out and a new one ordered because the judge failed to properly explain “reasonable doubt” to a jury — a perennial problem because juries misunderstand the term.

Maybe it is time for Canada, as the U.K. did last year, to abandon those words used to define the standard of criminal justice in British law for more than two centuries.

Another B.C. trial has been thrown out and a new one ordered because the judge failed to properly explain “reasonable doubt” to a jury — a perennial problem because juries misunderstand the term.

Maybe it is time for Canada, as the U.K. did last year, to abandon those words used to define the standard of criminal justice in British law for more than two centuries.

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