Brandon Chung

criminal lawyer @HeneinHutchison • former law clerk @SCC_eng + bcca • @Cambridge_Uni + @queensu alum • he/him • law and

[Laura Metcalfe @LauraMetcalfe23]

Seeking any criminal defence lawyers (past or current) who identify as female or BIPOC to email [email protected] your interest in participating in a confidential interview. The CLAs Diversity and Women’s Committee successfully received one of the @LawSocietyLSO Equity Grants.

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@SewrattanLaw Thanks, Chris. And thank you to your sister as well!

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@SewrattanLaw Maybe that's uncharitable but this was an unforced error.

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@SewrattanLaw This gets cast as being about a “relationship” not being protected and its impact is maybe lessened by the police sting. But honestly, how different is that statement from what Doherty J.A. seems to say: “drunk drivers can’t expect evidence of their drinking to be private”.

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@SewrattanLaw This feels like a short version of what Brown J was trying to say about REP in the context of child luring investigations in Mills

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@SewrattanLaw Tough to figure out something that makes no sense

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@SewrattanLaw That time also arguably works rehabilitation.

At least for those two reasons, time spent in custody should change the calculus of whether a conditional sentence is appropriate. Fice was wrong to interpret “appropriate sentence” in 742 as restrictively as it did.

Sigh

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@SewrattanLaw Fice fails to recognize that time spent incarcerated acts to pay down a moral debt (I don’t love thinking of it this way, but I think at least doctrinally this is implied by the idea that moral blameworthiness is both a justification for and a constraint on punishment).

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@SewrattanLaw Thank you, Chris! Appreciate the shout out.

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

Subscribe here: https://t.co/0Cvc55q3U4

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@HearsayDaily is an amazing resource that anyone interested in law-related news in Canada should follow. It’s a quick daily read that pulls together everything from case summaries to legislative developments to local stories. Not sure how @DylanJGibbs does it but I’m glad he does

[Tonya Kent @tonya_ck]

I too am running for a CLA Toronto position and would ask you to vote for me of course, but there are 8 spots and I hope you also consider Chris for one of those spots. He's dedicated to the practice of criminal law and would be an amazing addition to the board.

[Chris Sewrattan @SewrattanLaw]

Please consider voting for me for an Executive position on the @ClaOntario. Voting starts today. My platform is on the ballot.

[Chris Sewrattan @SewrattanLaw]

R. v. Agpoon, 2023 ONCA 449: I don't tweet my own cases but you need to know this one
https://t.co/fJOQgIJGkR

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@SunKerry Maybe it’s about the terms here, since “commentary” is broad. I just thought this discussion obscured what was clear in Le: that JN can be taken of facts established in academic work, as long as it meets the relevant test. But if “commentary” is just legal opinion then I agree

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

But hard to see how the statement that “academic commentary or scholarship … is not properly the subject of judicial notice” squares with Le at paras. 82-89, which recognizes that “authoritative studies, research and articles” can establish social context via judicial notice

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@SunKerry Maybe I can put it this way: it’s not like the application of those safeguards could ever lead to a circumstance where legal opinion goes in to help resolve a factual question. Opinion just doesn’t do that.

[Brandon Chung @bashchung]

@SunKerry If that’s all then ok. But the issue then isn’t that the risk commentary may “result in evidence being imported into judicial proceedings indirectly, bypassing the relevant evidentiary safeguards”. It’s that a legal opinion doesn’t help resolve factual q’s because…how could it?