Criminal Law

  • Birthday Present For The DUI Lawyer: What my office gave to me for my birthday

    ByShannon Gunn Emery Hours

    Do you wish you had a video of yourself trying to provide a breath sample when you were stopped by the police for impaired driving? Well, I have a gift (Birthday Present For The DUI Lawyer) to share with you! You may have already seen the Gunn Law Group video and know what I got for my birthday. But I started saying in the video why I was surprised… and unless you have listened to our podcast Why SafeRoads Does Not Make Me Feel Safe, you won’t necessarily know the answer to the teaser in our video about what I was so surprised about. If you are fans of our blogs, you may remember one that was called “What My Husband Bought Me For Christmas”….

  • How to testify in Court

    ByShannon Gunn Emery Hours

    I recently finished a three-day sexual assault trial in which my client ended up testifying. He did well and was acquitted of all charges. Good testimony is not just a question of luck – he was properly prepared. At Gunn Law Group, we know how scary it can be when you realize you may have to testify in Court. What do you bring with you? What should you wear? What can you do to get through cross-examination unscathed? After I finished preparing my client on how to be a good witness, it occurred to me that it would be good to have a podcast people could listen to about how to testify in Court. No sooner did I think of it, than it was done….

  • What My Husband Bought Me For Christmas

    ByShannon Gunn Emery Hours

    Christmas is over but some gifts keep on giving. Last Christmas, I asked my husband for an important gift. I wanted a dash cam for my vehicle. If you have listened to our podcast entitled, “Why SafeRoads Does Not Make Me Feel Safe,” you might be able to guess why. If a person is stopped by a police officer, especially if it is in RCMP territory, chances are that there is an audio and video recording going on the whole time. Many of our clients often express their desire to review the video evidence in their case, as they believe it could substantiate key aspects such as: instances of potential police misconduct, challenges in providing a breath sample, discrepancies between recorded results and officer reports,…

  • Sex Work Laws in Alberta and Elsewhere – Why Shannon Says You Should Care

    ByShannon Gunn Emery Hours

    You likely missed it. There was an article about it in the Calgary Herald[1], but otherwise Covid news, and cute cats got all the attention. To be fair – the 12-week trial was all in French and so maybe most of the media missed it too. On January 10, 2022, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Kristine Eidsvik declared that sections 286.2 and 286.3 of the Criminal Code were unconstitutional[2]. Section 286.2 made it an offence to obtain a material benefit from sex work and section 286.3 made it an offence to procure someone to provide sexual services (more commonly known as pimping). I am enjoying putting those in the past tense. Basically, Justice Eidsvik struck down these laws but suspended her declaration of invalidity for…

  • No Traffic Trials – Who Saw That Coming?

    ByShannon Gunn Emery Hours

    There has been a lot of attention lately on traffic ticket trials – or, rather, the disappearance of them[1]: This is not actually new. The NDP brought in the legislation that allowed this to happen. The Conservatives implemented it in three phases. Impaired driving cases were the first to go. The government began by both charging and giving an administrative sanction (also known as a Notice of Administrative Penalty, also known as an Immediate Roadside Sanction and referred to as an NAP or IRS for short) to those stopped for impaired driving-related offences. Then, in December 2020, moved to just administrative sanctions. The idea is that the government can get all the revenue from fines without having the expense of trials and police officers give…

  • New Impaired Driving Laws in Alberta for 2020

    ByShannon Gunn Emery Hours

    Have you heard about the new impaired driving laws in Alberta? Are you confused? You’re not the only ones! Hi, I’m Shannon Gunn Emery, one of the lawyers with Gunn Law in Alberta, and we are here to help you with everything impaired driving related. If you were charged… “charged”, after December 1st, 2020 you may have a lot of questions! You aren’t actually “charged” but you are really “accused”. And you’re accused in a very unpleasant way, in that, unless you successfully appeal that immediate roadside sanction that you were given, you are going to be treated as if you were charged and convicted after a trial and given all the same penalties but without the trial, but also without the criminal record. You…

  • Future of the Law on Impaired Driving in Alberta

    ByShannon Gunn Emery Hours

    On June 4, the Alberta government announced that it intends to dramatically change the laws on impaired driving in Alberta. If passed, the new laws would take effect towards the end of this year. Many clients have been calling and wondering if the new law might affect their outstanding charges. It won’t. The new law will, however, have a dramatic effect on those stopped and investigated for impaired driving in the new year. There is much in the proposed legislation to make a defence lawyer shiver. Make no mistake! The presumption of innocence is under attack, as are the right to counsel and the right to make full answer and defense. Under the current legislation, an officer can randomly stop any vehicle he or she…

  • Alberta Impaired Driving Law Changes of December 18, 2018

    ByShannon Gunn Emery Hours

    The changes the federal government made on December 18, 2018 are arguably the most radical changes since 1969, when breath-testing for alcohol on a large scale became possible and the offence of “over 80” made its debut in the Criminal Code. For the first time, police can require a motorist, under pain of prosecution, to provide a sample of breath into a screening device without having any reason to believe the person is under the influence of alcohol or even suspect the person has consumed alcohol. The request can be purely random. Police already had the ability to stop any motor vehicle at will – all the police have to say is that the stop is to check for documents or the driver’s sobriety. Coupled…

  • Language Rights in Alberta

    ByShannon Gunn Emery Hours

    I was sitting in court on Friday, waiting for the Court of Queen’s Bench Appearance Court to start when the presiding justice, Chief Justice Moreau, played a recording for everyone. The recording outlined, in French and English, how everyone has the right to have their trials conducted in either of the official languages. This was new! Some people in court appeared surprised but this is just the latest positive change we are seeing for language rights in Alberta. In an 18 page decision, R v Vaillancourt (written in French and issued on November 12, 2019), Mr. Justice Ouellette had recently held that the s. 530 rights of my client had been violated. Section 530 of the Criminal Code has been in place for years but…

  • An Anniversary and a Time for Reflection

    ByShannon Gunn Emery Hours

    This time last year we were trying to anticipate what the new Criminal Code amendments to the laws on impaired driving would mean for our clients. Our lawyers have been kept very busy since the new laws took effect on December 18, 2018. As we approach the one-year anniversary of the amendments, Gunn Law Group is taking this time to look back at how the amendments have played out and what we may expect in the future. The introduction of mandatory alcohol screening (referred to as the MAS demand) was the change that attracted the most media attention at the time. If you were stopped in the past twelve months for speeding, failing to stop or just by an officer who decided to pull you…

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