06/17/2023
My written legal opinion to the effect that only crown counsel and not police could conduct bail hearings changed the law in this area in Alberta; police had been conducting bail hearings for so long that there was an idea that this was somehow entrenched in the law. It took about 70 hours of research and some creativity, and much analysis but I was able to set out the law in a way that unquestionably supported the opposite position; that is, that a police officer was not authorized to act on behalf of the crown in bail hearings. I opined that the criminal code and case law indicated that only a crown prosecutor was able to take on this role (opposite defence counsel), and ultimately, the Court accepted this position. My extensive opinion appears at p. 84 of this related, now public document:
chrome-extensio://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/2532e913-c5c6-4316-842d-b1cf39217994/resource/4c134128-7c59-4057-8fdd-dbd0ce0a9ae8/download/albertabailreview-report.pdf
