This past Tuesday I had the unique opportunity to participate in two
panel discussions hosted by the Queen’s Law School criminal law club. I
was joined on the panel by one of the event organizers and first-year
law student Simon Borys (Simon is a former police officer who left the
force to attend law school to become a criminal lawyer; he has become
well-respected amongst criminal lawyers and provides a unique and useful
perspective), Kingston criminal lawyer Michael Mandelcorn, Professor
Lisa Dufraimont, and Kingston Assistant Crown Attorney Andrew Scott.
Besides providing me the opportunity to stroll around campus again (I
did my undergrad at Queen’s), the event was a great chance to share my
perspective on criminal law with law students (and my future
colleagues).
The first discussion involved the recent Supreme
Court decision of R. v. Sinclair, where the court, in a split decision,
determined that an accused does not have the right to have counsel
present at an interrogation. I tried to present the practical
implications this decision has in practice. For example, the question
arose as to how I would approach an interrogation if I were allowed to
be present, and my answer was I would almost certainly prevent it from
happening at all (or at least sit there repeatedly saying “don’t answer
that question”. My approach seemed to be appreciated by the students as
it showed how law is applied outside of the classroom.