Joven Narwal was interviewed by the Lawyer’s Daily about our ruling in I was interviewed by the The Lawyer’s Daily about our ruling in R. v. Mohsenipour 2020 BCCA 160, in which the court of appeal held that if a constitutionally impugned offence is replaced with remedial legislation within the period of a suspended declaration of invalidity, conduct captured by the former offence is prosecutable. This is the first appellate ruling to squarely address this issue. Our argument on this leg of the appeal was in essence that Section 52 of the Constitution Act is direct and non-discretionary – laws struck down are of no force and effect and that to allow the appeal would permit an end run around the Bedford ruling which would defeat the purpose of s.52. This is a very important constitutional ruling which may still make its way upstairs to the Supreme Court of Canada. There is also an ongoing appeal in the same matter which involves an allegation of non-disclosure by the Crown of critical material relating to the credibility of complainants and serious police misconduct.

The article can be found here: https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/articles/19620/effect-of-suspended-declaration-of-invalidity-pre-empted-by-remedial-legislation-b-c-appeal-court