Latest news with #CriminalCodeofCanada
Cision Canada
a day ago
- Business
- Cision Canada
BODOG BLOCKED FROM OPERATING IN MANITOBA Français
WINNIPEG, MB, July 3, 2025 /CNW/ - Following his ruling of May 26, 2025, which ordered an immediate and permanent ban on the illegal gambling site Bodog in Manitoba, The Honourable Jeffrey Harris, Judge of the Court of King's Bench of Manitoba issued the written reasons for his decision late last week. In his reasons, Justice Harris held that Bodog has no legal authority to operate in Manitoba and that its solicitation and acceptance of bets in Manitoba violates the Criminal Code of Canada. Justice Harris further held that Bodog "is misleading Manitobans as to the lawfulness, character and quality of the and the platforms." He accepted evidence that Bodog advertises and promotes its unlawful gambling offerings to Manitobans through a variety of false and misleading statements, and that Bodog markets itself to Manitobans as a legal, safe online casino when in fact its operations in Manitoba are illegal. Further, Justice Harris accepted evidence that because no Canadian or provincial government regulates or controls Bodog's activities, Bodog has no obligation in this country to implement responsible gambling features, pay taxes, or comply with anti-money laundering requirements. The Court's reasons resolve an application brought earlier this year by Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries (MBLL), on behalf of the Canadian Lottery Coalition, for an injunction to stop Il Nido Ltd. and Sanctum IP Holdings Ltd., two entities that operate or are associated with the Bodog gambling site, from operating or advertising Bodog within Manitoba. In his May 26 order enjoining Il Nido Ltd. and Sanctum IP Holdings Ltd., Justice Harris declared that Bodog has "no lawful authority to offer online gambling products and services, whether through or any other related successor or replacement websites, or to advertise such online products and services to persons located in Manitoba, as such activities are contrary to sections 201, 202, and 206 of the Criminal Code". "We could not be more pleased with this ruling," said Gerry Sul, President and CEO, MBLL. "With this decision, Justice Harris has unequivocally confirmed that Bodog's operations within Manitoba are prohibited by the Criminal Code, Competition Act, and the Trademarks Act, and that MBLL has the sole legal authority to provide gambling offerings within the province. Bodog's conduct has not only been unlawful, the harm their illegal operations have caused to MBLL – and Manitobans – is incalculable." Since the introduction of single-event sports betting in 2021, Canadians have seen a rapid increase in the frequency of online gaming sites and advertisements from illegal operators. The Criminal Code of Canada gives provinces the exclusive right to conduct and manage gaming, including online gaming, within their respective jurisdictions. In Manitoba, MBLL is the designated authority and PlayNow is the only legal online gambling site authorized to operate in the province. "The continued advertising and promotion of illegal gambling sites gives Canadians the false impression that they are operating legally, which is not the case," said Pat Davis, President and CEO, British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC). "Not only are many of these sites operating in offshore markets that leave no protection or recourse for the player, but they also divert revenues that would otherwise be returned to provincial governments and directed to much-needed programs and services." As per the May 26 injunction issued by the Court, Il Nido Ltd. and Sanctum IP Holdings Ltd., are required to implement geo-blocking technology on their site to prevent anyone located in Manitoba from accessing, viewing, purchasing, or otherwise engaging with any of their online gambling products or services. The Canadian Lottery Coalition, comprised of MBLL, Atlantic Lottery Corporation, BCLC, Loto-Québec, and Lotteries and Gaming Saskatchewan, remains committed to creating a safer online gaming environment for all Canadians.
Global News
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Global News
Declare gender-based violence an ‘epidemic,' B.C. review urges
Gender-based violence should be declared an epidemic, a review of British Columbia's system that deals with sexual and intimate partner violence has concluded. The review, conducted by lawyer Kim Stanton, makes numerous recommendations, including the appointment of an independent commissioner on gender-based violence. 'Gender-based violence has been normalized somehow, but it shouldn't be,' Stanton said Tuesday. 'It is pervasive, but it is preventable.' 1:48 Calls to eliminate violence against women The report includes a number of sobering statistics, including that over one-third of women and girls aged 15 and up in B.C. have experienced sexual violence, and nearly half have experienced intimate partner violence. Story continues below advertisement More than nine in 10 survivors of sexual assault do not report it to police, while eight in 10 survivors of partner violence do not report it, the report found. 'I want you to sit with those numbers for a little bit,' B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma said. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'That silence isn't because harm isn't happening. It's because too often, survivors don't feel safe coming forward. They fear not being believed, retraumatized or dismissed.' 2:02 Push to enshrine femicide in Criminal Code of Canada on anniversary of Montreal massacre The review calls on the province to prioritize resources for prevention initiatives, including public education, to help prevent violence before it escalates to the legal system. It also calls for more support services for survivors and for men who engage in violence. And it recommends improving education and training system-wide, including for police, prosecutors, courts and correction workers on the dynamics of gender-based violence and unconscious bias. Story continues below advertisement It also calls on the province to implement accountability measures to ensure that its recommendations don't get acknowledged and then ignored. 'There have been decades of recommendations made to address and reduce gender-based violence and to improve access to justice, and yet, as you heard, we still have 94 per cent of sexual assault survivors not reporting and 80 per cent of intimate partner violence survivors not reporting,' Stanton said. 'So the review's focus was to try to disrupt that cycle of repeated recommendations with non-appreciable outcomes for survivors.' 2:08 Study sheds light on knowledge gap in recognizing intimate partner violence Asked about a timeline for when recommendations could be adopted, Sharma said the province would take some time to fully digest the report, but would act quickly where it can. 'Right away, we are launching a gender-based violence action committee within government that's a cross-ministry committee that is going to be tasked with this report and those recommendations,' she said. Story continues below advertisement 'I intend to act quickly on the ones that can be done quickly, and the ones that would take longer, of course, we'll have to work with other partners in the justice system to do so. And we will have an update in the fall.' Stanton's review also recommends reform in the courts and more funding for legal aid supporting family law services. And it calls for the creation of a 'gender-based violence death review committee' to better understand how fatal gender-based violence cases are handled across the system and make recommendations to prevent future deaths, similar to the function of a coroner's inquest.
Vancouver Sun
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Canada's justice minister says he is 'open' to adding 'femicide' to the Criminal Code
OTTAWA — Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser says he is 'open' to including the term 'femicide' in the Criminal Code, which has long been called for by researchers and advocates looking to shine a spotlight on the issue of the killing of women and girls. The term broadly refers to when a woman is killed by a man based on the fact that she is a woman, with varying definitions that speak to previous patterns of abuse by a male perpetrator or ideologies. Police services that use the term often do so when a killing occurs in the context of an intimate partner relationship. Kingston, Ont. police did so for the first time last month when announcing it had laid first-degree murder charges against a 26-year-old man charged in the death of his 25-year-old partner. Police said it considered her death a 'femicide.' Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. During the federal election campaign, the Liberals inked the term into their platform, promising to better protect victims of sexual and intimate partner violence by 'making murder motivated by hate a constructive first-degree offence, including femicide.' In a recent wide-ranging interview, Fraser said the government would look at the 'precise language' of the reforms it plans to make to the Criminal Code, which are expected to be tabled in a bill this fall. Asked specifically whether he was open to including 'femicide' in the Criminal Code, Fraser said, 'I'm open to it, certainly.' 'I'm not going to close the door on any of the solutions that may be presented to me over the next couple of months as we seek to finalize the draft. But we've not made a decision one way or another as to the language that will be included in either the name of the offence, or the specific language included in the new provisions we'll be looking to add.' Megan Walker, a longtime advocate for victims and preventing violence against women, says Fraser's statement makes her 'cautiously optimistic.' 'It's the first time that there's been any acknowledgement that femicide could potentially be incorporated into the Criminal Code of Canada, so I'm encouraged.' The London, Ont.-based advocate, a member of the city's police board — which has called for it to be defined in law—says that d oing so would allow for more accurate data collection. Police across Canada operate in a patchwork of how they report these killings, referring to them as an 'intimate partner death' or, in other cases, a 'domestic homicide.' Other times, police do not disclose any such details. That includes the cases of a murder-suicide when no charge is laid, but a woman is killed by her partner or ex-partner. National Post contacted police services across Canada to confirm whether they use 'femicide.' Police in Halifax, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Edmonton said they do not, but rather stick to definitions outlined in the Criminal Code. 'The motivation for a crime is carefully investigated and ultimately proven in court,' Toronto police spokeswoman Stephanie Sayer wrote in an email. She added that Toronto police became the first in Canada to lay a terrorism charge in connection to a homicide linked to a hatred of women, when it did so against a 17-year-old, who pled guilty in the stabbing death of 24-year-old Ashley Noelle Arzaga, whose 2020 death police said was inspired by the incel movement. 'The classification of a homicide as 'femicide' highlights the gender-based motivation behind the crime, but it does not change the legal charge or outcome of the case, as it's not in the Criminal Code,' Sayer said. A spokesperson for Montreal police said, besides not being defined in the Criminal Code, 'there's no uniformity' in how 'femicide' is used. Peel police said it uses 'femicide', as does the Ottawa Police Service, which said it began doing so last August when it announced murder charges against the husband of Jennifer Zabarylo, who was found dead in the couple's home. Ottawa police said it established its definition based on 14 different factors. Robin Percival, a spokeswoman for the RCMP, the main police service for the country's rural and remote areas, said in a statement that it was looking at examples such as Ottawa police, with the goal of establishing its own definition. The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, which was established in 2017, has been tracking the killings of women and girls, including through media reports, and has produced several reports detailing the circumstances of their deaths, from locations to how they were killed, to the nature of their relationship to the accused. It is among the most prominent groups that say defining femicide in Canadian criminal law would improve data on the issue nationwide. Kat Owens, the interim legal director of the LEAF, which stands for Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, says there is 'value' to defining it in the Criminal Code, but adds looking at the criminal legal system alone to deal with gender-based violence is insufficient. 'We know that we can't address what we don't measure.' She said she views the push to change the Criminal Code to include 'femicide' as largely being a step towards better data collection, as well as raising awareness, and that a parliamentary committee should carefully study the issue. 'Anytime we're adding something into the Criminal Code that has additional elements that need to be proven, then we have a question of OK, well what kind of evidence do you need?', which she said is the case when it comes to questions of intent. Owens pointed to the Liberals' promise of making femicide a first-degree murder offence, which is reserved for killings police believe to be pre-planned. She said caution should be exercised with the proposed change, saying it essentially 'removes any sort of incentive for a guilty plea,' as compared to when a charge of second-degree murder is laid, where pre-planning was not a factor. 'You might see a victim's family put through a trial where the person might have pleaded guilty if there were other options on the table, but realistically, people are much less likely to plead guilty to first-degree murder, given the sentence of life without eligibility for parole for 25 years.' In his recent interview, Fraser confirmed he was discussing the possibility of creating a 'presumptive charge of first-degree murder,' based on a killing motivated by hatred of women. 'But the precise nature, whether it's a unique offence, an aggravating factor or some other mechanism that we use in the (Criminal Code) is something that I owe conversations to important stakeholders before we finalize,' he said. Walker said she wants to see the issue of adding femicide to the Criminal Code studied as a separate issue, apart from other justice reforms the government plans to make, with families of victims invited to share their experiences. 'I have worked with many, many families whose children were killed, and they use the term femicide because they say that it best represents what's happened to their child,' she said. 'If we cannot respect the views of families who have lost their children, then I think we are failing all women across the nation.' Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Vancouver Sun
17-06-2025
- Vancouver Sun
Canadian man caught trying to enter U.S. in stolen Porsche Cayenne
A Canadian citizen trying to enter the U.S. last week was turned over to the RCMP and the Canadian border agency after it was discovered he was driving a stolen vehicle. On Wednesday, June 11, the 39-year-old was making his way into the U.S. via the Port of Champlain border crossing in upstate New York and south of Montreal, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. During primary inspection, he told CBP officers he was bound for Plattsburgh, N.Y., about 30 minutes south, but 'inconsistencies in the driver's story' led to a more thorough inspection and screening of him and the 2023 Porsche Cayenne he was driving. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. In an email, New York State CBP public affairs officer Mike Niezgoda told National Post that agency privacy laws prevent him from discussing particulars, including the 'inconsistencies' that led to the accused's secondary inspection. 'CBP officers are highly skilled at discovering inconsistencies in travellers' statements, a skill taught at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center,' he wrote. 'When this occurs, CBP officers may proceed in requiring a secondary inspection/examination of a traveller.' CBP officers soon discovered the luxury SUV, which costs CAD$82,000 for the base trim or $194,800 for the fully-loaded hybrid model , had been reported stolen at an undisclosed location in Canada earlier that day. CBP contacted the RCMP to confirm the man's identity and that the vehicle had been stolen, 'a charge that is equivalent to a felony in the United States.' Yesterday (June 11), CBP officers at the Champlain, NY port of entry arrested a Canadian citizen who was driving a stolen 2023 Porshe Cayenne that had been reported—stolen earlier in the day. Learn More➡️ Under the Criminal Code of Canada , possession of stolen property over $5,000 is an indictable offence and may result in jail time if found guilty. After being processed, CBP handed the man and the Porsche over to the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency. National Post has contacted both Canadian agencies for more information. Niezgoda said anyone seeking to enter the U.S. needs to 'overcome ALL grounds for inadmissibility,' of which there are more than 60 ' divided into several major categories, including health-related, prior criminal convictions, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds.' Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Calgary Herald
17-06-2025
- Calgary Herald
Canadian man caught trying to enter U.S. in stolen Porsche Cayenne
Article content A Canadian citizen trying to enter the U.S. last week was turned over to the RCMP and the Canadian border agency after it was discovered he was driving a stolen vehicle. Article content On Wednesday, June 11, the 39-year-old was making his way into the U.S. via the Port of Champlain border crossing in upstate New York and south of Montreal, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Article content Article content During primary inspection, he told CBP officers he was bound for Plattsburgh, N.Y., about 30 minutes south, but 'inconsistencies in the driver's story' led to a more thorough inspection and screening of him and the 2023 Porsche Cayenne he was driving. Article content Article content 'CBP officers are highly skilled at discovering inconsistencies in travellers' statements, a skill taught at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center,' he wrote. 'When this occurs, CBP officers may proceed in requiring a secondary inspection/examination of a traveller.' Article content CBP officers soon discovered the luxury SUV, which costs CAD$82,000 for the base trim or $194,800 for the fully-loaded hybrid model, had been reported stolen at an undisclosed location in Canada earlier that day. Article content CBP contacted the RCMP to confirm the man's identity and that the vehicle had been stolen, 'a charge that is equivalent to a felony in the United States.' Article content Article content Yesterday (June 11), CBP officers at the Champlain, NY port of entry arrested a Canadian citizen who was driving a stolen 2023 Porshe Cayenne that had been reported—stolen earlier in the day. Learn More➡️ — CBP Buffalo (@CBPBuffalo) June 12, 2025 Article content Under the Criminal Code of Canada, possession of stolen property over $5,000 is an indictable offence and may result in jail time if found guilty. Article content Article content After being processed, CBP handed the man and the Porsche over to the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency. Article content Niezgoda said anyone seeking to enter the U.S. needs to 'overcome ALL grounds for inadmissibility,' of which there are more than 60 ' divided into several major categories, including health-related, prior criminal convictions, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds.' Article content
