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Earlier this year we raised the question of how the justice system will deal with the obesity epidemic.
We just got what might be our first test case.
Michel Lapointe, aka Big Mike, got early release last Tuesday because he couldn’t fit in any of the furniture in his cell. To make things worse, or better in the case of Mike, two other facilities refused to receive him.
Although he received a five-year sentence for conspiracy, drug trafficking and gangsterism, the authorities told him,
You have been detained for more than 25 months and your prison conditions are difficult because of your health.
He will be required to follow some conditions, including finding a job, staying away from bars and checking in with a parole officer.
Should prisoners get early release simply because facilities have failed to consider accommodation of different body types?
Is early release an adequate exemption from their duty to provide an equitable system to rehabilitate criminals?
How will Courtrooms Deal with Obesity Epidemic?
Section 11(b) of the Charter states,
11. Any person charged with an offence has the right…
(b) to be tried within a reasonable time;
The Supreme Court of Canada affirmed in R. v. Finta the principles outlined in R. v. Askov, indicating that 11(b) included the right to a speedy trial,
Two elements must be assessed under s. 11(b): the length of the delay, and its reasonableness. If the delay is prima facie excessive, it is necessary to go on to consider whether it is nonetheless reasonable. Reasonableness may depend on a variety of factors, including the prejudice caused by the delay. Absent waiver, a certain prejudice in a long‑delayed trial may be inferred if not rebutted by the Crown. Here, the delay was prima facie excessive and unreasonable and entitled the accused to the benefit of s. 11(b).
In June 2005, Ontario passed the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA). That same year, Honourable R. Roy McMurtry, Chief Justice of Ontario, headed an advisory report on making courtrooms more accessible. The Attorney-General in this province then followed with an accessibilty plan launched last year.
But courtrooms may be facing a more significant problem [the obvious pun was deliberately avoided for sensitivity reasons].
Sheena Starky explained in a report for the Library of Parliament,
In 2004, approximately 6.8 million Canadian adults ages 20 to 64 were overweight, and an additional 4.5 million were obese.(1) Roughly speaking, an adult male is considered overweight when his body weight exceeds the maximum desirable weight for his height, and obese when his body weight is 20% or more over this desirable weight. A similar guideline holds true for women, but at a threshold of 25% rather than 20%. Dramatic increases in overweight and obesity among Canadians over the past 30 years have been deemed to constitute an “epidemic.”
A Texas court is facing this challenge today, as a woman charged with first-degree murder cannot even fit through the front door of her home,
She was allowed to remain in bed, on a personal recognizance bond, because she couldn’t be put in jail.
“Whatever the county and court system has to do in reference to the death of this child, we’ll do it,” Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra said at that time. “We can’t let someone’s physical disability stand in the way of justice.”
While he and Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño promised yesterday that Rosales would be prosecuted, “they remained mute about the details of that process,” reports the Monitor in another article.
Rosales can’t be put in jail, even if she could fit through the doorway of her home, because she needs medical care…
If a similar case was brought in Canada, it’s unlikely that any buildings could be brought to code in a timely enough manner.
This might rise to teleconference options that have been discussed in other contexts, but such options would have to be examined by the courts first.
Law is Cool – Podcast #9
Show Notes
Total running time 21:15
0:16 Jacob Kaufman and Omar Ha-Redeye introduce themselves.
0:44 Jacob and Omar discuss final exams.
2:10 Omar introduces Lisa Feinberg of UofO Law and the Canadian Interest and Public Policy Clinic (CIPPC), who is one of the law students that filed a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner over Facebook.
3:19 Lisa describes the 22 violations of PIPEDA that the students identified.
4:12 Lisa explains the effort that went into developing the project
5:01 Lisa tells us how the Privacy Commissioner creates and issues recommendations
5:50 Lisa relates the implications for Facebook users, even outside of Canada
7:39 Even though Lisa uses Facebook, she tells us how much more she learned about the site through the project.
9:11 Lisa expresses her interests in social networking, and how she got involved in the project.
11:23 Jacob shares some Facebook policies that demonstrate their attitude to privacy.
11:45 Jacob quotes James Grimmelman, who likens Facebook to a virus. Omar says it sounds like something out of The Matrix.
12:24 Omar introduces an interview with Khurrum Awan, complainant in a case against Maclean’s.
13:30 Khurrum describes the turnout at the Tribunal by members of the media, and the importance of independent coverage.
15:10 Khurrum explains the procedural elements of the Tribunal, when we can expect a decision, and where the case can potentially go from here.
16:32 Jacob talks about the different ways that law students apply their legal education towards advocacy work in real life.
17:08 Jacob shares some of the things he learned from the Facebook complaint, such as how applications can obtain your information without your explicit consent.
17:45 Jacob mentions Robert J. Sawyer’s theory in Maclean’s that notions of privacy are themselves outdated, and that we should have chips implanted in us at all times to track our movements.
18:40 Jacob mentions David Lat, a former American prosecutor who left the law to blog on Above the Law, and how he documented his weight-loss program online. Omar relates how this could be used in the potential trend of obesity lawsuits we could see in the future.
19:54 Jacob describes a New Brunswick case on the disclosure of Facebook materials, Knight v. Barrett, [2008] N.B.J. No. 102.
20:34 Omar and Jacob sign off.
(Look for an upcoming post on a recent Ontario decision regarding Facebook)
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