Bruce MacFarlane | |
---|---|
Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney, Manitoba | |
In office 1993-2005 | |
Assistant Deputy Attorney General (Criminal Law) | |
In office ? | |
Member of the Queen's Counsel | |
In office 1988-? | |
Appointed by | Government of Canada |
Personal details | |
Born | Winnipeg,Manitoba,Canada |
Education |
|
Occupation | Lawyer |
Bruce A. MacFarlane (born in Winnipeg,Manitoba) is a Canadian lawyer,Crown prosecutor,legal scholar,and former federal and provincial Department of Justice official.
MacFarlane received his B.A. from the University of Winnipeg in 1970 and his LL.B in 1973 from the University of Manitoba. He also graduated from the Canadian Centre for Management Development in 1992. [1]
MacFarlane was called to the bar in the provinces of Manitoba (1974),Saskatchewan (1979),and Alberta (1987),and was appointed Queen's Counsel by the Government of Canada in 1987. [1] He has appeared at trial and on appeal in four provinces and in the Supreme Court of Canada. [2] MacFarlane started his career in Winnipeg with the Federal Department of Justice prosecuting a wide variety of cases with a focus on drug conspiracies and white collar crime. Subsequently,he was appointed Director of Legal Services for the RCMP in Ottawa (1982),Director of Justice Canada in Alberta (1986) and finally Assistant Deputy Attorney General for Canada (1989) where he was responsible for all federal prosecutions across Canada. In 1993,he returned to his home province of Manitoba as Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General from 1993 to 2005. He was also appointed as Special Counsel to the Attorney General on Organized Crime and is currently a member of the Manitoba (1974) and Alberta Bars (1987). Presently,he is on temporary leave from Manitoba Justice to teach at the Robson Hall (Faculty of Law - University of Manitoba) as the Professional in Residence. [1]
MacFarlane has published numerous scholarly writings on criminal law topics,including a leading text entitled Drug Offences in Canada,now in its third edition. [2]
He has also held a variety of different special positions throughout his career. He was appointed as head negotiator to broker an extradition treaty with Mexico. He is a founding member of the Heads of Prosecution Agencies in the Commonwealth and he was a Commissioner at the Uniform Law Conference of Canada. He was also member of the National Crime Prevention Council Co-Chair of the National Committee of Deputy Ministers of Justice in Canada. In 2003,he presented a major paper on wrongful convictions at the bi-annual meeting of the Heads of Prosecution Agencies in the Commonwealth at Darwin,Australia,and presented a revised version at the Ireland meeting in 2005. He also appeared as an expert witness in the Lamer Commission of Inquiry into Wrongful Convictions in Newfoundland in 2005. In 2007 he provided testimony as a witness at former Supreme Court Justice John C. Major Q.C.'s Air India Inquiry. [3] Presently he is a Professional Affiliate,teaching criminal law at Robson Hall (Faculty of Law - University of Manitoba). [4] He teaches classes entitled "Criminal Law and Procedure" and "Miscarriages of Justice".
Mr. MacFarlane is a regular contributor to the Criminal Law Quarterly,and has authored a number of articles on criminal law topics which have been published by the University of British Columbia,The University of Toronto,and the Canadian Bar Association. His writings have been cited and relied upon by Canadian appellate courts and,in one instance,by the High Court of Australia. [4]
In jurisprudence,double jeopardy is a procedural defence that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare cases prosecutorial and/or judge misconduct in the same jurisdiction. Double jeopardy is a common concept in criminal law –in civil law,a similar concept is that of res judicata. The double jeopardy protection in criminal prosecutions bars only an identical prosecution for the same offence;however,a different offence may be charged on identical evidence at a second trial. Res judicata protection is stronger –it precludes any causes of action or claims that arise from a previously litigated subject matter.
In most common law jurisdictions,the attorney general or attorney-general is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions,attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enforcement,prosecutions or even responsibility for legal affairs generally. In practice,the extent to which the attorney general personally provides legal advice to the government varies between jurisdictions,and even between individual office-holders within the same jurisdiction,often depending on the level and nature of the office-holder's prior legal experience.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members of the Commonwealth of Nations.
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system,which is adopted in common law,or inquisitorial system,which is adopted in civil law. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial against the defendant,an individual accused of breaking the law. Typically,the prosecutor represents the state or the government in the case brought against the accused person.
David Milgaard was a Canadian man who was wrongfully convicted for the 1969 rape and murder of nursing student Gail Miller in Saskatoon and imprisoned for 23 years. He was eventually released and exonerated. Up until his death,he lived in Alberta and was employed as a community support worker. Milgaard was also a public speaker who advocated for the wrongfully convicted and for all prisoners' rights.
Joseph Antonio Charles Lamer was a Canadian lawyer,jurist and the 16th Chief Justice of Canada.
Robert George Brian Dickson was a Canadian lawyer,military officer and judge. He was appointed a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada on March 26,1973,and subsequently appointed the 15th Chief Justice of Canada on April 18,1984. He retired on June 30,1990.
The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were two groups of people,mostly Northern Irish,who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 of the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974 and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974. All the convictions were eventually overturned after long campaigns for justice,and the cases,along with those of the Birmingham Six,diminished public confidence in the English criminal justice system.
Victor Toews is a Canadian politician and jurist. Toews is a justice of the Court of King's Bench of Manitoba. He represented Provencher in the House of Commons of Canada from 2000 until his resignation on July 9,2013,and served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper,most recently as Minister of Public Safety. He previously served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1995 to 1999,and was a senior cabinet minister in the government of Gary Filmon. Prior to his appointment to the judiciary,Toews was a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Crown attorneys or crown counsel or,in Alberta and New Brunswick,crown prosecutors are the prosecutors in the legal system of Canada.
James Patrick Driskell is a Canadian born in Winnipeg who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Perry Harder in 1991.
Hersh Wolch was a prominent Canadian lawyer,born in Winnipeg,Manitoba.
Innocence Canada,is a Canadian legal non-profit organization. Based in Toronto,Innocence Canada identifies,advocates for,and helps exonerate wrongly convicted individuals. The organization is also dedicated to preventing future wrongful convictions through education and criminal justice reform. Since its founding in 1993,Innocence Canada has helped to exonerate twenty-nine individuals.
David Harold Eastman is a former public servant from Canberra,Australia. In 1995,he was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. A 2014 judicial inquiry recommended the sentence be quashed and he should be pardoned. On 22 August of the same year,the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory quashed the conviction,released Eastman from prison,and ordered a retrial.
The criminal law of Canada is under the exclusive legislative jurisdiction of the Parliament of Canada. The power to enact criminal law is derived from section 91(27) of the Constitution Act,1867. Most criminal laws have been codified in the Criminal Code,as well as the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act,Youth Criminal Justice Act and several other peripheral statutes.
The Alberta Court of Justice is the provincial court for the Canadian province of Alberta. The Court oversees matters relating to criminal law,family law,youth law,civil law and traffic law. More than 170,000 matters come before the Court every year.
The Provincial Court of Manitoba is the lower trial court of the Province of Manitoba. It has mainly a criminal jurisdiction,as well as limited concurrent jurisdiction with the Court of King's Bench in matters of family law that originate outside of Winnipeg.
A private prosecution is a criminal proceeding initiated by an individual private citizen or private organisation instead of by a public prosecutor who represents the state. Private prosecutions are allowed in many jurisdictions under common law,but have become less frequent in modern times as most prosecutions are now handled by professional public prosecutors instead of private individuals who retain barristers.
The University of Manitoba,Faculty of Law is the law school located in Winnipeg,Manitoba,Canada. It is on the university's Fort Garry campus. The Faculty is located within the Robson Hall building,named after one of the two founders of the law school,Hugh Amos Robson.
Alan N. Young is Professor Emeritus of law at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto,Ontario,Canada. Young retired July 2018. Prior to starting his teaching career at Osgoode in 1986,Young clerked for Chief Justice Bora Laskin of the Supreme Court of Canada and worked as a criminal lawyer in Toronto.