Author Archives: Drew Yewchuk

About Drew Yewchuk

B.A. (UAlberta) J.D. (UCalgary) LLM (U.B.C.) Drew was a full-time staff lawyer with the University of Calgary's Public Interest Law Clinic from 2018-2022. He is now an PhD student at the Peter A. Allard School of Law. His research focuses on administrative secrecy, access to information law, species at risk, resource law, and environmental liabilities.

Let’s Talk About Access to Information in Alberta Part Two: Alberta’s Policy on Wildlife Rehabilitation

By: Shaun Fluker and Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: Let’s Talk About Access to Information in Alberta Part Two: Alberta’s Policy on Wildlife Rehabilitation

Policy Change Commented On: Alberta Orphan Black Bear Cub Rehabilitation Protocol, April 2018

In April 2018, Alberta Environment and Parks revised its wildlife rehabilitation policy to allow for the rehabilitation of black bears less than one year old. This change allows for the rehabilitation of orphaned black bear cubs in Alberta, an activity that has been prohibited since 2010 when Alberta implemented a policy change that heavily limited wildlife rehabilitation. Under the new policy, orphaned or injured black bear cubs and several other species have typically been euthanized by wildlife officers. Injured or orphaned wildlife with the good fortune of being found in the national parks might be spared this fate because of federal policy which is more accommodating to the interests of wildlife. For example, orphan bear cubs found in a washroom in Banff were sent to be rehabilitated outside of the province. The Public Interest Law Clinic at the University of Calgary had been working with a person interested in challenging Alberta’s prohibitive wildlife rehabilitation policy, and after the policy change for orphaned black bear cubs in April of 2018, we filed a freedom of information request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, RSA 2000, c F-25 (FOIP Act) seeking to learn more about this policy shift. In December 2018 we received the disclosure materials, and this post explains what we learned as part of our ongoing series about using the access to information process in Alberta.

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Trial Within A Reasonable Time: A Farewell to the Transitional Period

By: Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: Trial Within A Reasonable Time: A Farewell to the Transitional Period

Case Commented On: R v Scher, 2018 ABCA 365; R v Carter, 2018 ABQB 657; R v Tetreault, 2018 ABCA 397

The Supreme Court rendered judgment in R v Jordan, 2016 SCC 27 on July 8, 2016. This post is a review of three recent Alberta decisions addressing Jordan, and a farewell to the transitional provisions, as it has been almost thirty months since Jordan was released. The transitional provisions apply only to time between when charges were laid and when Jordan was released. Few cases left in the system (though some decisions are likely still pending) will involve relevant argument on the application of the transitional provisions. The post ends with a caution about where the law might be headed.

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Let’s Talk About Access to Information in Alberta: Part One

By: Shaun Fluker and Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: Let’s Talk About Access to Information in Alberta: Part One

Legislation Commented On: Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, RSA 2000, c F-25

The Faculty’s Public Interest Law Clinic handles a lot of inquiries from the community that engage with Alberta’s access to information legislation: the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, RSA 2000, c F-25 (FOIP Act). Simply put, there is a high demand for the disclosure of information collected, produced and otherwise held by state officials. The Information and Privacy Commissioner, who serves as an officer of the Legislature (FOIP Act, s 45), is responsible for overseeing the administration of the FOIP Act with the assistance of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC). In its 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 reports to the Legislative Assembly the OIPC indicated the access to information process in Alberta is approaching a crisis. Since commencing operations in 2015, the Public Interest Law Clinic has developed some expertise on working within the FOIP Act, and we would agree the system needs some critical attention. This post summarizes our current observations in this regard and, as the title to this post suggests, we see this as the beginning of a longer conversation. In order to illustrate the process and some of the problems within it, we refer to a request for information filed by the Clinic in July 2017, which is still ongoing, with respect to a creative environmental sentence imposed on CN Rail (see here for details on the offence and the creative sentence).

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Missing Ceilings for Trial Within a Reasonable Time in the Youth Justice Context

By: Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: Missing Ceilings for Trial Within a Reasonable Time in the Youth Justice Context

Case Commented On: R v KJM, 2018 ABCA 278

R v KJM is yet another case addressing the changes to the Charter section 11 right to trial within a reasonable time set out in R v Jordan, 2016 SCC 27. The question in KJM is how the Jordan framework applies in the youth justice context. The Court of Appeal was split three ways. Justices Wakeling and O’Ferrall concurred that KJM’s right to trial within a reasonable time was not violated, and that charges should not be stayed, but their reasons for why are fairly different. Justice Veldhuis found that the delay did violate KJM’s Charter right to trial within a reasonable time and would have stayed the charges.

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The 2017/2018 Year in Access to Justice Issues on ABlawg

By: Drew Yewchuk

PDF Version: The 2017/2018 Year in Access to Justice Issues on ABlawg

Planning is underway to hold Alberta’s first ever Access to Justice week from September 29-October 5, 2019. Alberta will join Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, who each have a week in October dedicated to Access to Justice. In anticipation, this year the Access to Justice Committee of the Canadian Bar Association (Alberta Branch) is taking a week to highlight some of the important initiatives already underway in Alberta. Every day this week they will be posting information about different justice sector organizations in Alberta and the important work they are doing to make access to justice a reality in this province.  We would encourage you to check out their website: here.

To mark the occasion, this is a summary of some of ABlawg’s posts from September 2017 to September 2018, that covered important issues on access to justice issues.

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