Warren A. Lyon and Angel Ronan have won the Law Society of Canada's Award of Excellence for work in reviewing the Umar Zameer 2024 murder file recently concluded in a withdrawal of charges. A new criminal law question will ask if a driver can he held liable for murder or involuntary manslaughter if someone standing in their blind zone late at night as a parking ticket officer but in plain clothes is struck and killed allegedly. If the victim was killed, is there an autopsy or death certificate? If you strike and kill something in your blind spot, it cannot be murder since you cannot see the item you may have struck. In this scenario what does the Crown have to prove to establish involuntary manslaughter? You would have to prove there was some intent to strike the alleged victim deliberately. You cannot intend to strike a person that the evidence confirms were in your blind zone. If you did reverse and run over someone you did not see in you blind spot, injuring them and then they later died, what is your defense? If you hit someone in a play fight deliberately where they did not die right away but maybe suffered a hemorrhage do to a blood condition and died, you could be liable for involuntary manslaughter it seems. If you hit them in self defense, you may be charged for manslaughter if they died due to the hemorrhage but you have a credible defense; the defense of self defense. So, if you are fleeing what appears to be a situation that threatens your life and you hit something in your blindspot while driving, you can only say that you were intentionally driving away to flee danger but hitting anyone or anything is not intended especially if you did not see the obstacle or person in your blindspot. You intend to drive away out of what strange situation you see arising around you and your family on a holiday weekend. There is no intent to strike or kill anyone but to drive away. Any accident that ensued is unfortunate. Is it reckless driving? Can we say he should have seen the obstruction? If he says, he took all reasonable care, Due Diligence and attention at the time of the offence, it may exculpate the driver in his impugned behavior. You would say you checked your blind spots but I am sure the car park video will show you the entire accident scenario and whether anyone was struck or how. Maybe you are just accusing someone for eating Mexican food with a little rat spit in side the sauce and thought you would take him for a fool since anyone with rat spit in their blood has low credibility; I suppose. Recklessness at that hour can be assessed in the criminal law if it is reckless driving causing death or bodily harm. Even so, you have the defense of self defense that includes fleeing and escape. Court-imposed penalties for careless driving causing death/bodily harm are as follows: minimum fine of $2,000, up to a maximum fine of $50,000; custodial jail sentence not exceeding 2 years; and/or up to 5 year Ontario Driver's Licence suspension. The badge displayed by on of the officers that night is not a Toronto Police badge even if it was seen. As it is not a badge within the jurisdiction, it could not command a citizen in the jurisdiction to stop. Wearing the regalia that night is not evidence that the accused saw the individual and the regalia. Even so, it amounts to a plain clothed individual wearing that foreign badge costumery; impersonating an officer. Click here.

  Warren A. Lyon and Angel Ronan have won the Law Society of Canada's Award of Excellence for work in reviewing the     Umar Zameer  2024  murder file recently concluded in a withdrawal of charges. 

A new criminal law question will ask if a driver can he held liable for murder or involuntary manslaughter if someone standing in their blind zone late at night as a parking ticket  officer but in plain  clothes is struck and killed allegedly.  If the victim was  killed, is there an autopsy or death certificate? If you strike and kill  something in your blind spot, it cannot be murder since you cannot see the item you may have struck. 

In this scenario what does the Crown have to prove to establish involuntary manslaughter?  You would have to prove there was some intent to  strike the alleged victim deliberately. You cannot intend to strike a person that the evidence confirms were in your blind zone. The badge on the plain clothes individual now claiming to be an officer was not a real badge and was not sufficient to command surrender but the compunction to flee.  It was a Halloween costume badge.  

  If you did reverse and run over someone you did not see in you blind spot, injuring them and then they later died, what is your defense? If you hit someone in a play fight deliberately where they did not die right away but maybe suffered a hemorrhage do to a blood condition and died, you could be liable for involuntary manslaughter it seems. If you hit them in self defense, you may be charged for manslaughter if they died due to the hemorrhage but you have a credible defense; the defense of self defense.  So, if you are fleeing what appears to be a situation that threatens your life and you hit something in your blindspot while driving, you can only say that you were intentionally driving away to flee danger but hitting anyone or anything is not intended especially if you did not see the obstacle or person in your blindspot.   You intend to drive away out of what strange situation you see arising around you and your family on a holiday weekend.  There is no intent to strike or kill anyone but to drive away. Any accident that ensued is unfortunate.  Is it reckless driving? Can we say he should have seen the obstruction? If he says, he took all reasonable care, Due Diligence  and attention at the time of the offence, it may exculpate the driver in his impugned behavior.  You would say you checked your blind spots but I am sure the car park video will show you the entire accident scenario and whether anyone was struck or how.  Maybe you are just accusing someone for eating Mexican food with a little rat spit in side the sauce and thought you would take him for a fool since anyone with rat spit in their blood has low credibility; I suppose.    

Recklessness at that hour can be assessed in the criminal law if it is reckless driving causing  death or bodily harm.   Even so, you have the defense of self defense that includes fleeing and escape.  Court-imposed penalties for careless driving causing death/bodily harm are as follows: minimum fine of $2,000, up to a maximum fine of $50,000; custodial jail sentence not exceeding 2 years; and/or up to 5 year Ontario Driver's Licence suspension. The badge displayed by  on of the officers that night is not a Toronto Police badge even if it was seen.  As it is not a badge within the jurisdiction, it could not command a citizen in the jurisdiction to stop.  Wearing the  regalia that night is not evidence that the accused saw the individual and the regalia.   Even so, it amounts to a plain clothed individual wearing that foreign badge costumery; impersonating an officer.  Click here. 

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Manslaughter is considered a homicide that was committed without the intention to cause death, although there may have been an intention to cause bodily harm. For example, if you fire a gun and unintentionally hit a bystander and kill them, you could be charged. If you punch someone and they fall, strike their head and die, you could be convicted of manslaughter. Essentially, if someone’s death was a direct consequence of an unlawful act by you, manslaughter charges can be laid.

You could also face charges if a homicide occurs due to an action or inaction if you owe a duty of care to someone. If your son is given a BB gun for Christmas and you see  he is angry with supporters of the neighboring  town's football team, do you owe citizen's of the Neighboring town a duty of care?  It would be that any risk of harm he presents is remote and not foreseeable. 

However, you would not be charged as a bystander who sees someone in distress and chooses not to help.

A culpable homicide that would be considered murder may be reduced to manslaughter if the person who committed it did so in the heat of passion caused by sudden provocation.

According to the Criminal Code, provocation is defined as “conduct of the victim ... of such a nature as to be sufficient to deprive an ordinary person of the power of self-control ... before there was time for their passion to cool.”

A murder charge can be also reduced to manslaughter if your mental faculties were impaired by alcohol or other substances.