The Justice Files

A Federal Court judge has overturned the rejection of an Eritrean refugee family after finding an immigration officer relied on unfounded speculation about the couple’s relationship, finances and travel.

Justice Andrew Brouwer ruled that the decision denying Yordanos Tesfai Gebretsadik’s application for resettlement was unreasonable and must be reconsidered by a different officer.

A Hamilton judge has sentenced a convicted fentanyl dealer to two years in prison despite arguments that the punishment could lead to his deportation and eliminate his right to appeal a removal order. 

As first reported by the National Post, Hopeton McFarlane, 28, pleaded guilty to possessing fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking. The Jamaican citizen has lived in Canada since arriving with his mother at age five and now holds permanent resident status.

His lawyer sought a conditional sentence of two years less a day, to be served in the community, followed by probation. The Crown requested three years behind bars.

Ontario Court Justice Joe Patrick Paul Fiorucci instead imposed a two-year penitentiary sentence and three years of probation.

“I am concerned about the immigration consequences that may result from the sentence imposed on Mr. McFarlane,” Fiorucci wrote in his Sept. 9 decision.

“However, having regard to the seriousness of the offence and Mr. McFarlane’s degree of responsibility, I am satisfied that a penitentiary sentence is required notwithstanding those immigration consequences.”

Quebec Court of Appeal judges Suzanne Gagné, Christine Baudouin and Geneviève Marcotte have allowed a woman convicted of a vicious biting attack to serve a reduced sentence at home.

In a Sept. 14 decision, the judges replaced Macdala Monfiston’s four-year prison sentence with a conditional sentence of two years less a day.

Monfiston pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after attacking a woman outside a Laval bar in December 2022. The eight-minute assault was captured on surveillance video.

Monfiston pulled the victim’s hair, kicked her while she was on the ground and repeatedly bit her face and arms. According to the Journal de Montréal, a piece of flesh measuring approximately four by six centimetres was torn from the victim’s eyebrow area, leaving a prominent scar.

A federal judge has rejected an attempt to challenge Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree’s refusal to intervene in a dispute involving the RCMP.

As first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, the case stemmed from complaints submitted by an Alberta lawyer alleging serious misconduct related to a longstanding family dispute with an RCMP officer. The accusations included arbitrary enforcement, institutional incompetence, conflicts of interest and the mishandling of evidence.

The matter had already travelled through several channels, including the RCMP commissioner, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission and the Federal Court of Appeal.

An Alberta judge criticized prosecutors for permitting too many relatives and family friends to address the court after a carjacker high on meth killed a nine-year-old Calgary girl, according to a story first reported by the National Post.

Justice Indra Maharaj made the remarks while sentencing Duane Nepoose to 10 years in prison for the Boxing Day 2024 death of Victoria Desjardins.

Nepoose had violently stolen a Dodge Caravan and was fleeing police when he drove through a red light at approximately 170 km/h. The resulting collision killed Victoria and seriously injured her mother, sister and another woman.

He pleaded guilty to robbery, fleeing police, dangerous driving causing death and three counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

An Ontario judge sentenced a man convicted of dangerous driving causing death and bodily harm to two years of house arrest after he killed a 12-year-old girl and left her mother requiring around-the-clock care.

Justice Gethin Edward rejected the Crown’s request for a four-year penitentiary sentence for 31-year-old Darris James Wilson.

Wilson was driving approximately 90 km/h in a 50 km/h zone when his Dodge Ram crossed the centre line and struck a Mitsubishi head-on near Oakland, Ont., in February 2022. Investigators found no evidence that Wilson braked before the collision.

The crash killed Sierra Beverly, who was being driven to a sleepover, and caused her mother, Naomi Beverly, multiple fractures and an acquired brain injury. Beverly now requires 24-hour supervision.

Police found open and unopened beer cans around Wilson’s seat, although responding officers said they observed no signs of impairment.

A B.C. government regulator is being threatened with a Charter lawsuit after placing a formal caution on a realtor’s file over political opinions he expressed on social media about race-based restrictions on a provincial park. 

The Canadian Constitution Foundation has demanded that the B.C. Financial Services Authority remove the June 22 caution issued to Langley realtor Corbin Chivers.

Chivers’ disputed posts concerned Indigenous land claims and the closure of Joffre Lakes Provincial Park to non-Indigenous visitors. They were published on his personal social-media accounts and were unrelated to his work as a realtor.

A Manitoba judge has overturned the education minister’s decision to permanently revoke the teaching certificate of a longtime music teacher who exchanged private social-media messages with a 13-year-old female student.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Elissa Neville ruled Education Minister Tracy Schmidt’s reasons for cancelling Robert Hrabluk’s certificate were “simply not good enough.”

Hrabluk taught guitar and band in the Louis Riel School Division for 23 years. A school division investigation began in July 2024 after he disclosed that a parent had confronted him about messages exchanged with the Grade 8 student.

The girl reportedly followed Hrabluk online and initiated the conversation. Their intermittent communication continued for approximately four months before her parent discovered it.

The exact messages were not published in the 36-page ruling. Neville noted they were not sexualized, while Schmidt described the communications as “persistent, secretive and obviously inappropriate.”

A British Columbia family doctor has been ordered to pay $28,100 after the province’s Human Rights Tribunal ruled he discriminated against a transgender teenager by refusing to administer a prescribed puberty blocker.

Tribunal vice-chair Devyn Cousineau found Dr. Henry Ajaero violated Section 8 of the B.C. Human Rights Code when he declined to inject the 14-year-old patient with Lupron in March 2021.

Ajaero, a practising Anglican, told the teen’s mother he could not administer the drug for religious and cultural reasons. He also argued that using Lupron for gender-related treatment fell outside his experience and the scope of his practice.

The tribunal rejected both defences.

Cousineau accepted that Ajaero had never previously administered Lupron, had no experience providing transgender care and made the decision while operating a busy practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also found his refusal was not malicious or intended to harm the teenager.

A New Brunswick man serving life in prison for murdering his two sons will not be prosecuted for allegedly violating an order barring him from contacting their mother.

Court records show Crown prosecutor Joshua Adams withdrew two breach charges against Roman Kamyshnyy on August 19 before Provincial Court Judge Andrew Palmer. The court documents did not explain the decision.

Kamyshnyy, 46, was convicted in June of two counts of first-degree murder for stabbing his sons, aged 10 and 17, to death in January 2025. Justice Darrell Stephenson sentenced him to two concurrent life sentences with no possibility of parole for 25 years. Stephenson described the murders as an act of vengeance against Kamyshnyy’s ex-wife.

Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board has cleared a foreign national accused of human smuggling after he admitted transporting migrants through the United States to locations near the Canadian border so they could cross and claim asylum.

The case involving Kevin Franklin was decided in March 2026 but published online only recently, according to National Post columnist Jamie Sarkonak. Public Safety Canada had alleged Franklin was inadmissible to Canada for organized criminality because of his suspected involvement in human smuggling.

Franklin admitted driving people to locations “near the Canadian border,” where they subsequently entered Canada and made refugee claims.

The immigration tribunal nevertheless found him admissible because the evidence did not establish that he brought the migrants across the border himself. The publicly indexed material does not identify the adjudicator who made the decision.

Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act prohibits anyone from organizing, inducing, aiding or abetting people coming into Canada while knowing, or being reckless as to whether, their entry violates the law.