On Nov. 14, 2025, the top court issued extensive and detailed guidance for the bench and bar and settled conflicting caselaw among the provincial appellate courts, which have been divided over how to interpret the evidentiary requirements for impaired driving prosecutions under Criminal Code amendments that Parliament enacted in 2018: R.v. Rousselle, 2025 SCC35; R.v. Larocque, 2025 SCC 36. […]
Traffic lawyer Paul Doroshenko comes on to discuss what is quickly growing into a full-blown epidemic: Distracted driving… “I think the fines in the province really need to be revisited… But I think it would be so complex to link it to income that we’d be spending a whole lot of taxpayer money trying to
Six weeks into labour action that has seen 22,000 public service workers taking part in a full or partial strike from the jobs that keep provincial services functioning, people across the province are feeling the impact of service delays and disruptions. This toll is being felt across sectors — from social services and the justice system, to university
How the BCGEU strike has had an impact on British Columbians — so far Continue Reading »
Authorities handed out 102 distracted driving tickets during a single-day enforcement blitz in Richmond, B.C., last week… “… I don’t see a change in behaviour because the enforcement has been so inconsistent, particularly since the start of the pandemic and they lost so many police officers. We see so many of these blitzes for two
Paul Doroshenko on The Mike Smyth News Show: Distracted Driving Blitz Continue Reading »
@prairiepaul If the police pull you over for speeding and ask you, “do you know how fast you were going,” what should you say? Usually your answer will not matter in court. However, the police ask that question as a method of controlling you or to confirm something they are not sure about. #Police #Ticket
A Prince George man was pulled over by police after driving a child-size pink toy Barbie Jeep along one of the main roads in the north-central B.C. city on Sept. 5. And on a day that included a hit-and-run involving an ambulance and a prominent downtown business being destroyed by fire, photos and video of the Barbie Jeep quickly spread
A Lindsay, Ontario homeowner was charged with aggravated assault after injuring a man who allegedly broke into his apartment. “Reasonable force is going to be context dependant… If somebody is threatening you or making acts of violence towards you, the amount of force you’re going to be allowed to use to remove them from your
In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada has found that for trials held during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was acceptable for judges to consent to judge-only trials over the objections of Crown prosecutors to avoid creating delays. The Court’s reasoning, however, split 5-2 over where the line was when it came to the Crown’s prosecutorial
Traffic lawyer Paul Doroshenko comes on to unpack the push to lower residential speed limits. Vancouver wants to hit the brakes. Literally. City Council considering dropping speed limits to 30km an hour on all neighbourhood streets, possibly lowering limits on some other major streets, too. They say it’s about safety, of course. Opponents say it’s
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a woman convicted in the 2011 drowning death of a toddler must be acquitted. The Court clarified one of the routes of when an appeal court can enter such an acquittal and was split 5-4 in its reasons on whether the Court should
An amendment to B.C.’s Motor Vehicle Act means drivers need to give a certain distance if they’re passing but a cyclist says that didn’t happen in his case when an SUV hit him. The Vancouver police said the driver wasn’t fully at fault because the cyclist wasn’t hugging the road enough. “…cyclists can’t occupy a
Kyla Lee on Global News: Cyclist says B.C.’s new cycling law failed him Continue Reading »
Mark talks to Kyla Lee and Paul Doroshenko about their criminal law practice in Vancouver, how they’ve approached marketing themselves over the years, and their journey in opening Deep Blue Distilleries. When it comes to legal marketing in the digital age, few lawyers have been as forward-thinking — and as candid — as Kyla Lee
