The Specialized Knowledge Required To Deal With Extradition Orders

There is a series of qualifications that make someone eligible to be extradited out of Canada. We look at the relevant sections within the Criminal Code to determine whether our client’s offence meets those qualifications and many offenses do. Foreign governments know what they are doing when they make those requests, so when an extradition request is made it usually meets that bare threshold.

There is a lot of very specialized knowledge that somebody needs to have before undertaking these types of files. You need to look at whether there is a treaty, what the terms of that treaty are, and see whether the offenses meet the qualifications required before extradition is possible. Then you have the bail hearing process and the extradition hearing. After the extradition hearing, there are host of potential appeal routes and some quasi-political work that we often do for clients, as well. Because even if a judge orders a person extradited, ultimately the Minister (within the Canadian government) makes a decision about whether or not to hand somebody over. In that case, we assist the client and send information to the Minister in order to see if an exception can be made for them under their particular set of circumstances.

We first become involved to help our clients acquire bail so that during the extradition process they are not being held in custody. Then we start to see what we can do about the extradition itself. Nobody needs to actually prove the offence against my client, so the evidentiary standard that is required is quite a bit lower than it would be in a criminal case. Because of this is it very difficult to avoid an ultimate ruling of extradition. The threshold is very low before a prosecutor can establish that somebody should be extradited out of the country.

One of the primary goals of retaining counsel in the course of an extradition case is in order to buy some time for a professional to assist you in putting together a plan for release and a plan of attack on your trial in the country that is seeking your extradition. Most commonly in Canada, we receive requests from the United States. We know that, at the end of the day, when the United States makes an extradition request, the likelihood of our courts granting that request is very high. There are a number of ways in which we can slow down the process a little bit and buy the person some time here in Canada to breathe and establish a legal team in the United States. We want to make sure that the person is not extradited until after we have put in place a legal team for them in the United States. The United States prosecutor will have been spoken to in advance. We may already have terms under which the person is going to granted bail in the United States. Often times they might not only be granted bail but be permitted to come right back to Canada. They can continue their work and their family life here, so long as they agree to return at the time of the trial in United States.

We have even done cases where the entire negotiation is completed and we actually come up with a plea agreement prior to a person ever being extradited. And this can happen while our client is in his own home under bail conditions in Canada. And then ultimately, we agree to the extradition only so that a person can go down there on a very short stay in order to enter a plea, receive some sort of probationary sentence and immediately return to Canada. In circumstances like that, we will work very closely with the network of United States lawyers that we have done business with. Depending on the needs of the client, we will at times ourselves travel down to the jurisdiction. A combination of having Canadian counsel and local counsel can really smooth things through in the easiest way possible.

A related area of law that we assist clients in is prisoner transfers. Where the applicable treaties permit, we can make applications to have clients who are convicted in the U.S. (or other countries) serve their jail sentences in Canada. While this obviously benefits the client by allowing him or her to be closer to their home and family, the primary benefit comes from being within the Canadian parole system. It is far more likely for a prisoner to earn early release from a Canadian penitentiary than it is from a U.S. jail, for example.

Read more about Extradition on CrimLawCanada.com.

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If you, or someone you care about, is dealing with criminal law issues in the Toronto, Ontario Region, contact Adler Bytensky Prutschi for a consultation.