One of the side effects of the pandemic has been considerably higher movement in the employment sector. In addition to what is being termed “the Great Resignation,” employees have increasingly opted to organize and unionize their workplaces.

In early 2021, Statistics Canada noted that the union density rate was 31.3%, an increase from 30.2% in 2019, and the highest it has been for 15 years. Safety concerns, greater stability, and more input into decisions during the pandemic and recovery are all attributed to driving forced behind increased interest in unionization.

While unions play a crucial role in addressing . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Afin de souligner l’intolérance de la société envers la violence dans le sport, le tribunal impose une peine de 9 mois d’emprisonnement dans la collectivité à un accusé récidiviste ayant commis des voies de fait causant des lésions corporelles lors d’une mêlée générale entre des joueurs de . . . [more]

Each Friday, we share the latest job listings from Slaw Jobs, which features employment opportunities from across the country. Find out more about these positions by following the links below, or learn how you can use Slaw Jobs to gain valuable exposure for your job ads, while supporting the great Canadian legal commentary at Slaw.ca.

Current postings on Slaw Jobs:

• Law Librarians (Full-time) | Kingston, ON
  (Queen’s University)
• Corporate Tax Lawyer (Full-time) | Vancouver, BC
  (Thorsteinssons LLP)
• Articling Student 2022-2023 (Full-time) | Abbotsford, BC
  (Waterstone Law Group)
• Legal Assistant/Paralegal–Real Estate (Full-time) | Abbotsford, BC
  (Waterstone Law Group)
• Senior Conveyancer (Full-time)

Written by Daniel Standing LL.B., Editor, First Reference Inc.

You’re fired!

These are two words no employee wants to hear. If job security goes together with seniority, then probationary employees walk a fine line every day they go to work. Most employers with collective agreements that allow for probationary periods rightly view them as a condition of hire during which they can closely observe the new employee and decide whether the person is a good fit. Many would likely say that the organization can dismiss the probationer for next to no reason at all, provided they don’t treat the person . . . [more]

Simon is buckling under the pressure of an endless stream of emails, messages, and calls from disgruntled clients. Simon’s thoughts race. He worries about missing something important, and he second-guesses the decisions he made on a recent file. As his anxiety level rises, he wonders, “do I need to leave legal practice?”

Simon is not alone. You likely have experienced this too. The mental health challenges legal professionals face all point to one question: Is there not a better way of practicing law?

And the answer is, yes, there is.

Transforming the practice of law is crucial. It is simply . . . [more]

Each Wednesday we tell you which three English-language cases and which French-language case have been the most viewed* on CanLII and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this last week:

1. Solanki v. Reilly, 2021 ONSC 6694

[16] In this case, the plaintiffs must prove, on a balance of probabilities, that the accident caused them to sustain a “permanent serious impairment of an important physical, mental or psychological function.”

[17] The terms “serious”, “permanent”, “impairment” and “important function” are defined by regulation under the . . . [more]

The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to how essential many things that we generally take for granted are. I don’t think we’ve ever spoken so much about what we actually need and what we don’t, and it begs the question: what do we all do that is genuinely needed?

In March 2020, we started an internal conversation about what CanLII could do to help ensure that Canadians could access the resources they needed, and how we should respond to the crisis. In the end, we came to the conclusion that while there were particular things we could do, generally we . . . [more]

Surfing through the blog entries from my Decanal colleagues over the last number of months, it is clear that coping with the pandemic and adapting legal education to remote delivery has loomed large for all of us. We know it has affected our students, our colleagues and our staff and it is tempting to wish for a return to “normal” as we understood it pre-pandemic. On the other hand, there is emerging a debate about what the post-pandemic university should look like, with early commentators suggesting that there is now ‘a unique opportunity to reimagine our universities as more inclusive, . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

Continuing Comma Calamities
Neil Guthrie

It’s disheartening to see how frequently people mess up with commas. This kind of thing is all too common: Partner, Alfredo Garcia will be speaking about … Remove that comma! … . . . [more]

“We are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm. Some of us are on super-yachts. Some have just the one oar.” -Damian Barr

Without question, the pandemic has altered the way lawyers practice law. There is increased efficiency in the operation of the courts and both judges and lawyers have skillfully adapted to incredible changes that would have seemed impossible to imagine let alone implement eighteen months ago. The expanded use of technology increased access to justice for many. Emergency orders offered the ability to execute various types of documents safely and remotely. Some . . . [more]

Isolation in one’s home and glued to an electronic device, it was inevitable that people would be come more activist online. A growing trend has been where public backlash online, also known as cancelling or calling out, is used to block someone from having a platform or career.

The debate around the utility of cancel culture weaves between delicate balances of expression rights and bullying concerns. While the practice started in progressive circles, it has more recently been weaponized by right-wing groups as well.

What people may not have anticipated is that the attempts to “cancel” someone could actually be . . . [more]