How many Canadian law students could identify John Humphrey or explain his significance to the law? I certainly couldn’t when we met at a meeting in 1976, convened by the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He was then seventy, a tweedy academic in bow tie, who had come down from the McGill Law School. Only at a break did a friend lean over and tell me that this academic had held the pen for the drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . . . [more]
The Lawyer’s Weekly reports that the law society of Saskatchewan has introduced mandatory professional development for all lawyers in the province to begin in 2010. Apparently, in the current set-up, where attendance at annual conferences would keep liability insurance at a lower level, a lot of lawyers were prepared to pay the “fine” of higher insurance fees that truancy cost them. The explanation put forward is that they didn’t want to lose a day’s pay to attend.
One wonders whether (cough, cough…) modern legal research will be on the required curriculum. . . . [more]
1-800-4664-411 equals 1-800-GOOG-411
Okay dear readers, another number to put on your mobile’s autodial. Google 411 launched in Canada today.
Dial 1-800-GOOG-411 to connect to a computer armed with voice recognition software.
The automated voice will ask for city and province. A voice menu runs you through finding the information you’re looking for ((Business information only – they won’t offer residential service)).
I asked for Indian restaurants in Toronto and got decent recommendations with location details and an opportunity to connect by phone. . . . [more]
The grassroots net neutrality advocates are becoming increasingly organized. Case in point is the coalition SaveOurNet.ca hosting an open forum tomorrow evening in Toronto called Protecting Canada’s Open Internet:
. . . [more]SaveOurNet.ca: Protecting Canada’s Open Internet
An open forum for Toronto’s tech/web/media communities hosted by:
Matt Thompson, SavetheInternet.com and SaveOurNet.ca
Steve Anderson, SaveOurNet.ca and The Campaign for Democratic Media
Mark Kuznicki, Remarkk.com, Open Community Evangelist, TorCampDate/Time: Tuesday, June 24th, 6:00pm
Location: Fionn MacCool’s, 181 University Avenue @ Adelaide, Toronto
Snacks will be provided, cash bar
Your donation/sponsorship to help cover costs can be made by purchasing special tickets above.
There have been so many mythical quotations attributed to Bill Gates over the years, that it’s helpful to have a journalist actually separate myth from reality.
As Bill Gates moves on to the next stage in his career, Nancy Weil has done us all a favour by gathering the quotes together. . . . [more]
Slaw has a bevy of excellent columnists, and so I never have to draw your attention to The Column from the main column of the front page: you check it out each week religiously. But I’m going to make an exception today because Steve Matthews’ column this week is something different. He’s done a tutorial on how to use Yahoo! Pipes that’s a must read, and I don’t want to let even a single reader slip by unedified. And just to make certain the tutorial does its work, I’ve made a PDF file out of it that you can download . . . [more]
Yahoo Pipes is a tool that we’ve covered a few times here on Slaw. And having fielded a few questions myself on its use for RSS feed mixing, I thought it might be nice to demonstrate how simple the process is with a tutorial.
What you’ll find below is pretty granular in detail, with way too many screen captures. But if you like the KISS principle (a.k.a. Keep It Simple for Steve), a little hand-holding never hurts. So… go over to Yahoo Pipes, create an account, click on the big blue Create A Pipe, and let’s get . . . [more]
One of the unfortunate things about the web is that glitches happen.
Remember the picture of Truman holding a paper announcing the election of President Dewey?
The National Post let out an alternative story which was still on its website an hour after the decision.
Since it will doubtless be taken down, here is the story of what would have happened in a parallel universe, where the SCC had sat nine judges on Tuesday.
Supreme Court rules in favour of BCE bondholders
Sean Silcoff, Financial Post Published: Friday, June 20, 2008
Reuters File
OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of . . . [more]
The Court has spoken, and it has said that BCE won.
This is all that is said:
The appeals from the judgments of the Court of Appeal of Quebec (Montréal), Numbers 500-09-018525-089 and 500-09-018527-085, dated May 21, 2008, heard on June 17, 2008, are allowed with costs throughout. The decision of
the Court of Appeal is set aside and the trial judge’s approval of the plan of arrangement is affirmed.
. . . [more]The cross-appeals from the judgments of the Court of Appeal of Quebec (Montréal), Numbers 500-09-018524-082 and 500-09-018526-087, dated May 21, 2008, heard on June 17, 2008, are dismissed with
The Canadian government announced this week that it is restoring parts of the Court Challenges Program abolished in 2006.
The Program provided funding to minority, women’s and other disadvantaged groups to launch “test court cases” challenging laws that may violate equality rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The government is only reestablishing the official languages minority component of the program, under the name Program to Support Linguistic Rights.
However, funding has not been restored for Charter challenges by other groups such as ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians or people with disabilities.
The new program will . . . [more]
Northwestern University now offers incoming students a two-year law degree, the first so-called “elite” faculty of law to do so. Students start in the summer they are admitted and then take the next four semesters, carrying a somewhat heavier course load. It’s not clear whether the hurry-up plan will cost students more. At the moment, students in the snail’s-pace plan pay the astonishing sum of $42,672 per year.
Inside Higher Ed has the story, and details of the program and the law school’s other curriculum reforms are available on the law school website. . . . [more]