Monday’s Mix

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from sixty recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Susan On The Soapbox  2. IP Osgoode  3. The Treasurer’s Blog  4. DroitDu.Net  5. Library Boy

Susan On The Soapbox
Minister Bhullar’s Revelation: 741 Children Die in Government Care
Last week Human Services Minister Manmeet Bhullar made a shocking announcement—741 children died in government foster homes or other forms of government care since 1999. This is 13 times higher than the 56 reported by the government in its annual reports and five times higher than the 145 uncovered by investigative reporters who pursued the story for years. The government owes these children and their families an apology. . . .

IP Osgoode
2013 IP Year in Review: To Go Where No One Has Gone Before
2013 ushered in renewed changes to the intellectual property law terrain in Canada and around the world. New treaties were formed, legislation was proposed, and cases were decided that will surely have an impact on how scholars view the field and how the law is practised. 2013 was a busy year for patent law on both the domestic and international fronts. . . .

The Treasurer’s Blog
In memoriam: Sydney L. Robins, O. Ont, QC, 1923 – 2014
The Honourable Sydney Lewis Robins, O.Ont., QC, LSM, LLD, LLM, LLB, BA, passed away on Friday, January 10, at the age of 90. The loss fills me with a great sadness — he was a well-respected bencher and Treasurer, as well as an incredible human being. After being called to the Bar in 1947, he was elected bencher in 1961. At the time, he was the youngest bencher ever. A short 10 years later, his fellow benchers elected him Treasurer — the first Jewish person to hold the position — in which capacity he served from 1971 until 1974. He then became a Supreme Court of Ontario Justice. . . .

DroitDu.Net
L’année 2013 en chiffres… et 2014
Le 4 mars 2013, nous lancions droitdu.net; une plateforme d’information juridique axée sur les technologies de l’information, basée sur l’idée du blogging comme outil pédagogique. Revenons aujourd’hui sur cette année 2013 riche et sur les projets pour 2014.
Réunissant à son lancement 6 universités francophones, le développement du site et sa coquille (ForceBleue) a été financé par le fonds Inforoutes de l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. La plateforme avait pour vocation à prendre la suite du Blogue de la Chaire en droit de la sécurité et des affaires électroniques (qui renaitra sous une nouvelle forme, plus personnelle, dans les prochaines semaines), en l’ouvrant à d’autres partenaires.

Library Boy
Charging for Reasonable Legal Research Costs
Shaunna Mireau has written a post on Slaw.ca called Sources Consulted and Legal Research Costs that describes recent court decisions relating to the kinds of legal research costs law firms can legitimately charge clients: “There are some recent decisions of the Federal Court that acknowledge the necessity of using online legal research sources and seem positioned to allow law firms to charge reasonable disbursements for them. . . . ”
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*Randomness here is created by Random.org and its list randomizing function.