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. National Magazine  2. Ontario Condo Law Blog  3. Slater Vecchio Connected  4. Environmental Law and Litigation  5. First Reference

National Magazine
Getting schooled in diversity
An in-house lawyer practising in Ontario or Quebec will be able to rack up an hour in CPD credits at the upcoming CCCA conference in Calgary by attending Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin’s keynote speech titled Women and the Law: A Look at the Past and the Future. In Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia that keynote earns 45 minutes of CPD; New Brunswick, according to information on the conference website, hasn’t decided what it is worth. Lawyers from B.C. and Saskatchewan can attend what will no doubt be an interesting address, but they’ll have to do it on their own time, because the law societies in those provinces won’t accredit it at all. . . .

Ontario Condo Law Blog
Top 10 condo law cases of 2013
Owing to a very busy and ice-storm-filled holiday season and an even busier start to 2014 , we have been late in releasing our annual top 10 condo law cases of the year gone by. Mea culpa! In response to popular demand, here are our picks, presented in no particular order. Almost all of them have at least one lesson that can and should be picked up by the ongoing Condo Act Review being undertaken by the Ontario Government. A new condo act that deals with some of the persistent problems we see in our daily practice and in some of the cases cited below would be welcomed. . . .

Slater Vecchio Connected
Blood Tests the Future of Concussion Diagnosis
A simple blood test may be all it takes to diagnose a concussion, according to new research out of Sweden. The study identified total tau protein (T-tau) as the unique biomarker able to confirm concussion diagnosis and predict the severity and duration of symptoms. T-tau is typically found only in cerebral spinal fluid. But a blow to the head may cause it to get into the blood if the blood-brain barrier is damaged. T-tau is one of the biomarkers also found to predict the onset of Alzheimer’s or dementia in otherwise healthy individuals. . . .

Environmental Law and Litigation
Rare decision stops Minister from opening BC fishery
The federal government has had some troubles with the Supreme Court of Canada since taking office in 2006 (here is one recent example), but that’s not the only court in Canada that has caused the federal government grief. Several decisions of the Federal Court in relation to endangered species issues or other regulatory matters, like pest management, have highlighted serious deficiencies in decision making or actions from the federal government’s ministers. . . .

First Reference
Is the appearance of “youth” a bona fide occupational qualification?
On September 16, 2008, Kimberly Ouwroulis filed a Human Rights complaint alleging discrimination based on her age. The complaint was filed after she was terminated from a strip club, allegedly, for being too old. Ms. Ouwrouls was employed as an exotic dancer and was 44 years of age at the time. Under s.24(1)(b) of the Human Rights Code (“Code”) an employer may discriminate on the basis of the age of the applicant only if age is a reasonable and bona fide qualification because of the nature of the employment. . . .
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*Randomness here is created by Random.org and its list randomizing function.