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Archive for August, 2021

Constitutionality of the Agricultural Employees Protection Act: Round Two

INTRODUCTION

The Supreme Court of Canada in Fraser concluded that, with the minor adjustment of reading in an additional provision, the Ontario Agricultural Employees Protection Act (“AEPA”) is constitutional. In UFCW v. MedReleaf Corp. Phase 2 (“MedReleaf”), the Ontario Agricultural, Food and Rural Affairs Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) concluded that the caselaw since then does not warrant a different outcome. The recent Divisional Court decision in United Food and Commercial Workers International Union v. Aurora Cannabis Enterprises Inc. (“Aurora”) upheld the Tribunal’s decision.

The United Farm and Commercial Workers International Union (“UFCW”) had also brought complaints about MedReleaf’s conduct during the . . . [more]

Posted in: Case Comment, Substantive Law: Judicial Decisions, Substantive Law: Legislation

Tips Tuesday

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

Unnatural Compounds
Neil Guthrie

No, not enclosures where odd things happen. Rather, combinations of words that look strange. The New York Times – generally a newspaper one admires – has taken to writing things like monthslong: see, for example, Mary Hui, ‘After a Dip, Hong Kong Real Estate Again Eyes the Stratosphere’ (22 March 2019). … . . . [more]

Posted in: Tips Tuesday

Reopening the Books

We have become accustomed for some time to hearing about new start-ups and initiatives on the technology side of legal information provision. Indeed, some might say that we hear of too many of them and that a percentage of them might disappear into obscurity before long. We read less of fresh ideas and innovation in relation to the provision of actual added-value legal content from law publishers. Perhaps this is not surprising, for obvious reasons.

It is all the more pleasing to observe an exciting fresh start from my friend and law publishing comrade, Jason Wilson, together . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Publishing

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 more than 80 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. Reconciliation Syllabus 2. Canadian Combat Sports Law Blog 3. Canadian Trade Law Blog 4. Family Health Law Blog 5. IdeaBlawg

Reconciliation Syllabus
Reconciliation in a Real Property Securities Course – Not Necessarily a Missing Lien!

In 2019 and 2020, I taught a course on real property securities

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

Meredith Principle Does Not Preclude Constructive Dismissal Claim

Industrialization transformed western society, reorganizing economies for the purpose of manufacturing and wealth generation. These changes came with at considerable costs, some of which are only being more recently recognized, such as harm to the environment.

The more immediate and obvious harms to workers were of a greater concern a century ago and were in many ways the focus of organized labour, both before and after unions became legal on 1872, with the passing of the Trade Unions Act. This statute was enacted specifically to gain union support prior to the election that year, forming the 2nd Parliament of . . . [more]

Posted in: Substantive Law: Judicial Decisions

Summaries Sunday: Supreme Advocacy

One Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted from July 17 – August 20, 2021 inclusive.

Appeals

Bankruptcy and Insolvency: CCAA; Priorities
Canada v. Canada North Group Inc., 2019 ABCA 3142021 SCC 30 (38871)

The CCAA generally empowers supervising judges to order super-priority charges that have priority over all other claims, including . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ

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.

ACTION COLLECTIVE (RECOURS COLLECTIF) : L’autorisation d’exercer une action collective à l’encontre d’écoles et de collèges privés de niveaux primaire et secondaire au motif qu’ils auraient omis de respecter les contrats de services éducatifs en ne livrant pas une prestation de services adéquate durant la première vague de la pandémie . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Friday Jobs Roundup

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:

. . . [more]
Posted in: Friday Jobs Roundup

Failure to Mitigate Leads to Reduced Dismissal Damages

By Lewis Waring, Paralegal, Student-at-Law, Editor, First Reference Inc.

In Moore v Instow Enterprises Ltd, (2021 BCSC 930) (“Moore”), a British Columbian employee was entitled to less notice than the standard amount of one month per year of service mainly due to his failure to mitigate his losses. By refusing to make a reasonable attempt to find alternative similar employment, the employee failed to meet his obligation to mitigate his loss of income as a result of his dismissal. . . . [more]

Posted in: Case Comment, Substantive Law, Substantive Law: Judicial Decisions

What “Protecting the Public” Really Means

Regulators of legal services often say that their most important job is to “protect the public.” If this statement is true, then we need to consider its implications for the future regulation of the legal profession. And that starts by posing a deceptively simple question:

What exactly do we mean by, “the public”?

When you hear that term, does it summon for you the image of a Fortune 500 GC? An assistant deputy minister in the government? An experienced construction company owner? Is that who you think of as “the public”? Probably not.

Instead, you think of ordinary people. Dads, . . . [more]

Posted in: Practice of Law

Wednesday: What’s Hot on CanLII

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. Del Giudice v. Thompson, 2021 ONSC 5379

[120] The first criterion for certification is that the plaintiff’s pleading discloses a cause of action. The “plain and obvious” test from Rule 21 of the Rules of Civil Procedure for disclosing a cause of action from Hunt v. Carey Canada,[35] is used to determine whether a proposed class proceeding discloses a cause . . . [more]

Posted in: Wednesday: What's Hot on CanLII

Some Thoughts on Black Box AI and Law

The term artificial intelligence (AI) has been justly criticized for its lack of specificity. Essentially it means anything that we are still impressed that a computer can do, which is, of course, a moving target. The most talked about AI technology is currently machine learning, and this is what is driving the majority of black box systems that are raising concerns in the legal sector.

In this context, black boxes refer to systems that accept inputs and present outputs of various kinds without making it explicit how the decision was reached. Black boxes can occur for many reasons, some technical, . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Technology