I had written previously about legislation to amend the Electronic Commerce Act to remove the exclusion on land transactions. The government's bill to do so has now passed, as part of the budget legislation for 2013 (schedule 5).

The amendments will come into force on proclamation. The government has been talking and will continue to talk with stakeholders about measures that might be useful to ensure that the change does not increase the risks of real estate fraud. (If you have suggestions about such measures, feel free to mention them here.)

The Ontario Real Estate Association was enthusiastic about . . . [more]

It’s a big week at the Supreme Court for our professional and personal communities. As most of us are already aware, tomorrow the SCC will hear arguments in the Bedford case and will ponder the criminality of certain acts related to sex work, namely communicating for the purposes of prostitution, being found in a common bawdy house and living off the avails of prostitution.

At the heart of the decision are questions of constitutionality, specifically whether these three Criminal Code provisions violate section 2 and 7 of the Charter. Both the Government of Ontario and the Government of Canada maintain . . . [more]

Whistleblowing occurs when employees reveal corporate wrongdoing, usually in their organization, to law enforcement. Unfortunately, it is common for whistleblowers to experience demotion, dismissal and otherwise negative treatment from their employers after they disclose the malfeasance or corruption. In order to deal with this serious issue, some companies have created codes of ethics to ensure that their directors, officers and employees are aware of and adhere to standards of conduct that ensure the company performs and is represented in an honest and responsible manner.

However, it is necessary for laws to exist to protect employees who feel, in good faith, it is necessary to disclose wrongdoing. In addition to provisions in the Criminal Code that aim to protect employees who make disclosures, some jurisdictions have enacted specific whistleblower laws to provide these protections in the public and private sectors. As well, workers already receive some form of protection under the local Occupational Health and Safety Act, which protects them where they seek enforcement or give evidence in respect of the enforcement of that Act.

So what is the state of the law on whistleblowing? . . . [more]

A lawyer in my office pointed out the Samples of Bodily Substances Regulations published in the Canada Gazette Part I (proposed regulations) on June 1, 2013. This proposed regulation was drafted as part of legislative reform that was required as part of the decision in R. v. Shoker. and the related Response to the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Shoker Act which was assented to in March of 2011. as the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statment points out:

This Act amends the probation, conditional sentence and peace bond provisions of the Criminal Code to provide explicit authority for

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With 10 years of experience as Privacy Commissioner of Canada behind her, and her term reaching its end, Jennifer Stoddart has released a report titled "The Case for Reforming the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act" which describes how to modernize Canada's private-sector privacy legislation to ensure it is able to meet the current and future challenges of the digital age and protect Canadians’ right to privacy.
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Division 27 of Part 4 of the federal Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act (legislation to implement Budget 2012 measures), which received royal assent on June 29, 2012, will repeal section 13 of the Statutory Instruments Act on April 1, 2014, and remove the requirement to deliver and sell printed copies of the Canada Gazette.
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As anticipated, since the federal Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act came into force December 14, 2012, several provinces have followed suit and tabled legislation to implement the new kind of portable deferred income plan, which is designed to provide retirement income to workers and self-employed persons who do not have access to an employer-sponsored retirement pension plan.
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Beginning September 2, 2013, foreign nationals applying for Canadian visas from countries such as Haiti, Jamaica, Saudi Arabia, Albania, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Columbia, Burma, Egypt, Yemen and Pakistan, will undergo mandatory fingerprinting and digital photo collection at new visa application centres being established by Canada overseas. Citizenship and Immigration Canada has indicated that the new measures are necessary because of a "rise in global identity fraud" and technological innovations that "make it easy to steal, forge or alter identity documents."
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In excess of 15% of the population of Manitoba face barriers to their full participation in the activities of daily living, according to recent estimates.  Addressing and removing these barriers is the purpose of Bill 26, Manitoba’s proposed Accessibility for Manitobans Act, introduced in the Legislature today.

This legislation has been in the works for some time. In its November 2010 Discussion Paper for Made in Manitoba Accessibility Legislation the government stated that:

“The proposed legislation will provide for a long-term, systematic and proactive approach to dealing with accessibility issues for seniors and persons with disabilities. With this approach,

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Recently a precedent setting family law case involving a sperm donor claiming to be a parent of a child born to lesbian mothers was settled out of court. Not unlike many non-traditional families the women in this northern Ontario case conceived a child by way of donor sperm, but precedent setting in that the sperm donor applied to the courts to be declared a parent and for liberal access rights to the child.

Settling out of court is great for the parties involved who got to determine the details of their settlement agreement and put an end to long and . . . [more]

Slaw readers might like to take a look at Senate bill S-7, the Combating Terrorism Act, now before the House for third reading, a bill that proposes to abridge our civil liberties to a degree. As is often the case with bills the main purpose of which is to amend existing legislation, the text of the bill itself is nearly incomprehensible on its own unless you're familiar with the relevant area of law.

The Globe and Mail has an article in this morning's paper that will give you a brief sense of the bill's main incursions into your Charter . . . [more]

On December 4, 2012, the Saskatchewan government tabled Bill No. 85, An Act respecting Employment Standards, Occupational Health and Safety, Labour Relations and Related Matters and making consequential amendments to certain Acts (hereinafter referred to as the Saskatchewan Employment Act) in the hope of consolidating 12 employment and labour-related laws, restructuring existing provisions, eliminating inconsistencies, and more accurately reflect contemporary employment relationships. . . . [more]