On November 27, 2013, Quebec’s National Employment Insurance Review Commission released its report regarding the impact of the federal government's 2012 changes to the Employment Insurance (EI) program. The report makes 30 recommendations, with three key recommendations calling for the provincial and federal governments to negotiate an agreement giving Quebec the power to manage its own EI system to meet the needs of the province’s labour market. . . . [more]

The latest word is that Canada's anti-spam legislation will be in force on July 1, 2014, with the software provisions coming into force in January 2015. The final regulations will be published in the Canada Gazette on December 18.

More information about the law can be found in previous articles here.

Proponents of the law feel that it is going to have a substantial effect on the fight against spam. But as I have said before, my personal view is that the legislation as drafted is ill-conceived and will be a compliance nightmare for businesses and charities.

Stay . . . [more]

For those of you who do not know, Quebec will likely enact Bill 28 An Act to Establish the New Code of Civil Procedure early next year. Despite the fact that the last major overhaul to civil procedure in the province is less than 10 years old, the new Code will bring major changes to the way proceedings are conducted in Quebec. The mere fact that the articles contained in the Code will be whittled down from 1221 to 777 should give you an idea of how significant the amendments are.

Most interestingly, many of the amendments are clearly aimed . . . [more]

The Law Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. has published a new comparative report on the handling and adjudication of sexual offenses in the military.

The report examines how the military justice systems of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel and the United Kingdom deal with alleged sexual offending by service members.

The Library occasionally publishes reports that compare the laws on a given theme in a number of countries.

Earlier comparative law reports from the Law Library of Congress have covered topics such as:

• Bioethics
• Campaign Finance
• Children's Rights
• Constitutional Provisions on Women's Equality
• Education of Non-Native Language Speaking

. . . [more]

Quebec’s Charbonneau commission into corruption in the construction industry has revealed numerous failings in the province’s regulatory regime, which the government is attempting to address with new laws. For instance, professional regulatory bodies have found they have little or no power to discipline members (e.g., engineers, lawyers) who have been charged with or have confessed to corruption in relation to construction projects in Quebec. These regulatory bodies have to wait until a disciplinary board (syndic) investigates and the disciplinary committee decides the individuals should be punished . . . [more]

On November 13, 2013, Quebec’s Minister of Justice, Bertrand St-Arnaud, tabled Bill 61, An Act mainly to recover amounts paid unjustly by public bodies in relation to certain contracts in the construction industry in the national assembly. If enacted, Bill 61 would allow the minister of justice to seek compensation from businesses that defrauded public bodies or used fraudulent tactics or practices in the course of the tendering, awarding or management of public construction contracts, on behalf of all public bodies or government agencies. . . . [more]

Some exciting news today for fellow Hansard geeks:

Hansard geeks rejoice. The historical debates of the Parliament of Canada are now online. http://t.co/U36gzDG61O #cdnpoli #Hansard

— LoPInformation (@LoPInformation) November 20, 2013

The full digitized historical federal Hansard, Senate and House of Commons, is now available online, browsable and searchable. Canadiana.org’s Historical Debates of the Parliament of Canada portal was launched today: http://parl.canadiana.ca/

The project has been in development for some time. It complements the content that has been available on parl.gc.ca (House: 1994 onward; Senate: 1996 onward), to create a full collection of digital federal Hansard.

New Historical Debates of

. . . [more]

Bernard Drainville, Quebec’s Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions and Active Citizenship, has finally introduced legislation affirming the values of secularism and religious neutrality with respect to the province of Quebec. The name of the "Quebec Charter of Values" has changed, but the substance remains essentially intact. . . . [more]

Ontario’s Court of Appeal yesterday issued decisions in 6 cases arising out of challenges to the mandatory minimum sentences imposed with respect to various firearms-related offences. In two of those decisions, R. v. Smickle and R. v. Nur, the Court found that the mandatory minimum sentence provisions of s. 95 of the Criminal Code breached s. 12 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but did not breach s. 7 of the Charter.

Two recent decisions from the Court of Queen’s Bench in Manitoba have similarly challenged the constitutionality of the Criminal Code’s mandatory minimum sentencing provisions in relation . . . [more]

The day after the federal government identified genetic discrimination as a priority in its speech from the throne on October 16, 2013, Senator James S. Cowan re-introduced Bill S-201, An Act to prohibit and prevent genetic discrimination in the Senate. . . . [more]

The law of libel is continually evolving to strike and maintain a careful balance between the protection of reputation and the interests of free expression. This balance was most recently readjusted by the Supreme Court of Canada in its adoption of the new defence of Responsible Communication in Grant v Torstar Corp., 2009 SCC 61. However, proposed legislation in Ontario will have the effect of disrupting this carefully crafted balance, which will ultimately be detrimental to litigants, the right to protect one’s reputation and the overburdened Ontario justice system. . . . [more]

Instead of calling a fall election, the Parti Québécois government has decided, among other things, to devote resources to fighting the federal government over a court challenge to An Act respecting the exercise of the fundamental rights and prerogatives of the Quebec people and the Quebec State (commonly called Bill 99), the provincial law that outlines Quebec's rules for secession from Canada. . . . [more]