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Cyber-Surveillance in Everyday Life: An International Workshop

The University of Toronto is hosting a cyber-surveillance event this week that includes the typical academic workshops, as well as an artistic component. The event and the workshop are part The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting, a research project funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council.

From the press release:

Digitally mediated surveillance is an increasingly prevalent, but still largely invisible, aspect of everyday life. As we work, play and negotiate public spaces, on-line and off, we produce a growing stream of personal digital data of interest to unseen others. CCTV cameras hosted by private and public

. . . [more]
Posted in: Substantive Law: Legislation, Technology: Internet

Harper Government Should Consider NDP Tech Policies

For the record, I don’t support the NDP, and their fiscal policies are plain scary. But that doesn’t mean that their viewpoints on everything ought to be ignored. The NDP tech policies on issues such as net neutrality, usage based billing, and copyright are in many ways more compelling than the Conservative policies. Now that the Conservatives have a majority and don’t have to fight for their existence every day – lets hope they take a step back, take a deep breath, and take a fresh approach to tech issues.

The prosperous future of Canada is to a great extent . . . [more]

Posted in: Substantive Law, Technology

Clean Internet Act (Bill C-427).

The Clean Internet Act (Bill C-427) is a private member’s bill which makes one wonder about many things. Since this is not a forum for political discussion, as such, I won’t mention the primarily political, ethical, philisophical, educational, intellectual, educational, and other rational things it makes me wonder about. Since this is a legal forum, I will mention that it makes me a wonder about the nature and extent of the training in law or legal issues possessed by anyone involved in the drafting and presentation of this work.

Read about the presenter’s rationale at the second of the links  . . . [more]

Posted in: Miscellaneous

Russia’s Rule of Law(lessness) Threatens Advocates Worldwide: A Canadian Case Study

Russia’s persecution of thousands of independent journalists, human rights defenders, anti-war dissenters, and opposition politicians in Russia is well known, especially the arbitrary detention and death of Alexei Navalny. Less well known are Russia’s threats and judicial harassment of people living in other countries – including Canada – for sharing views that dissent from official Russian narratives.

For a seven-month period during 2023 and 2024, a permanent resident of Canada, Maria Kartasheva, found herself in fear of lengthy imprisonment in Russia. A Russian court tried and sentenced her in absentia for her peaceful online advocacy exposing Russia’s war crimes in . . . [more]

Posted in: Justice Issues

Admissibility of Surreptitious Recordings in Court

Our lives are increasingly dominated by technology. We communicate by various channels: emails, social media, text messages, WhatsApp, Snapchat, FaceTime, and so forth. But what happens when a litigant obtains evidence by hacking into an account or secretly filming an event? Can this surreptitiously obtained evidence be used?

Although discouraged, sometimes these recordings can be admitted into evidence. It is up to the trial judge to decide whether to exclude the evidence by weighing its prejudicial value against its probative value. (See Fiorito v. Wiggins, 2015 ONCA 729, at para. 22).

In the recent case Chen v. Huang . . . [more]

Posted in: Case Comment

All Citations Should Include Hyperlinks (If Possible)

As a general principle, citations in scholarly works have two purposes: to prove that the point is supported by evidence, and to allow the reader to find the evidence that the author is citing to. The pain of citations comes from the requirement that these citations be made as brief as possible by painstakingly utilizing a series of standardized abbreviations. The requirement to abbreviate arises mainly from a historical limitation: the scarcity of paper and ink.

I hear from other scholars that readers increasingly choose to read scholarly works in electronic formats and it seems likely that this trend will . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information

Buried Under the Rubble: Haunted Reflections at the Turn of the Year

The buried children have been haunting me. It’s difficult to celebrate the turning of the year while thousands of children remain lost in the rubble of humanitarian catastrophes caused by disasters, political turmoil, and armed conflicts around the world.

In 2023, apocalyptic stories of children and families lost through earthquakes, landslides, wildfires, atrocities, and war crimes filled the news. The Middle East and Ukraine dominated headlines while Afghanistan, Myanmar, and other places were pushed from attention.

An insistent question began to intrude. “What if it was your kids under the rubble?” In late November 2023 this . . . [more]

Posted in: Justice Issues

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 October 27 – November 16, 2023 inclusive.

Oral Judgment

Criminal Law: Assault; Defence
R. v. Lindsay, 2022 ABCA 424; 2023 SCC 33 (40569)

Jamal J.: “We are all of the view that the appeal should be dismissed. We do not accept the appellant’s submission that . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

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. RT Blog 2. Legal Post Blog 3. Know How 4. Administrative Law Matters 5. Lawyered Podcast

RT Blog
3 Benefits of Workplace Restoration

Workplace restoration is a developing area which is now being considered by many employers. One reason for the growing interest is the ongoing effort

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

Unforgotten on the Day of the Disappeared: Missing Human Rights Advocates

On August 30th each year, the world is reminded that hundreds of thousands of people in at least 85 countries don’t know where their loved ones are, or even whether they are alive or dead. For the victims of enforced disappearance and their families, every day is the Day of the Disappeared.

The unrelenting uncertainty and anguish of not knowing the truth of what has happened to their family member is a recognized form of torture for both the disappeared and their families. The crime of enforced disappearance cuts off the disappeared from any access to legal . . . [more]

Posted in: Justice Issues

Thursday Thinkpiece: Forcese on National Security Accountability in Canada

Periodically on Thursdays, we present a significant excerpt, usually from a recently published book or journal article. In every case the proper permissions have been obtained. If you are a publisher who would like to participate in this feature, please let us know via the site’s contact form.

Fundamentals of National Security Accountability in Canada

Author: Craig Forcese
Publisher: Irwin Law Inc.
Imprint: Irwin Law
Publication Date: May 3, 2023
ISBN: Print (Paperback): 9781552216859
292 pages; 6″ x 9″

Excerpt: Chapter 9, The Future of Democratic Regulation

 

In Chapter 1, I described three modern generations of democratic regulation of . . . [more]

Posted in: Thursday Thinkpiece

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 May 18 – June 21, 2023 inclusive.

Oral Judgment

Criminal Law: Sexual Assault
R. v. Hay, 2022 ABCA 246; 2023 SCC 15 (40316)

The Chief Justice: “Mr. Hay appeals from the unanimous decision of the Court of Appeal of Alberta setting aside an acquittal and . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday