As reported in the Globe,

In my mind, sir, and in the minds of many of my colleagues and many, many Canadians,” said Mr. Batters during a Jan. 31 meeting of the Canadian Heritage committee, “the purpose of Telefilm is to help facilitate the making of films for mainstream Canadian society – films that Canadians can sit down and watch with their families in living rooms across this great country.

No comment. . . . [more]

Be sure to check out the University of Calgary Law School’s newest effort – ABlawg.ca.

From the About page:

The Faculty of Law is pleased to announce “ABlawg: The University of Calgary Faculty of Law Blog on Developments in Alberta Law”. ABlawg includes commentary by faculty members, sessional instructors, and research associates at our affiliated institutes on Alberta court and tribunal decisions as well as legislative and policy developments in the province. We are grateful to the funding provided by the Alberta Law Foundation in support of this project.

I’m also noting this project was funded by the Alberta . . . [more]

Must be the day. 

 Massive B.C. cockfighting raid sparks 13-hour cull 

And

Cockfighting raid shocks mayor of Surrey, B.C

“I know that it’s happened in other parts of the world where this sort of activity takes place, but this is certainly the first for me,” Watts said.

Was there some reason to assume it wasn’t? Were there rumours she was associating with a certain (currently suspended) NFL player? Dating a member of the BC legislature or Parliament?

The US goes to the dogs. Canada? We go to the …. chickens.

Figures. . . . [more]

R v Ferguson 2008 SCC 6

[73] A final cost of constitutional exemptions from mandatory minimum sentence laws is to the institutional value of effective law making and the proper roles of Parliament and the courts. Allowing unconstitutional laws to remain on the books deprives Parliament of certainty as to the constitutionality of the law in question and thus of the opportunity to remedy it. Legislatures need clear guidance from the courts as to what is constitutionally permissible and what must be done to remedy legislation that is found to be constitutionally infirm. In granting constitutional exemptions, courts would be

The facts:

The opinion:

Movie: click to download (5.6MB)

No comment. . . . [more]

Wayne MacPhail, columnist for Rabble.ca (among other things–Wayne wears many hats), tackles the the topic of How Media Can Misrepresent the Web using the sensitive topic of reporting that takes place regarding child pornography. From his article:

A couple of weeks ago, Canadian media outlets reported that, across the country, 44,970 computers were actively engaged in trading child pornography – 15,140 of them in Ontario.
…

First, this story is a classic case of mainstream media slipping casually into the “Internet as source of all evil” mindset. Yes, child pornography is heinous and those who either abuse children and/or collect

. . . [more]

We learned recently via Michael Lines’ post “Harvard Adopts an Open Access Mandate for Faculty Publications” that that Faculty of Arts and Sciences has adopted an open access mandate. I thought it might be interesting for our readers to see the actual wording of the mandate.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, the Faculty adopts the following policy: Each Faculty member grants to the President and Fellows of Harvard College permission to make available his

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries/L’Association canadienne des bibliothèques de droit (CALL/ACBD) sent out a reminder today that members of CALL/ACBD have until 31 March 2008 to nominate a person or organization to receive the Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing.

Although it would be extremely presumptuous of me to suggest that readers of SLAW who are also members of CALL/ACBD think of SLAW as a possible recipient (in light of the high calibre of past recipients of this award – listed here if you scroll down the page), it would be an honour to just be . . . [more]

Just received from Patrick McNeill, ((VP, Sales, LexisNexis Canada Inc., Reed Elsevier)).

Attached is an announcement released today from LexisNexis Canada regarding enhancements to our case law collection in light of the Canada Law Book takedown March 31, 2008.

It’s a long statement, a letter from Gary Rodrigues, and an Appendix of Contents . . . [more]

Dennis Kennedy has done his 2008 column for LLRX on legal tech. There aren’t a lot of surprises in “Eight Legal Technology Trends for 2008 – Good Times, Bad Times or Hard Times in Legal Tech?” with the exception, perhaps, of his view that e-discovery has failed to conquer; but there are a lot of wise words. Here are the subheads:

1. Smart Ways to Work Together – Collaboration Tools.
2. Dancing with a Recession.
3. Opening Audio and Video Channels.
4. Going Mobile.
5. The Death Throes for Email?
6. Security Begins to Matter . . . Really.
7. Lawyers Win Round 1 in

How many of us have spent late nights here?….. 

 The Toronto Star is reporting today that the University of Toronto’s Robarts Library will be receiving a new $75 million upgrade for the first time in 35 years. The Ontario government is also expected to announce today a $15 million grant to go towards this project. The revitalization and expansion plan includes:

• a new wing with over 1,000 new study spaces
• improvement of over 1,000 existing study spaces
• adding over 1,000 more study spaces to the existing building
• outdoor ampitheatre-style seating
• the removal of some of the upper concrete walls to