The Law Society of Upper Canada today announced [PDF] the formation of the Justitia Think Tank as part of its effort to “retain and advance women” in the legal profession. Forty Ontario law firms have agreed to participate for three years (2009-2011) and to:

• maintain statistical data on the gender of lawyers in the firm,
• “review their existing written policies on maternity, paternal and adoption leave and flexible work arrangements”,
• share information on networking and business development opportunities for women, and
• eventually (2011) “develop strategies to enhance women’s participation in the leadership of the firm.”

The think tank is an . . . [more]

…Not that there was a lot that could have been done to improve the already stellar blog by Jordan Furlong. Still, Law21 has a bright new look and a lot of improved functionality. Check out the nifty AJAXed menus in the sidebar — heck, take the whole thing for a test drive. You’ll see that Jordan’s moving his blog closer to functioning as a nexus for thought on innovation and change in the practice of law, which is no bad thing. Congratulations, Jordan, on this upgrade. . . . [more]

Today’s important for a couple of reasons. First, because it’s election day here in Canada. Second, because it’s the first global Open Access Day, a day to spread the word about the benefits of open access to online information and knowledge. Law is one of the areas where free and open access to data is of the highest importance to the health of a society, and fortunately for us here in Canada we have CanLII, which steadily improves in coverage and utility. Now we need law faculties to decide to make their scholarship freely available to all, in . . . [more]

One of the recent suggestions we received here at Slaw, was whether we could create separate RSS feeds for of each the individual authors?

Well, it sounded like a great suggestion… At least until Simon F. pointed out that it already exists! And very elegantly placed, I might add, on the Slaw Archives by Author page.

Am I highlighting the obvious? Probably. But if it was a feature you were clamouring for, or, if you can share a little chuckle at Steve’s lack of observation skills… either way, I’m there for you! :)

Happy thanksgiving! . . . [more]

Since I flew in only an hour back I haven’t had time to catch up on my reading, but five items on the feeds caught my eye: . . . [more]

Frobisher, 1577It’s Thanksgiving Day in Canada, so we’ll be feasting with family or just taking it easy. We’ll get back to regular posting tomorrow, but in the meanwhile, a bit of Canadian bragging: The first thanksgiving celebration by Europeans in North America took place in what is now Canada. The intrepid but not very lucky Martin Frobisher sailed from England for the Eastern Arctic and arrived in 1578 with 300 Cornish miners looking for gold. It’s said that they held a formal thanksgiving ceremony, which I can well understand, given that they survived the passage. Sadly, they returned at . . . [more]

Elections are on everybody’s minds these days.

We have our Canadian Federal elections coming up in two days. But it was the American elections that Michael Moore had in mind when he made his new movie, Slacker Uprising.

The $2 million film covers the 2004 American election, where Moore visits 62 cities over 42 days in an attempt to get George W. Bush out of office.

But what made the film unique was that Moore chose to release the film online – for free. He claims this is the first time this has been legally been done for a . . . [more]

Kenneth Crews, Director, Copyright Advisory Office, Columbia University, has prepared a “Study on Copyright Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives” for WIPO. It’s now available at: http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=109192.It is a lengthy document, 434 pages, discussing issues from the foundation of library exceptions to their prevalence, scope and structure, and the nature of the various exceptions in the copyright legislations of all WIPO member countries (including Canada.) The first 70+ pages is a substantive discussion and the remaining pages are excerpts from legislation discussed in the document.Lesley . . . [more]

I’m pleased to report that Lesley Harris will be joining Slaw as an occasional contributor.

Lesley is a lawyer, consultant and author who works on Canadian, U.S., and international copyright law, licensing and digital property issues. Based in Washington D.C, she’s a member of the bar in Ontario and is the author of several books including “Canadian Copyright Law” published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson and “Licensing Digital Content: A Practical Guide for Librarians”.

Lesley joined the world of blogging in the Spring and now moderates 3 blogs (http://www.copyrightlaws.com/, http://www.copyrightanswers.blogspot.com/, http://www.licensingdigitalcontent.blogspot.com/ ), and uses blogs to teach her online . . . [more]

With much fanfare, media attention and crashing of computers, Canada’s Do NOT Call List Today went live on September 30, 2008. At leat that was the first day for consumers to add themselves to the list (at https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/).

The scheme really isn’t live yet and the barrage of annoying calls I received last night alone is evidence of that. It really appears that telemarketers are trying to squeeze in as many calls as possible. The regulations establishing the list give a telemarketer thirty days to get an updated list and it is only then that they cannot call you . . . [more]

I’m something of a pack rat. Not the worst of accumulators, mind, because I do bag and bid bye-bye to bunches of stuff when some implicit limit is reached. And part of me, contrariwise, is a minimalist, who wouldn’t mind if all the world were by Bauhaus out of ItalInteriors. So I’m fascinated by Jay Walker’s library, because it might be me, so to speak, if I’d saved my pennies and invested in better stocks than was in fact the case.

Who’s Jay Walker, I hear you ask. He’s a geek entrepreneur who founded Priceline.com and Walker Digital, and . . . [more]

The International Development Law Organization (IDLO) is an intergovernmental organization of 18 states aimed at helping developing countries establish the rule of law and good governance practices. Canada, though CIDA, has been working with IDLO in Afghanistan since 2002.

Readers interested in issues of law in developing countries might consult IDLO’s publications, where you will also find a library of links to relevant online resources (journals, newsletters, newspapers and news agencies). . . . [more]