The Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in Clements v. Clements today. David Chiefetz shared some thoughts about the case here earlier this week.

The majority, led by McLachlin C.J., expounded on the material contribution test, and indicated that it is better characterized as a “material contribution to risk” and not to injury. However, this approach should be rarely used to ensure that the fundamental principles of tort law for proof of causation are not undermined.

The court also clarified the principle found in Resurfice Corp. v. Hanke that the material contribution test is appropriate where causation under the . . . [more]

What with Canada Day around the corner and all, I thought it might be a good idea to head to the nation’s capital, and since this is a law blog, to the Supreme Court. The aim is to show you five sides of the cube, in effect — and a few goodies from the interior — as a bunch of holiday snaps. Feel free to share your shots of the SCC via the comments.

[Click on any of the images to enlarge it]

Front
Everyone’s seen the standard front view, building all gussied up and proud. We’ll here’s a plainer . . . [more]

other than to the parties and their representatives?

__________________________________

(Rev’d June 30 by adding numbered points 2-9 n the Brief Summary of Consequences, the heading, and the underlined phrase in the next sentence)

It will, but it will not help plaintiffs other than Ms. Clements.

Appeal allowed and sent back for a new trial by a majority decision (7-2). The Court was unanimous on the law, just not the remedy.

. . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

Here are links to the Report and to the Executive Summary of the Independent Civilian Review into Matters Relating to the G20 Summit.

Mr. Morden will be speaking at the release of the Report at Toronto Police Service Headquarters, 40 College Street, 2nd floor at 10 AM. Counsel to the Independent Civilian Review, Ryan Teschner, will be answering questions from the media.

. . . [more]

A full contingent of five judges sitting at the Ontario Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that where an employment agreement provides for a stipulated sum upon termination without cause, and is silent as to the employee’s obligation to mitigate, the employee will not be required to mitigate.

Peter Bowes had a written employment contract with his employer, Goss Power Products Ltd. (“Goss”). The employment agreement contained a sliding scale as to how much notice or pay in lieu of notice Peter was entitled to in the event that his employment was terminated without cause. The longer Peter was employed, the . . . [more]

Happy Canada Day long weekend! Okay, it’s still a few hours early… but before you head out on the road or away to the cottage, your friends at Stem would like to invite you to re-visit the Canadian Law Blogs directory.

We’ve orchestrated a few design changes to celebrate our country’s 145th birthday! Canadian-ized the place, if you will; planting a couple of dozen easter eggs — Terrance and Phillip would be proud!

I’ll even start you with an example: Fodden’s Beer Fridge (formerly Simon’s Canadian Law Blogs Google co-op search) has a ‘Crack a Cold One’ button . . . [more]

I have been following an interesting blog and twitter feed (@LawSync) prepared by LawSync out of Sheffield Hallam University. LawSync has put the “wow” back into law school and is a project of that university’s Department of Law, Criminology, and Community Justice. According to its website:

The name of this project reflects our desire to see a better synchronisation between law as an academic discipline and professional practice, the expectations both of legal professionals and users of legal services, and regulatory influences. Law schools, law students, and legal professionals need to keep in sync with market needs and

Here is a link to the decision in National Federation of Independent Business, et al., , v. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al., . More thoughts to come. Justice Kennedy joined Justices Scalia, Alito and Thomas in voting against the law. Chief Justice Roberts is thus the key vote.

Our precedent demonstrates that Congress had the power to impose the exaction in Section 5000A under the taxing power, and that Section 5000A need not be read to do more than impose a tax. This is sufficient to sustain it.

. . . [more]

According to the Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner, as of April 30 of this year, 151 privacy breaches have been reported to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. The majority of reported breaches involve human error, such as misdirected email, faxes, stolen or lost unencrypted electronic devices and improper record and electronic media destruction. Many of these breaches are preventable with proper security systems and encryption.

Since May of 2010, Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) requires private sector organizations to report privacy breaches that present a real risk of significant harm to the Information and Privacy Commissioner. . . . [more]

[ français / English ]

Pour toutes sortes de raisons, il est temps d’une grande refonte de la présence Web d’Éducaloi. En effet, nous travaillons depuis plusieurs mois à refondre le site Web d’Éducaloi tout en travaillant également à refaire l’image de marque de notre organisme qui existe depuis l’an 2000. La mise à jour de notre image de marque vise à s’assurer que le grand public et le milieu juridique comprennent mieux qui nous sommes et ce que nous faisons. Aussi, elle vise à augmenter la notoriété d’Éducaloi dans la population québécoise. Ces deux grands chantiers se font en . . . [more]

You’ve likely seen a few references now to an upcoming free online course offered by Google: Power Searching with Google. The tagline is “…a short course on becoming a great internet searcher.” For this post, I’ll leave aside speculation about how one becomes a “great internet searcher” using, presumably, one suite of products.

Some discussion I’ve seen refers to this as Google’s MOOC – massive open online course. I’d like to engage in a bit of pedantry for a moment and question whether that’s an appropriate characterization of Google’s offering. A course that requires use of a Google account . . . [more]