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 sixty 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. Family LLB  2. Canadian Appeals Monitor  3. Slater Vecchio Connected  4. LeeAkazaki.com  5. Henry J. Chang’s Canada-US Immigration Blog

Family LLB
Do Courts Adjust Support for Temporary Income Fluctuations?
The calculation of the amount of child support payable by one parent to the other has been made easier by the Child Support Guidelines, which provide a formula based on income. And, as I’ve written in a post recently Income for Child Support Purposes , “income” is a relatively static number, based primarily on income as reported to the Canada Revenue Agency. However, unfairness can arise – either to the paying parent or the recipient – when income levels fluctuate unexpectedly throughout the tax year. For example a paying parent’s income may temporarily drop . . .

Canadian Appeals Monitor
The Second Opinion: Non-Parties May Be Bound by a Forum Selection Clause
Can a party that has not signed an agreement containing a forum selection clause nevertheless be bound by it? The Ontario Court of Appeal addressed this question in Aldo Group Inc. v. Moneris Solutions Corporation, 2013 ONCA 725. The Court in Aldo contemplated the application of forum selection clauses to third parties in limited circumstances. The salient facts of the decision in Aldo are as follows. MasterCard entered into a license agreement with a Bank, allowing the Bank to issue credit cards (the “License Agreement”). The License Agreement contained a forum selection clause identifying New York as the chosen forum for adjudicating disputes. . . .

Slater Vecchio Connected
First Concussion Alters “Microstructure” of Brain in Young Athletes
Research led by Canadian concussion specialist Dr. Paul Echlin proves that all it takes is one concussion to alter the brains of young athletes. Working in collaboration with neuroscientists around the world, Echlin analyzed the brains of 45 male and female hockey players aged 19-26. MRI imaging revealed microscopic changes that could be linked to cognitive deficits and long-term brain disease like Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Part I of the study focused on changes in the brain immediately following a concussion. . . .

LeeAkazaki.com
Better late than too late: How are law societies to respond to #TWU?
A decade from now, after the dust of court challenges has settled, a Canadian law society president near you may be calling to the bar a graduate from the Trinity Western University Faculty of Law (TWU). TWU is a faith-based private college requiring its students to sign a “Community Covenant Agreement” banning “sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.” Considered a thinly veiled exclusion of members of the LGBT community, the document’s previously litigated antecedent required students to refrain from “biblically condemned” conduct, including “homosexual behaviour.” The prospect of law societies conferring licences on TWU graduates frightens and angers many in the legal community. . . .

Henry J. Chang’s Canada-US Immigration Blog
Government of Canada Proposes Significant Amendments to the Citizenship Act
On February 6, 2014, Citizenship and Immigration Minister (the “Minister”) Chris Alexander unveiled Bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, which will be the first significant amendment to the Canadian Citizenship Act [1] since 1977. Among other things, Bill C-24 makes the following amendments to the Citizenship Act: 1. It clarifies the meaning of being resident in Canada for naturalization purposes; 2 It changes the period during which a permanent resident must reside in Canada before they may apply for citizenship; 3 It expedites access to citizenship for persons who are serving in, or have served in, the Canadian Armed Forces; . . .
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*Randomness here is created by Random.org and its list randomizing function.