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 seventy 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. Canadian Securities Law  2. Law of Work 3. BC Injury Law and ICBC Claims Blog  4. Canadian Legal History Blog  5. Barry Sookman

Canadian Securities Law
New offering memorandum exemption increases access to capital markets in Ontario

Effective January 13, 2016, issuers in Ontario will be able to take advantage of a new prospectus exemption permitting for investments from a wider range of investors through the use of an offering memorandum (the OM Exemption). This new OM Exemption is designed to facilitate capital-raising by allowing for investments from a wider range of investors than under other exemptions such as the existing accredited investor or the family, friends and business associates exemptions. …

Law of Work
What if Ella the Selfie – Taking Monkey Were an Employee?

Come on! A monkey selfie! Did you see this story about the legal battle over ownership of a photo taken by a monkey who stumbled upon a camera in the jungle? I can’t resist posting the photo on this blog and lucky enough, I can even find a work law angle to talk about it. …

BC Injury Law and ICBC Claims Blog
$80,000 Non-Pecuniary Assessment for Chronic and Permanent Low Back Injury

Reasons for judgement were released today by the BC Supreme Court, Vancouver Registry, assessing damages for a chronic low back injury sustained in a collision. In today’s case (Gunson v. Sekhon) the Plaintiff was involved in a 2010 collision caused by the Defendant. The plaintiff suffered a chronic and permanent low back injury. The lingering symptoms caused some difficulties for the Plaintiff at work but did not outright disable him. …

Canadian Legal History Blog
New release from MQUP: Hall, From Treaties to Reserves

New from McGill-Queen’s University Press, From Treaties to Reserves; The Federal Government and Native Peoples in Territorial Alberta, 187-1905, by D.J. Hall. Though some believe that the Indian treaties of the 1870s achieved a unity of purpose between the Canadian government and First Nations, in From Treaties to Reserves D.J. Hall asserts that – as a result of profound cultural differences – each side interpreted the negotiations differently, leading to conflict and an acute sense of betrayal when neither group accomplished what the other had asked. …

Barry Sookman
Use of metatags on website may infringe trade-mark: Red Label v 411 Travel Buys

Just before the holidays last year, the Federal Court of Appeal released its decision in Red Label Vacations Inc v 411 Travel Buys Limited 2015 FCA 290. It affirmed the lower court decision of Justice Manson which had held that, on the facts of the case, the use of metatags on web pages did not constitute passing-off, trade-mark infringement or depreciation of goodwill. It did so primarily based on findings of fact by the trial judge which the court found were not subject to any palpable and overriding error. …

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*Randomness here is created by Random.org and its list randomizing function.