In 1976 Charles Fried famously asked, “Can a good lawyer be a good person?” (“The Lawyer as Friend: The Moral Foundations of the Lawyer-Client Relation” (1976) 85 Yale LJ 1060 at 1060).

Law and morality are distinct. As a consequence, lawyers sometimes represent bad people, and sometimes help people do bad things. There is thus a legitimate question about whether being a lawyer is consistent with an ethical life. Nonetheless, Fried answered his question “yes”. Because of the law’s legitimacy and justification, a lawyer who assists people to pursue their goals and interests through the law can be – is . . . [more]

The pittance received by most musicians through modern distribution formats is hardly news. Records sales have long tanked and online streaming – the trending means of music consumption – is famous (see here and here for example) for paying out a fraction of a penny per listen. By one US estimate, it takes over 172,000 plays per month for an artist to make a living wage. The upshot is that you need to go big or go home – or at least tour a lot. In what follows, I will explain the financial side of the business in Canada, . . . [more]

In April 2018, Edmonton launched a mental health court to great results. The court was designed to address the backlog of criminal cases by addressing mental health concerns. At the root of many criminal cases and recidivism is an underlying mental health issue. Traditional courts are not always equipped to address the mental health element underlying the cases. Meaning that the cycle of repeat offences continues.

The mental health court reduces the likelihood that someone will reoffend by “tackling the mental health issues that put them there in the first place.” In the CBC article by Andrea Huncar, she writes . . . [more]