The new EU GDPR privacy rules can apply to businesses outside of the EU that provide goods and services to EU data subjects. It is important for businesses outside of the EU to know when they are subject to the GDPR, as penalties for non-compliance are significant. An occasional sale to someone in the EU probably won’t be an issue – but what will? 

The European Data Protection Board just released for public consultation draft guidelines on when the GDPR applies to those without a presence in the EU. 

Article 3(2) of the GDPR says it applies to businesses without . . . [more]

Each Wednesday we tell you which three English-language cases and which French-language case have been the most viewed* on CanLII and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this last week:

1. Vernon Professional Firefighters’ Association I.A.F.F. LOCAL 1517 v Corporation of the City of Vernon, 2018 CanLII 111669 (BC LA)

[266] On balance, our assessment of each factor and the interaction among them in this matrix of factors persuades us that this surreptitious surveillance as conducted by the employer was both a necessary collection of employee personal information for an investigation of . . . [more]

Content marketing is pretty simple, it involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote you or your brand but is intended to stimulate interest. It is a proven strategy for finding new leads and for being thought of as an authority on the topic. For lawyers, especially those early in their career, it has become almost a rite of passage.

I was recently asked to review a book authored by a number of lawyers across Canada. The material was excellent but it became quickly obvious that although . . . [more]

Over the past few weeks, @Erin Durant42 has done yeoperson’s service in responding to the anticipated closing of the Pro Bono Legal Help Centres to the extent that the Centres will now be funded for another year.

This is good news, but it also highlights one of the serious problems we have in trying to provide access to justice to those who cannot afford a private lawyer. The past years have seen the springing up of a variety of responses to the lack of access to justice (in the sense of access to legal services), many of them reliant on . . . [more]

Millions of Canadians live with serious debt, persistent housing problems and face ongoing issues with unemployment. These problems have profound effects on their quality of life. They signal lives of adversity that are impacted by the economic and social constraints that these problems impose.

The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice’s (CFCJ’s) 2014 national survey of Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice[1] asked over 3,000 adults in Canada about their experiences with these markers of adversity. Separate from experiences of civil justice problems within the three-year reference period of the survey, participants were asked:

• Looking back over the

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

Checklist for Background Research
Susannah Tredwell

If you are carrying out due diligence on an individual or company, the BC Securities Commission has produced a very useful online resource on the subject called Conducting Background Research. …

Practice

Find a Great Job (Or a Great Candidate) With Slaw Jobs

In case you missed the big news, there’s a new addition to the Slaw family! Slaw Jobs, . . . [more]

Depending on who you are, what you celebrate, and your personal tolerance for holiday cheer, December 1st is a big day for many folks.

It can be seen as the officially acceptable date to begin various activities: listening to Christmas music, putting up your lights and decorations, or adding a little Bailey’s to your morning coffee.

It is also Inauguration Day in Mexico (every six years), Bette Midler’s birthday, World AIDS Day, and the day in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Here in our little . . . [more]

Activist, scholarly, and administrative strands of my life have come together lately around Everett Klippert, the last Canadian jailed for consensual gay sex. Shortly after the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Klippert’s sentence, the Parliament of Canada – it was the era of Trudeau père – partially decriminalized sodomy, in 1969. Events around Klippert have reminded me of the importance of building community and speaking up about fundamental values.

Fellow LGBTQ alumni and I had been planning a fundraising campaign to endow an entrance scholarship in the McGill Faculty of Law for students having shown commitment to working with . . . [more]

On Nov. 21, 2018, Finance Minister Bill Morneau provided the 2018 fiscal update, which includes nearly $600 million in tax credits and incentives over the next 5 years for the media, as well as a temporary tax credit for subscribers to digital news media sites. Non-profit media organizations will be eligible for charitable status and may receive funding from other registered charities.

The role of the media within our legal system is emphasized in our constitution. Though commonly referred to as simply “freedom of speech,” the Charter‘s expressive guarantee under s. 2(b) is slightly more refined as,

freedom

One Sunday each month OnPoint Legal Research provides Slaw with an extended summary of, and counsel’s commentary on, an important case from the British Columbia, Alberta, or Ontario court of appeal.

Johnson v Goyette, 2018 ABCA 353

AREAS OF LAW: Family law; Unjust enrichment; Joint family venture

~A trial judge’s finding on whether a joint family venture exists is a factual one, reviewable only for palpable and overriding error.~

BACKGROUND
The Appellant, Sandra Johnson, and the Respondent, Danielle Goyette, were in a 13-year common-law relationship. The Respondent was a professional hockey player and competed in three Olympic Games. The . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

Tout comme dans Chiasson c. Fillion (C.S., 2005-04-11), SOQUIJ AZ-50307092, J.E. 2005-757, [2005] R.J.Q. 1066, [2005] R.R.A. 459, la demanderesse a été victime d’un harcèlement systématique, caractérisé par une longue campagne de dénigrement basée sur des moqueries sur son apparence, la seule distinction étant que les injures, les menaces et . . . [more]