The New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench recently considered if and when a workplace romance could lead to just cause for dismissal.

Quick facts

The employee was a regional manager for New Brunswick and had been employed by the employer since at least 2002. He was dismissed in May 2017 when the employer became aware that the employee was involved in a sexual relationship with another employee whom he supervised and had failed to report the relationship, as required by policy.

Prior to the dismissal, the employer conducted an investigation which confirmed the existence of the relationship. But it also . . . [more]

After a one-year hiatus, we are back with the fourth of a series of blogs highlighting the various papers, studies, and pilot projects conducted by the Cyberjustice Laboratory and its partners throughout the seven-year long “Towards Cyberjustice” Project (the previous parts can be found here: part 1, part 2, part 3). Funded by a Major Collaborative Research Grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, this project has finally drawn to a close and will be the subject of a detailed report to be released later this year. In anticipation of this upcoming . . . [more]

We lawyers rarely sit beside a client’s bed. The mere thought sends some to shrink into a little ball. But what irks the oaf should gird the loins. Intimate secrets, more often reserved for the bed than the table, are the lawyer’s jewels: the illicit affair; the child spurned; pain suffered otherwise in silence; wealth sought and lost; crimes in thought and deed – no duration suffices to list the prodigious confidences confessed. Wielding power in vulnerable moments, the lawyer most admired is more feared than loved. And why is this?

The client is a ground best dug for facts. . . . [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. Fleming v. Ontario, 2019 SCC 45

[65] This proposed power of arrest would involve substantial prima facie interference with significant liberty interests. Indeed, few police actions interfere with an individual’s liberty more than arrest — an action which completely restricts the person’s ability to move about in society free from state coercion. As this Court recently noted, “placing a person . . . [more]

The UK Supreme Court’s decision in R (on the application of Miller) v. The Prime Minister and Cherry and others v. Advocate General for Scotland surprised many because of the Court’s willingness to wade into the legitimacy of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament and to employ unwritten constitutional principles to do so. The City of Toronto raised unwritten constitutional principles in challenging the Better Local Government Act, 2018‘s reduction of Toronto City Council from 47 wards to 25; however, the Court of Appeal dismissed this approach in the City of Toronto case. Here I revisit that decision . . . [more]

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC)’s report, Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) Report of Findings #2019-001, issued April 9, 2019, into the Equifax hack, created controversy as the report suggested that the existing law on the level of consent necessary for Canadian organizations to engage in transborder processing of personal data had changed and that the OPC was now asserting that a new standard of express consent was required.

In para. 111 of the report, the OPC stated “we acknowledge that in previous guidance our Office has characterized transfers for processing as a ‘use’ . . . [more]

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.

Practice

Take That Vacation, It Will Make You a Better Lawyer!
Erin Cowling

We all know that taking a real vacation makes us less stressed, more focused, and in return, better lawyers, better employees, and better bosses. Even though I love my job, I still need a break from it. I need to unplug and unwind. I need to think about something other than the law. When I do, . . . [more]

Recently the #LawNeedsWellnessBecause hashtag was trending on Twitter. Lawyers weighed in on why mental health should be a priority. Amongst the #LawNeedsWellnessBecause tweets, the structure of how lawyers practice was pointed to as a contributor to stress, anxiety, and burnout.

Despite the structural factors influencing mental health, there is almost an exclusive focus on fixing the individual. In the article “How mindfulness privatised a social problem: The £3.4trn industry encourages a preoccupation with the symptoms of mental illness, rather than their social causes,” Hettie O’Brien in the New Statesman discusses this issue.

O’Brien quotes Purser who argues that . . . [more]

In a pro bono clinic that I started in Saint John, N.B., I came across Robert. Robert had worked in a flooring warehouse for eight years, and to his surprise, was suddenly fired, out the door with two weeks’ severance pay. He was worried he’d lose his apartment because that wasn’t enough to cover his expenses while he found another job, but he couldn’t afford a lawyer to find out about his rights. Robert came to the clinic and learned that he was entitled to quite a bit more, which we were able to easily get for him because the . . . [more]

Ontario’s 2018 election for the 42nd Parliament was something remarkable. It denoted the worst result for any incumbent government party in the province’s history.

The governing party secured this success despite an unexpected leadership race triggered only months before the June election. In part, voters’ motivation appeared to be informed by a need for change.

This overwhelming success by the government has been repeated cited as a “mandate,” to effectively enact almost any policy priority identified by them, even if done so following their election. With a majority government, there has already been widespread legal reforms, though some have been . . . [more]

One Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all appeals as well as leaves to appeal granted so you will know what the SCC will soon be dealing with (September 27 – October 11, 2019 inclusive).

Appeals

Criminal Law: Arrest
Fleming v. Ontario, 2019 SCC 45 (38087)

Where the exercise of a police power restricts lawful activities of individuals, courts must apply the test . . . [more]