It takes four days for the public to turn away from news of a mass shooting in the United States (US). Within those four days, there will be up to eight more mass shootings and hundreds more gun-related deaths with little news coverage. Meanwhile, lack of effective laws and poor enforcement allow “crime guns” to filter through porous US borders to neighbouring countries.

After each mass shooting, gun control advocates demand that governments “do something.” US and Canadian legislators take piecemeal measures as they twist in hot winds of polarized uproar that pits “gun rights” against “gun control.” Strikingly . . . [more]

Written by Daniel Standing, LL.B., Editor, First Reference Inc.

“I can’t hear you!”

When a litigant hears this from a court, tribunal or other decision maker, it either means that someone needs to speak up, or there is a problem with jurisdiction. Difficulties of the first variety are easy to fix, while those in the second category can be insurmountable. In the labour world, complainants sometimes appear to have more than one forum at their disposal, and while sometimes this is the case, it isn’t always, and the consequences of choosing the wrong one can be costly. In a recent . . . [more]

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

For this last week, the most-consulted three English-language decisions were:

1. Portincasa v Taylor, 2022 ABQB 451 (CanLII)

[10] The Counterclaim is explicitly based on rights purporting to originate from the “1st Notice”, and that claims to enforce the effect of the “1st Notice”. The “1st Notice” appears to make absurd and illegal claims that are Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Argument [OPCA] concepts: Meads . . . [more]

To be an effective advocate, you must not only be highly skilled in specific and substantive areas of the law, but you must also ensure that you are able to advocate your case competently and confidently. You must also be adept at making sound, strategic decisions and are able to think on your feet when called upon. These skills are not perfected overnight.

Effective oral advocacy is a skill that requires constant refinement and practice and as lawyers gain years in practice, they are often called upon to take on more challenging and complex cases. But at the same time, . . . [more]

Bad news and tragedy surround us. The challenges appear to be enormous. Daunting. How do we hold ourselves up and make a difference in these times?

I believe that hope, grounded hope, is a necessary starting point.

Grounded hope emerges when we look at reality straight on, stand firm, and determine to believe that a better future is a possibility worth striving for.

This form of hope is an expression of “liberatory consciousness,” the framework developed by Barbara Love:

“Liberatory consciousness is a framework used to maintain an awareness of the dynamics of oppression characterizing society without giving

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

Comma Fails From People Who Should Know Better
Neil Guthrie

Exhibit A, posted on LinkedIn by a copywriter and editor: My husband, John Blank and I are relocating to Canada in April. Without a comma after John Blank (the name has been changed to protect the guilty by association), this means the writer is moving with an unnamed husband and this other dude, John Blank. … . . . [more]

Law societies and other professional regulatory bodies around the world have begun to recognize their professions’ roles in addressing and adapting to climate change. Unfortunately, the Law Society of British Columbia (the Law Society) missed an opportunity to do so last month. My West Coast Environmental Law colleagues Erin Gray, Staff Lawyer and Kaymi Yoon-Maxwell, Summer Law Student, report below on what happened and the worrying implications.

Climate resolution fails at Law Society meeting

On June 22, at its 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM), the Law Society membership – which is all lawyers in BC – failed to pass Resolution . . . [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.

PÉNAL (DROIT): Une peine de 90 jours de détention assortie d’une probation de 30 mois est imposée à un accusé âgé de 18 ans qui s’est reconnu coupable de possession de matériel de pornographie juvénile.

Intitulé : R. c. Drouin, 2022 QCCQ 3474
Juridiction : Cour du Québec, Chambre criminelle . . . [more]

In a recent decision by the Court of Queen’s Bench of New Brunswick, an employer was found to have constructively dismissed its employee when it haphazardly told him he was to be “furloughed” and sent him home without pay for an indefinite period of time. The employer’s behaviour was not a legitimate temporary layoff but was instead a clear breach of its obligations under its employment contract. While the employer may have intended to temporary layoff the employee in response to the serious repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on its business, its careless verbal notice and failure to provide a . . . [more]

In a recent decision, the Federal Court was asked to instruct the Canadian patent office on the proper framework for assessing whether inventions are patentable subject matter. The court held that the three part test proposed by the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC) that includes asking whether the construed claim as a whole consists only of a mere scientific principle or abstract theory that should be rejected as unpatentable, or a patentable practical application that may employ a scientific principle of abstract theorem.

This decision, Benjamin Moore & Co. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2022 FC 923, arose . . . [more]