Canada’s online legal magazine.

Archive for January, 2023

Make Your Presentations Sing! Six Lessons From the Musical SIX

Why is the average powerpoint presentation painfully dull while the average musical is something theatergoers will pay loads of money to experience? How is it that the musical genre can take a topic like Alexander Hamilton or the six wives of Henry VIII and make textbook history into a memorable hit? Aside from the obvious advantages of singing, dancing, and glitzy costumes, the musical SIX gives us a clearly defined roadmap: we will tell you the stories of the six wives of Henry VIII, in order. This roadmap is repeated a few times during the show, cementing the women’s stories . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Education, Legal Information

Remembering Peter Hogg (1939-2020)

As the fall law school term wound down, I found myself thinking about Peter Hogg. With the Alberta Sovereignty Act, the notwithstanding clause and Quebec and Saskatchewan unilaterally amending the Constitution, I’m sure I was not alone. When you teach Constitutional Law in this country, it is hard not to think about Peter Hogg. Like many, I was fortunate to have known Peter and although I never took a class with him, I very much consider myself a student of Peter Hogg. I benefitted from his mentorship and his teaching for two decades, until his untimely death in February . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Education

Family Fiducia v. Family Feuds: Proceed Diligently if Electing to Represent Family Members as Clients

In late December, Slaw received two recommended Op-Ed submissions from David Tanovich‘s legal ethics class at the University of Windsor. Today, we’re running them both. 

With holiday dinners right around the corner, family drama seems unavoidable as the strains of proximity and unresolved grievances test relationships during gatherings. This was certainly the case for u/redpanda891, who took to Reddit to after a disconcerting family dinner: “[Am I the A**hole] for calling my sister’s husband a piece of s**t because he’s representing my ex in our divorce?”[1]

In particular, the fiduciary nature required of the lawyer-client relationship aggravates the . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Ethics

Dangling the Keys to Freedom: Prosecutorial Discretion, Deep-Discount Offers, and False Guilty Pleas

In late December, Slaw received two recommended Op-Ed submissions from David Tanovich‘s legal ethics class at the University of Windsor. Today, we’re running them both. 

One hundred and eighty days. That is how long Richard Catcheway, an Indigenous accused, sat in a prison cell for a crime he did not commit. Five to eight years. That is the prison term Casey McIlvride-Lister avoided by pleading guilty. Then we have Dinesh Kumar who avoided a life sentence by taking an offer of 90-days to be served intermittently. While factually dissimilar, Richard, Casey, and Dinesh share a connection: they were . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Ethics

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 more than 80 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. Family LLB 2. Global Workplace Insider 3. ABlawg.ca 4. BC Injury Law Blog 5. Risk Management & Crisis Response

Family LLB
Divorce, equalization and sharing property in Ontario

In this special series, “30 Days of AI”, we examine the evolution of AI and the potential impact for

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ

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.

ACTION COLLECTIVE (RECOURS COLLECTIF) : Une action collective est autorisée contre les défenderesses au nom des personnes au Québec qui, depuis le 1er septembre 2017, ont développé une dépendance au jeu vidéo Fortnite Battle Royale.

Intitulé : F.N. c. Epic Games Canada, 2022 QCCS 4551
Juridiction : Cour . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Friday Jobs Roundup

Each Friday, we share the latest job listings from Slaw Jobs, which features employment opportunities from across the country. Find out more about these positions by following the links below, or learn how you can use Slaw Jobs to gain valuable exposure for your job ads, while supporting the great Canadian legal commentary at Slaw.ca.

Current postings on Slaw Jobs:

. . . [more]
Posted in: Friday Jobs Roundup

Staying in Your Lane: The Distribution of Work Between Tribunals and the Courts and the Need for Speed

When someone starts a conversation with “it is useful to return to first principles”, you know that things have been drifting a bit. The Ontario Court of Appeal recently used that expression when discussing the role of the court in labour relations matters (National Organized Workers Union v. Sinai Health System, 2022 ONCA 802). In this dispute, the National Organized Workers Union was seeking an interlocutory injunction to prevent Sinai Health System from enforcing a mandatory vaccination policy pending the arbitration of grievances that challenged the policy.

The first principles the court is referring to are of course . . . [more]

Posted in: Dispute Resolution

The Dubious Benefit of Merely Changing Ownership of Law Publishing Businesses

Focusing primarily on smaller acquisition targets, when professional publishing, or indeed any businesses are comparatively cheaply sold to and acquired by venture capitalists of one kind or another, it is hard to imagine that the motives, both for the vendor and the acquirer, though mostly the latter, are anything other than the crudest form of money-making. There may also be, of course, the characteristically politically reactionary and not always honourable inclinations, objectives and outcomes which might prevail in that world, to a greater extent than in others. Not that there is, necessarily and fundamentally, anything strange or surprising with all . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Publishing

2022 Year-End Roundup of U.S. and Other Legal Research Information

The U.S. mid-term elections are almost over except for the litigation from sore losers. The new Congress will be more diverse and probably more divisive. The old Congress is working on finishing up business by the end of the year, including funding the government. I’m hoping the new Congress will be able to work better together, but I am not betting on it.

The Law Library of Congress continues to post accurate and timely legal information on a variety of subjects in their In Custudio Legis blog. On November 30th Michael Chalupovitsch, a Foreign Law Specialist at the Law . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information

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 more than 80 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. RT Blog 2. National Magazine 3. Employment & Human Rights Law in Canada 4. Legal Feeds 5. Know How

RT Blog
“Accent translation” software? It’s time to flip the script on linguistic hierarchies

Language discrimination is a harmful reality in many workplaces, and employers need to be

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

Summaries Sunday: Supreme Advocacy

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, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted from Nov. 17 – Dec. 31, 2022 inclusive.

Oral Judgments

Criminal Law: Hearsay
R. v. Furey, 2021 NLCA 59; 2022 SCC 52 (40038)

Karakatsanis J.: ” … The trial judge did not err in admitting the hearsay evidence on the voir dire. However, we would . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday