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) : Le tribunal conclut hors de tout doute raisonnable qu’une véritable entente s’est concrétisée entre l’accusée et son conjoint pour agresser sexuellement l’enfant que celle-ci gardait; l’accusée est donc déclarée coupable de l’infraction prévue à l’article 172.2 (1) b) C.Cr.

Intitulé : R. c. Blackburn, 2024 QCCQ 2516 . . . [more]

The bar examination landscape in the United States seems to be in a state of upheaval. The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) is in the midst of developing a new bar exam, called the Next Gen Bar. Meanwhile, California’s State Bar considered scrapping NCBE entirely and hiring Kaplan to write an exam for California.^[1] Though California has now paused this plan, it’s clear that they were looking for other options and thought it might be possible to write a new exam.

I once heard a teaching expert joke that she could teach anything. She would take a bet . . . [more]

I shared news earlier this year, but I wanted to follow up with some tips on how to get the most out of Courthouse Libraries BC’s free access to Court Services Online (CSO) E-search.

These tips include pointers helpful for anyone using CSO E-search, even if you are out of the province and don’t know anything about this useful tool for accessing BC court records and file information. Anyone can search CSO, see free results, and then pay to see deeper case information and pay to download available documents. You don’t need an account. So if you’re outside BC, . . . [more]

Throughout my career, I have been attracted to and fortunate enough to work on various initiatives that push the envelope in particularly challenging and fast-moving areas. This work can sometimes induce anxiety due to its unpredictable nature and pace, but it is never boring and it is often highly rewarding. That being said, nothing I have done in the past has come close to the pace of change and potential for impact than working in the management of risk for artificial intelligence (AI) implementation. The unique combination of the speed of advancement of AI technology combined with the slow pace . . . [more]

Preamble When students at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law (“LASL” or “the school”) sent a controversial letter (“the letter” or “the October 20th letter”) to the LASL administration, a letter which became public, about the Israel-Hamas conflict, Metropolitan Toronto University (“MTU” or “the University”) filed a complaint under TMU Senate Policy 61, the Student Code of Non-Academic Conduct (“the Code”). The University appointed the former Chief Justice of Nova Scotia J. Michael MacDonald as the External Reviewer of the complaint. MacDonald released his Report (“the Report”) on May 31, 2024. This is the third post of a three-part . . . [more]

As advances in technology have made the sheer volume of electronically stored information immense, there has never been a more critical time to manage e-Discovery efficiently and cost effectively. Whether your work involves litigation, legal transactions, analytics, records management, or legal support, the Osgoode Certificate in E-Discovery, Information Governance and Privacy will give you a practical, deep dive into the e-Discovery process, including strategies to manage information governance records, and how to handle new challenges related to privacy and artificial intelligence. Led by Program Director, Susan Wortzman of MT>3, and an Advisory Board consisting of Lisa Alleyne, Senior Legal . . . [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) : Il n’y a pas lieu d’intervenir à l’égard du jugement de première instance ayant déclaré un policier coupable d’avoir commis une agression sexuelle à l’endroit de sa collègue lors d’une patrouille; il est vrai que le juge a erré en s’appuyant sur le comportement a posteriori de . . . [more]

As a faculty member of Simon Fraser University, I recently participated in a SFU Faculty Association vote on a motion “calling upon SFU to divest from Israeli commercial interests, suspend partnerships with Israeli universities, and offer concrete support for Palestinian faculty and students.” Such motions have been common across universities around the world during the “situation in Gaza,” as the motion calls it. The inordinate loss of life and suffering of the Israel-Hamas War has led to campus disruptions that have not been seen since the Vietnam War roiled campuses more than half-a century ago (during my student days at . . . [more]

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

It’s a basic principle that a party needs to know the case being alleged against it to fairly respond to it. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice rendered a decision in 2024 ONSC 2948 where an employment relationship went bad, resulting in a lawsuit. The employer cried foul over the information it received in response to its demand for particulars and brought a motion asking the court to order them. The court disagreed, shedding light on the extent of information a respondent is entitled to receive before examination for discovery. . . . [more]

This column is a cautionary tale for adjudicators who use social media such as the platform formerly known as Twitter – although equally applicable to other social media platforms such as LinkedIn. In Law Society of Ontario v. Diamond, 2024 ONLSTA 8 (CanLII), the appeal panel of Ontario’s Law Society Tribunal, found that the current chair of the Tribunal should have recused himself from a conduct hearing based on comments he had made on social media prior to being assigned to the panel, related to the lawyer whose conduct was under scrutiny (Jeremy Diamond of Diamond & Diamond). Jeremy . . . [more]

Preamble When students at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law (“LASL” or “the school”) sent a controversial letter (“the letter” or “the October 20th letter”) to the LASL administration, a letter which became public, about the Israel-Hamas conflict, Metropolitan Toronto University (“MTU” or “the University”) filed a complaint under TMU Senate Policy 61, the Student Code of Non-Academic Conduct (“the Code”). The University appointed the former Chief Justice of Nova Scotia J. Michael MacDonald as the External Reviewer of the complaint. MacDonald released his Report (“the Report”) on May 31, 2024. This is the second post of a three-part . . . [more]