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. Robeside Assistance 2. Timely Disclosure 3. The Court 4. Barry Sookman 5. Reconciliation Syllabus

Robeside Assistance
Recently Published Ottawa Decisions

In a family law dispute, the Court dismissed a father’s motion for DNA paternity testing, finding it lacked evidentiary support and served no useful purpose. The Court emphasized the children’s best interests, rejecting the father’s motives as self-serving and potentially harmful to the children’s emotional well-being.
Associate Justice I. Kamal …

Timely Disclosure
2026 ESG Disclosure Study

Bring sharper focus to your ESG strategy in a rapidly evolving landscape. Fasken’s 2026 ESG Disclosure Study reveals how Canadian companies are strengthening their sustainability practices, enhancing transparency, and responding to evolving stakeholder expectations. This study surveys 100 companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange, offering insights that can help you assess where your organization stands and support more informed decision-making on emerging Environmental, Social, and Governance priorities. This year’s study highlights several notable trends across Canada, including: …

The Court
Arrest Ex Nihilo: Wilson and the SCC’s Many Modern Approaches

In R. v. Wilson, 2025 SCC 32 [Wilson], the Court disagreed over a word that didn’t exist. In s. 4.1(2) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, SC 1996, c 19 (“CDSA”), those who call emergency services to save a person experiencing an overdose are immunized from being charged or convicted of drug possession. However, the provision does not include the word “arrest.” Despite this, the Court held that the provision also immunizes “good Samaritans” from arrest for drug possession using a purpose-laden modern approach to statutory interpretation. Wilson is significant for many issues, including a clarification of the scope of good Samaritan provisions and of the Court’s stance on policing and public health policy. But this Comment focuses on one issue—the Court’s use of the modern approach—and argues that greater clarity and consistency is needed in the Court’s method of statutory interpretation. …

Barry Sookman
Cox v Sony: Analyzing the Supreme Court Decision

The U.S. Supreme Court released an important decision on the scope of U.S. secondary liability for copyright infringement applied to ISPs in Cox Communications, Inc. et al. v. Sony Music Entertainment et al., 607 U.S. ——- S.Ct. —-2026 WL 815823. The syllabus of the court summarized the case and the court’s opinion are set out below. My comments on the case follows the summary of the Cox v Sony opinion of the SCOTUS. …

Reconciliation Syllabus
Learning Land and Relationship

For some time, I have been wanting to bring experiential learning related to land to a 3^rd year course I teach in an undergraduate Legal Studies program at Ontario Tech University: LGLS 3310U – Indigenous Peoples, Law and the State in Canada . This is the story of how this happened. Val Napoleon and Hadley Friedland discuss “stories as tools for thinking”, for both tellers and listeners, in their work on engagement with Indigenous legal traditions.[1] Although my topic is much smaller, telling this story gives me space to think – about the land, about teaching and relationships, and about myself as a teacher — if you feel you can take it up as a thinking tool, too, please do. …

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*Randomness here is created by Random.org and its list randomizing function.