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. Reconciliation Syllabus 2. David Whelan 3. IFLS at Osgoode 4. Excess Copyright 5. Global Workplace Insider

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. …

David Whelan
The Two Speeds of Law Practice Technology

It is funny how you can be aware of something but, until you explain it to someone else, it doesn’t really take form. So far this semester, we have been looking at law practice technology from the perspectives of efficiencies: doing things more quickly and more accurately. Now that we’ve hit some security topics, the focus is on shifting into reverse and slowing down: how do you add friction. When I read about lawyers running into trouble with practice technology, increasingly it seems as though they’ve allowed their focus on efficiency to get out of balance with their need to induce friction. A law practice without friction is on a very slippery slope. …

IFLS at Osgoode
Why the Rule of Law Matters Now More Than Ever

At a time when courts, constitutions, and core democratic values are under increasing pressure, Osgoode Hall Law School convened a public conversation to examine a fundamental question: why the rule of law matters now more than ever. Hosted by Osgoode and York University, the event brought together judges, lawyers, scholars, students, and policy leaders for a focused discussion on law’s power and capacity in this dramatically challenging moment in history. The conversation featured the Honourable Bob Rae, former Premier of Ontario and Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations. Opening the event, Dean Trevor Farrow situated the discussion in a context familiar to many in the room. …

Excess Copyright
Blacklock’s Pyrrhic Victory in the Federal Court of Appeal

I have blogged about Blacklock’s war against fair dealing for over a decade during which it has been protracting its long lasting litany of litigation losses. This began notably with Justice Barnes’ 2016 decision in a case in which he ruled against Blacklock’s and stated that “Although there are certainly some troubling aspects to Blacklock’s business practices it is unnecessary to resolve the Attorney General’s allegation that this litigation constitutes a form of copyright abuse by a copyright troll.” See 1395804 Ontario Ltd. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2016 FC 1255 (CanLII), [2017] 2 FCR 256, <https://canlii.ca/t/gvrbx>. Incidentally, the Government’s lawyer on that case, Alexandre Kaufman, has since been appointed as a judge of the Ontario Superior Court. …

Global Workplace Insider
Mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting: government response

On 25 March, the government published its response to the consultation on mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting, confirming its intention to proceed with a new reporting regime for large employers. Reporting will apply to organisations with 250 or more employees, aligning with the existing gender pay gap framework and avoiding additional regulatory burden on smaller employers, who will instead be encouraged to report voluntarily with the support of guidance. …

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