If you think civil lawsuits take way too long in Canada, you’re in good company. But one high-profile suit recently went from claim to final hearing in less than 30 hours. Ontario v Doe was certainly an unusual case, and one that has been widely debated for reasons that have nothing to do with civil procedure. And yet it also offers three important lessons for people who care about making justice speedier in mainstream civil litigation.

The Facts: A Last-Minute Injunction

A rally was planned for the afternoon of Saturday March 14th, on University Avenue in downtown Toronto. Just . . . [more]

Several Canadian governments have been using politicized rhetoric against “self-interested” lawyers and biased courts to garner popular support for increased control of the legal system. This column examines threats to the independence of the legal profession in Canada and explores how the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer (Luxembourg Convention) could fortify the rule of law.

The Luxembourg Convention: “Survival mechanism for the Rule of Law”

Threats to lawyers and judges in the United States (US) have triggered worldwide alarm. In 2025, research by Canadian law societies . . . [more]

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Unravelling MAiD in Canada: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide as Medical Care. Edited by Ramona Coelho, K. Sonu Gaind & Trudo Lemmens. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025. 552 p. Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 9780228023692 (softcover) $39.95; ISBN 9780228024538 (ePUB); ISBN 9780228024521 (PDF).

Reviewed by Sasha Dhesi
Library Technician
Cassels . . . [more]

In previous articles, I introduced the RECLAIM model as a cultural operating system for law firms and explored the first three elements: Respect, Equity, and Clarity. This month, I turn to L: Learning.

In February 2014, Satya Nadella stepped into the role of CEO at Microsoft. The company he inherited was dominant but adrift, slowed by internal competition and a sense that it had been left behind by the cloud and mobile shifts. Nadella opened with a bold move.

Microsoft, he said, would go from being a know‑it‑all culture to a learn‑it‑all culture.

That single reframe became the . . . [more]

In recent years we have made significant strides in recognizing the prevalence of mental health issues amongst lawyers and attempting to defeat the stigma that discourages lawyers from disclosing their challenges and seeking support.

It is now well-known and accepted that “legal professionals are almost twice as likely to experience mental health issues like anxiety, stress, depression and addiction as the general population”.[1]

Leaders in our profession are speaking up. In 2022, former Chief Justice of Ontario George R. Strathy published a thoughtful paper acknowledging this reality and calling for top-down change in our approach to mental health as . . . [more]

I find it at the same time strange and reassuring that, looking primarily at law publishing within the jurisdictions which make up the British Isles, I seem to note the extent to which law book and periodical publishing, linked to electronic delivery and integration with electronic tools, appears to be still thriving, or certainly surviving. It is understandable that the smaller law and related professional and academic publishers are primarily engaged in producing traditional publications, but the surprise is at the top end, notably from Thomson Reuters and Lexis Nexis, which are the main objects of . . . [more]

Much of the work of the BC Family Justice Innovation Lab (FJIL) has focused on our Youth Voices initiative. Coming out of an intensive design process centering the lived experience of young people, the Youth Voices Initiative aims to improve the well-being of children and youth experiencing parental separation. An important lesson learned was that while the family justice system formally acknowledged the importance of the “best interests of the child”, and there were some programs that sought the view of kids about decisions which affected their lives, the kids’ experience was often that it was “too little, too late”. . . . [more]

I learned what a “third place” was long before I knew the term. At the time, it didn’t feel like a lesson. It felt like a demotion.

When I was practising law at the City of Toronto, space was at a premium. New hires were placed wherever a desk could be found

As a junior lawyer, it was only a matter of time until a more senior hire bumped me out of my office.

But I wasn’t expecting to be reassigned to a desk in the law department library.

To add literal injury to insult, this happened just after I’d . . . [more]

Those familiar with my writing will know that I usually write about artificial intelligence in terms of regulation, governance, and risk. This piece is a slight departure. What follows is a set of reflections for young professionals working in AI, or considering work in the field, at a moment when the pace of change, the visibility of the space, and the pressure to find one’s place in it can easily create more anxiety than clarity. I use the phrase “young professional” in a broad sense. It follows a familiar tradition in reflective writing, but I do not mean it strictly . . . [more]

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Trial by Numbers: A Lawyer’s Guide to Statistical Evidence. By Adam Chilton & Kyle Rozema. New York: Oxford University Press, 2024. 207 p. Includes list of figures and tables, notes, glossary, and index. ISBN 9780197747858 (hardcover) $90.00; ISBN 9780197747865 (softcover) $35.00.

Reviewed by Katarina Daniels
Research Lawyer, Library Services Lead . . . [more]

The legal services sector is in for rough times for the foreseeable future after which we will see a rebirth of legal services entities that bear little resemblance to those operating in the market currently. This is why your firm’s foundational rebuild must happen now.

Law firms are in the midst of grappling with a tsunami of changes within the legal services market that are impacting both practice and business. This is especially true after coming to terms – if we can honestly claim that – with the ravages of the pandemic. I understand that many people would like . . . [more]

Early in my career in education, I was introduced to a learning scale that offered both my students and me a different way of thinking about competency. The scale looks like this:

Understanding the Competency Continuum

Let’s consider this through a real-world example: learning to drive a car.

Before you begin learning to drive, you have little understanding of either the process itself or the rules of the road. At that stage, you are unconsciously incompetent. You do not yet know what you do not know.

As you begin to learn, however, you quickly realize how much there is . . . [more]