The Practice Directions

On June 23, 2023, the Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba (MBKB) issued its Practice Direction on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Court Submissions. Shortly thereafter, on June 26, 2023, the Supreme Court of Yukon (YKSC) issued its Practice Direction on the Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools. (As of the date of drafting this post, no other court practice directions from Canadian courts are known to the writer.)

Digressing for a moment from the subject of legal citation, one can’t help but observe that the two practice directions have been the subject of some . . . [more]

Canada has announced its candidacy for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council to begin in 2028. According to Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly, Canada wants to reaffirm its “leadership in championing human rights around the world” given that human rights are under attack globally.

When setting up the UN Human Rights Council in 2006, the UN General Assembly decided that all Council members would be required to live up to “the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights.” Canada has a vaunted international reputation for human rights, but closer examination reveals . . . [more]

The controversy over the Ontario government’s resurrection of the King’s Counsel designation is now in its third week. And interest in the controversy is not limited to the legal community alone; yesterday, the Toronto Star reported (at the top of its website): “Advertising ‘King’s Counsel’ titles may violate Ontario lawyers’ rules on misleading marketing, experts caution”.

Let’s explore that further.

The Star article quoted four experts: a law professor (Slaw legal ethics columnist Amy Salyzyn); two former Treasurers of the Law Society of Ontario (“LSO”); and the current Treasurer, Jacqueline Horvat, who, according to the article, had . . . [more]

As I paddled in the middle of the Bay of Fundy I looked into the distance and saw the outline of Campobello Island’s shore. The shimmer of warm air hovered over the land, creating a beautiful haze. Land!, I thought. Tired, hungry, and thirsty, I figured it wouldn’t be long and picked up my pace, hopping onto my knees to engage my butterfly stroke. My spirits rose but it was short-lived. An hour later I looked up and to my dismay and the shore didn’t look any closer. It felt like the wind had picked up and the currents were . . . [more]

One of my family’s often-repeated fables is how my great grandfather didn’t believe the moon landing was real. People of his generation witnessed the invention of the automobile, the television and now space travel. For some, it was too much to comprehend, and the response was to deny it was happening. Pre internet, that was a simpler task.

The psychological harm associated with technological change, particularly the exponential change we are experiencing, is well documented. Numerous articles have been written on why people feel overwhelmed by technological change and the effects of technostress, the inability to cope with new computer . . . [more]

In my last Slaw column, I dealt with the rapid responses to the “authorship” question from the leading journal Nature and the U.S. Copyright Office to the sudden arrival of large language models (LLM), such as ChatGPT. Both publisher and government agency made it clear that they will not accept such works for publication or copyright. More recently, Nature reported this June that it will now require authors to state that their submission does not use AI-generated images.

With the state and impact of LLM continuing to rapidly evolve, I want to follow with further reflections on the authorship . . . [more]

I was back in Washington DC last month and found that the US Supreme Court Building has reopened to the public. I revisited their website and found that more historical content is available.

I found this current text: “The U. S. Reports volumes available for free download on this website consist of volumes 502 et seq., which covers the 1991 Term and subsequent Terms. Starting with the Court’s 2022 Term, PDFs of the U. S. Reports (in both preliminary print and bound volume format) will be posted to this website as they become available. PDFs of volumes not yet . . . [more]

This book list was curated to offer those on the cusp of law school a summer reading list packed with important insights, presented in a manner that would not put them to sleep. It turned out to have something for everyone. Whether you prefer e-books or the old fashion flipping of pages, here are five must-reads for the summer months…

Bob Joseph, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality (Canada: Raincoast Books, 2018) ISBN: 9780995266520

Why read it this summer?

Because, as Misha Munim puts it, “this book . . . [more]

Assessing credibility is a critical role for adjudicators, in many cases. How to assess credibility requires its own book, but in this column, I will focus on the inappropriateness of relying on the facial and physical reactions (otherwise known as demeanour) of a party when they are not on the witness stand.

The relevance of demeanour is a persistent myth in adjudication. Even though studies have shown that our ability to judge whether someone is lying solely by their demeanour is about 50% (no better than a coin toss), it still is considered by the courts to be a factor . . . [more]

One of the most difficult parts of statutory research for beginners is learning that statutes are published in two formats: chronological laws and codified laws. In the US, federal legislation is first published as a slip opinion and then bound into a volume of the Statutes at Large. These documents are useful for a researcher who wants to answer questions about intent or statutory language, as you want to see the entire law as it appeared when it was passed. However, most of the time a legal researcher merely needs to know what the law is at this moment on . . . [more]

On May 12, 2023, in response to the Government of Canada’s proposed amendments to the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) and the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (Sergei Magnitsky Law) (Magnitsky Act) in Bill C-47, the Budget Implementation Act 2023, No. 1 (Bill C-47),[1] the International Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA Section) has filed a submission with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.[2] Bill C-47 is intended to make consequential amendments with respect to commitments made by the Government in its 2023 Budget. The same text was filed with the . . . [more]

For the past four years, Youth Voices [Note 1] worked with Deer Crossing the Art Farm (Gibsons BC) on an initiative to raise awareness of the need to provide meaningful participation and voice to kids experiencing parental separation. On May 25, 2023, this partnership launched “Seen and Heard” – both a physical art installation and a digital platform for children and young people to tell their stories .

For four days, the art installation was located in the plaza outside of the Vancouver Art Gallery, near to the BC Provincial and Supreme courthouses. It presented two colourful little houses, each . . . [more]