I recently met a 1L who is interested in immigration and refugee law. She cold-called my office and I agreed to meet with her. She is well travelled and she has a passion for social justice. She did extensive research into the area and she was well prepared. She asked what she can be doing during her law degree to put herself on good footing for this type of practice. Good question. My first thought was to learn active listening and develop the skills of a social worker. I’ll explain.

We have many (many!) international students and foreign workers who . . . [more]

Whatever its faults (and there are more than a few), “the rule of law” underpins democracy as a bulwark against authoritarianism. It is not only the system of laws that does this, but the actors who are most closely aligned with ensuring that the rule of law works: the judges and lawyers.

Nothing makes the intent of creating an authoritarian system more evident than undermining the judiciary and lawyers. That the judiciary must be independent is well-known. Less so lawyers.
The well-known phrase from William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part II, Act IV, Scene II, “the first thing we do is, . . . [more]

Chief Justice Richard Wagner has made one of his objectives steering the Supreme Court of Canada (“the SCC” or “the Court”) in a way that makes it more accessible to Canadians for whom in the normal course the Court may seem inaccessible and out of touch.

For example, he began the practice of “plain language” summaries of SCC decisions: see Cases in Brief, described as “short summaries of the Court’s written decisions drafted in plain language”. He has taken the Court on field trips to cities other than Ottawa, so far to Winnipeg and Quebec City. As the Court’s . . . [more]

PREFACE

This is the second part of a post placing LEAF’s recent report, What It Takes: Establishing a Gender-Based Violence Accountability Mechanism in Canada (“What It Takes” or “LEAF report)” on gender-based violence (GBV) in the context of historical efforts to address GBV (albeit fragmentary references) and more recent developments: the 2021 Joint Declaration for a Canada Free of Gender-Based Violence, signed by Canada, the provinces and the territories, leading to the 2022 National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (“National Action Plan”, “NAP” or “NAPGBV”), the 2019 Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous . . . [more]

In 2022, Justice Mandhane introduced the tort of family violence to address the injuries committed during the course of a marriage. A year later, in 2023, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned this new tort in the decision Ahluwalia v Ahluwalia, 2023 ONCA 476. This matter is now being appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In the article “’Weaponizing’ The Tort of Family Violence? Myths, Stereotypes, Lawyers’ Ethics and Access to Justice”, Deanne Sowter and Jennifer Koshan, argue that recognizing the tort of family violence is an important step towards compensating the harms of intimate partner . . . [more]

PREFACE

This is the first of two posts placing LEAF’s recent report, What It Takes: Establishing a Gender-Based Violence Accountability Mechanism in Canada (“What It Takes” or “LEAF report)” on gender-based violence (GBV) in the context of historical efforts to address GBV (albeit fragmentary references) and more recent developments: the 2021 Joint Declaration by the ministers for the status of women for Canada, the provinces and the territories, leading to the 2022 National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (“National Action Plan” or “NAP”), the 2019 Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girl . . . [more]

November 12, 2024
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario: Access to Justice Denied

Reposted with permission.
Original Post:
Kathy Laird and Lorne Slotnick, “The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario: Access to Justice Denied” (Tribunal Watch Ontario, November 12, 2024), online: https://tribunalwatch.ca/2024/the-human-rights-tribunal-of-ontario-access-to-justice-denied/

Quick Summary

Ontario’s human rights system has become a nightmare for people who seek redress for alleged discrimination, a new analysis by the independent group Tribunal Watch Ontario shows.

The latest statistics from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) show that the tribunal has become the place where human rights claims go to die. Tribunal Watch’s analysis, largely . . . [more]

What motivates you the most in the workplace? Is it the sense of accomplishment from completing a challenging project? Or maybe the camaraderie of collaborating with a great team? No, of course not. Silly of you to think that! The thing that motivates all of us, of course, is fear and paranoia that comes from workplace surveillance! It is the sentiment of an invisible omnipresence—with the threat of criticism, punishment, or even unemployment—that will deliver managers the best results. What else could drive productivity quite like the Orwellian nightmare of constantly being watched by your superior?

This seems to be . . . [more]

As an immigration lawyer, I regularly get offers from shady agents and unscrupulous consultants. “We are an agency based in Dubai with connections with millionaires and BILLIONAIRES. We propose a partnership with your esteemed firm and we will give you access to our wealthy clientele.” (For some reason, these agents love caps.) I was reminded of these scams when I read that arrested Telegram CEO Durov is a citizen of no less than four (4) jurisdictions: France, Russia, UAE and Saint Kitts and Nevis. I had to wonder if he was a client of one of those shady agents.

Saint . . . [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]

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]

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 first post of a three-part . . . [more]