With the retirement of Mr. Justice Morris Fish the government must again decide on the appointment of a member of the Supreme Court of Canada. There is the continuing issue of how best to manage the selection process. And as well there is, of course, the matter of the new judge’s characteristics — intelligence, discernment, experience, knowledge, compassion, and so forth. Then we come to the question of the externalities, so to speak — gender and race, prime among them.

Four of the five most recent appointments to the Supreme Court by the Conservative government have been men. Does . . . [more]

Today, the Women Lawyers Forum of the Manitoba Bar Association is gathering to honour and celebrate women appointed to the Bench in Manitoba or retiring from the Bench. Celebrating Success is an annual event to acknowledge the contribution these members of the judiciary have made to our profession, and to the cause of gender equality.

The event today recognizes Judge Cynthia Devine and Judge Margaret Wiebe, both appointed to the Provincial Court and Madam Justice Diana Cameron, promoted to the Court of Appeal from the Court of Queen’s Bench.

While it is always a lovely evening, I find . . . [more]

Unfortunately, Project Loon doesn’t have anything to do with Canada — yet. But there’s potential here for a great benefit to Canadians in rural areas, particularly in the far north.

Google, where people are paid to brainstorm and pursue ideas that are often “wacky,” has initiated a project to place a chain of balloons into “orbit” around the globe and to use them as a way of providing internet connectivity for people who would otherwise not be able to access the internet.

Of course, being balloons, these relay stations won’t actually be in orbit. They will be in the stratosphere, . . . [more]

The name of Dwight Opperman will be familiar to older members of the Slaw community – he was the former head of the West Publishing Company, who presided over the sale of the premier US legal publishing company to Thomson.

Back in 1996 he sold West for $3.4 billion. According to Wikipedia, in 2002, Forbes 400 ranked Opperman as the 239th richest person in the United States – and I’m willing to wager that no-one else (before or since) has made quite as much out of legal publishing. He started out as the son of a railroad worker, whose . . . [more]

In the interest of full disclosure I begin this piece by confessing to being a “Senate Junkie,” as a dear friend described my interest recently. I began reading Senate Debates and committee proceedings when I was in Grade XI, at the North York Central Library and continued following the work of the Senate in great detail for more than 30 years, and, more generally in the last decade or so. Sadly, the current debate about the Senate is so ill-informed that I am mildly afraid that I will be disqualified on the ground of knowing what I’m talking about. Whether . . . [more]

Much has been written about the NSA / Prism communications monitoring scandal over the last few days, including Simon’s recent post. Many things are unclear, and there are more questions than answers, but these things are clear to me.

Some people defend or trivialize it by saying that actual phone conversations and emails are not being monitored – just metadata. Metadata simply means data about data – it doesn’t mean that it is innocuous or public. The phone “just metadata” being tracked is equivalent to looking at one’s phone bill – numbers called, duration, etc. That definitely contains personal . . . [more]

The Spectator, which bills itself as “the oldest continuously published magazine in the English language,” has put online its archives, dating back to its inception in 1828. The Spectator is a relatively small-circulation, conservative-oriented publication in the United Kingdom.

This is not strictly a law-related matter, of course; but general research sources are worth noting and bookmarking for a possible future legal use when they are of this historical depth. And from a brief trial run I can say that it seems that the magazine has done the archiving very well indeed, with text items digitized and also . . . [more]

It now seems clear that any and all electronic communications are grist for the NSA’s mills. Only a fool would imagine that something expressed directly and plainly by phone, email, or SMS would remain private between sender and receiver. Of course, most of what we say to each other these ways is utterly trivial and inconsequential as far as the spy agencies are concerned, which doesn’t mean, of course, that we are happy or even content to have our private communications, however mundane, so casually and routinely raked through. 

Broadly speaking, there are two ways to go: we can, as . . . [more]

The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York recently unveiled a simple, clever logo using a responsive “W”. A Wired article says “… the spindly zigzag design has been both praised for its modernity and criticized for its simplicity.”

Responsive design websites automatically adapt their configuration to the screen size you see it on. In the responsive W logo, the Museum changes the shape of the W to fit their use. To appreciate the cleverness and utility of this, look at the above video, the slideshow on the Wired article, and the designer’s explanation of the design.

As . . . [more]

The very first sentence of an article published some years ago in USA Today recently caught my attention: “Could three words change the way severely ill patients and their loved ones think about death?”.

The title of this article quickly gave the answer away “’Do not resuscitate’ vs. ‘allow natural death’”.

This article highlights not only how semantics can change a person’s reaction to a given situation (and potentially the ensuing consequences), but also the importance of using the right terms in the right context. As this article explains, while “allow natural death” may permit a family to better come . . . [more]

I received from a friend, Banack Bencher News #114. This newsletter is sent out by Ontario Bencher, Larry Banack. What caught my eye was the following provision:

The Treasurer has cancelled the Law Society’s traditional end of term dinner which had recognized the hard work of Benchers and the sacrifice of our families. This will save about $75,000.00 [emphasis added]. This small step will hopefully be a prelude to more significant savings to reduce the high cost of self-regulation. It is in conjunction with the CEO quest for improvements to achieve operational and cost efficiencies to ensure that the Law . . . [more]

I would normally take care in posting something about “the curve” in law circles, as there is a good chance that somebody who graduated law school will break out in hives. Those who do break out in hives might be heartened to know that the curve has utility far beyond determining law school mark, one such is use is in explaining how polling works. With the results of most recent election in B.C. and the recent spotty track record of polls in various Canadian elections, I have found these recent tribulations fascinating as I distinctly remember a few years ago . . . [more]