Today the book The Community Bond: An Innovation in Social Finance by Tonya Surman launched along with its companion website http://communitybonds.ca.

Tonya Surman is CEO and Director of Toronto’s Centre for Social Innovation, affectionately known in local circles as the CSI. The CSI opened its first location on Spadina north of Queen St. in 2004 as a work space for organizations with a social mission. They gradually took over increasing amounts of space in the Robertson Building, until they finally decided to open a second location.

They were able to raise all but $2 million to buy a . . . [more]

Back in April practicePRO released a map that showed where emails to our fraud reporting database (fraudinfo@lawpro.ca) were originating from. The aim was to show how widespread the problem of email scams was. Despite being an Ontario-based insurer, almost half of our emails had come from elsewhere in Canada, the US and overseas.

We recently updated the map, and it shows that the pace of email fraud attempts hasn’t slowed. In five months we’ve had nearly 1,000 more emails, posted 57 new warnings on AvoidaClaim.com and heard from lawyers in 29 additional countries.

Strangely, South Dakota continues to be the . . . [more]

The dawn of the 21st century has been called the decade of the drone. Unmanned aerial vehicles, remotely operated by pilots in the United States, rain Hellfire missiles on suspected insurgents in South Asia and the Middle East.

Now a small group of scholars is grappling with what some believe could be the next generation of weaponry: lethal autonomous robots. …

From the website of the Chronicle of Higher Education . . . [more]

I wrote last week about memory and dredged up a strange novelty song, Purple People Eater, to make some point or other. Which got me thinking about novelty songs. So here’s a more or less random, and certainly idiosyncratic, set of those catchy, silly (or even daft), bits of nonce music that once were all the rage but now seem to have disappeared (whether in favour of earnestness or coolness unalloyed, I’m can’t say, being fairly unattached to the current pop music scene). Please feel free to disabuse me of this and point to current novelty tunes — or simply . . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

September 10, 2012 marked the World Suicide Prevention Day, which aims to promote worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides. Ahead of this day, an interesting article was published in France entitled “La prévention du suicide est aussi l’affaire de l’entreprise”.

According to the article and the expert interviewed, employers have a responsibility with regard to suicide prevention, especially given that the workplace can often have a direct influence on one’s private life. Moreover, a poor organization of work, contradictory directives and a lack of social dialogue can lead to suicidal acts. The article cites one example of . . . [more]

Judgment in the biggest trial in UK history was rendered on 31 August after being reserved for seven months. The claim by Boris Berezovsky against Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich (owner of the Chelsea football club) for damages of $5 billion was dismissed.

In part Berezovksy claimed that Abramovich used intimidatory threats to coerce Berezovsky into selling his interest in the Sibneft oil company at a price that was substantially undervalued. He also alleged that Abramovich breached a shareholders’ agreement concerning an aluminum business RusAl, causing damages.

Here is an executive summary of the judgment.

There was apparently little or no . . . [more]

It’s the average number of references per year, in reported cases, to my text Apportionment of Fault in Tort, in the 32 years years since it was published: 61 in total based on Carswell and CanLII. (I didn’t check on QL to see if there are some others.) On the other hand, there were only 6 in the first decade, but there’s been 30 in the past 10 years so I must be on a roll. Of course, most of them are in cases quoting other cases, but a reference is a reference, is a reference.

The thing has . . . [more]

I have a memory that might be described as variable. On the one hand I’m lousy when it comes to remembering when things happened in my past. Oh, I can tell you that I lived in D.C. before I came to Toronto, but if you press me for dates, I’d have to gaze into the middle distance and try to come up with clues as to the years (months are long gone). So I can remember social things in rough order but can’t really map them onto a timeline.

On the other hand, I can tell you exactly what you’ll . . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

Image: 3d Studio UK . . . [more]

It’s odd, if you think about it, that with the advance of industrial capitalism we’re now born having to pay rent. There’s no place on the planet where you may be simply because you are. At least, I think it’s odd. And so does Tracy Heffernan, it would seem. She’s the program director at the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario and the recent recipient of a Community Leadership in Justice Fellowship from the Ontario Law Foundation.

According to the Law Foundation press release, her project:

will study the ways in which the Charter has already been used to advance

The names of two lawyers are included in this years list of individuals being recognized as Leaders to be Proud Of and champions of diversity by Out on Bay Street.

Douglas Elliott, a Partner at Roy, Elliott and OConnor, is to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for having demonstrated exceptional leadership throughout his professional career in advancing the rights of the LGBTQA community.

Kate Broer, a Partner at Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, is to receive the Leading Executive Ally Award for making a significant contribution to advancing LGBTQA issues through advocacy and outreach as an active and . . . [more]