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.

This post isn’t about anything legal, but it’s summer, and this is an interesting story. (Or at least I find it interesting – I should disclose that I’m on the board of Orchestra London.)

Christine Newland, principle cellist of Orchestra London, borrowed in 1976 to buy a cello for $12,000. According to an online inflation calculator, that’s about $48,000 in today’s money. She knew it was a special instrument at the time, but had no idea how special until recently. Turns out that it was made in 1730, and is a twin – made from the same tree – . . . [more]

I usually try for a light, not to say fluffy, topic and tone for these fillips. But today the topic, at least, will be rather more sombre; I’ll keep the tone as light as the subject will allow. Two subjects, really — and two I know very little about: statistics and murder. I’m appealing for help in understanding the former, or at least what I think is an odd feature.

A sad item in yesterday’s Globe and Mail informed us of a deadly shooting in Toronto. What struck me, and not for the first time, was the curious stability in . . . [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.

Helen Woganowski is mad as hell and she’s not going to bake it anymore.

This poster went up recently on hoardings near me:

At first I thought Helen might have been done for nicking a bag of cookies and was making a sort of Twinkie-cum-necessity defence. But no. Turns out the allegation is that she’s the aggrieved because, in her opinion, Mississauga-based Allan Candy has used her recipe for its Desert Bites. I gathered this from the blog, Justice for Helen, set up to make her plaint.

Trouble is — well, troubles are —

• she doesn’t explain how she

As some people will have heard, CERN researchers have announced that they have seen evidence of particle which they believe to be a boson and which may be a Higgs Boson, aka the “God” particle. In related news, a contingent of Fleet St. reporters (some of whom might have once worked for Rupert Murdoch) have been dispatched to the Quad to interview the entity who is always about. . . . [more]

Today is July 4, an important day for a number of reasons, not least of which is the celebration of U.S. Independence Day: on July 4, 1776 the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, an appeal “to the Supreme Judge of the world,” one of the great legal documents of all time and well-worth re-reading.

Today the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) has announced that as a result of billions of “appeals” to the universe, the long sought “God particle” — the Higgs boson — has (almost certainly) been found. The level of confidence is described . . . [more]

On this Canada Day Holiday, we should all reflect and be thankful for all we have as Canadians. There is nothing like a bit of self-deprecating humour (note the Canadian spelling) to help us all more clearly see what we are and have, and how the rest of the world sees us.

To accomplish this, I refer you all to the American’s Guide to Canada website. While a bit dated (looks like it hasn’t been actively updated in at least 10 years), there is some great content on this site.
First of all, you can start out on the The . . . [more]

The line between what is legal (what one may do without state punishment) and what is not ethical (what one ought not to do even if it is legal) is often murky.

I suspect that many readers of this site would look askance at a media commercial with content something like this: You’ve been caught stealing money from the United Way. It’s not just a Criminal Code conviction. Fight it.

Ontario residents who listen to commercial radio have probably heard advertisements whose content is “it’s not just a speeding ticket, fight it” – or worse.

Is there, ethically, a difference . . . [more]

What with Canada Day around the corner and all, I thought it might be a good idea to head to the nation’s capital, and since this is a law blog, to the Supreme Court. The aim is to show you five sides of the cube, in effect — and a few goodies from the interior — as a bunch of holiday snaps. Feel free to share your shots of the SCC via the comments.

[Click on any of the images to enlarge it]

Front
Everyone’s seen the standard front view, building all gussied up and proud. We’ll here’s a plainer . . . [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.

Here are links to the Report and to the Executive Summary of the Independent Civilian Review into Matters Relating to the G20 Summit.

Mr. Morden will be speaking at the release of the Report at Toronto Police Service Headquarters, 40 College Street, 2nd floor at 10 AM. Counsel to the Independent Civilian Review, Ryan Teschner, will be answering questions from the media.

. . . [more]