This past week Dr. Michael Rachlis launched Doctors for Fair Taxation, calling for the top wealth earners in Canada to be taxed even further. Given that physicians are often prominent members of this tax bracket, the initiative attracted lots of attention.

Rachlis suggested to Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkom that this could inspire a “Lawyers for Fair Taxation.” Walkom responded with skepticism, which to me was incredibly telling of the way that lawyers continue to be perceived in society.

The rationale behind Rachlis’ group is that income inequalities lead to poorer health indicators, and that the decline of . . . [more]

I’ve never understood why the winners of spelling bees get lauded and labelled as smart or intelligent. That kind of skill is on a par with remembering the names and dates of all of Canada’s prime ministers, though fractionally more useful I suppose. “Mackenzie Bowell,” you announce. “December 21st, 1894 to April 27th, 1896.” No one is going to marvel, “Mind like a razor.” I guess I should disclose that I was a lousy speller and that Mrs. Hill, my grade 12 English teacher had to threaten me with failure if I didn’t learn to spell. It only irritated her . . . [more]

Congratulations to newchoir on a great little promotional stunt on behalf of Tourism Ireland in downtown Toronto yesterday!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone. Sláinte! . . . [more]

First, the “listen.” And for that, there’s no one better in the world than Canadian composer and soundscape maven R. Murray Shafer. All his life he’s been working to have us pay attention to the sounds around us. Here he is in a short film from the NFB entitled — what else? — “Listen”:

Then, take your ears over to the British Library’s online Sounds division, where you’ll find a quantity of aural candy (and potatoes, and brussel sprouts) for your delectation. I’d recommend that you start with Touch Radio, and perhaps program #41, “The Honey Bees of . . . [more]

One of the most popular uses of libraries and archives–especially public libraries and municipal archives–is genealogy research. I had never seen law libraries, however, used for this purpose. I was therefore surprised when watching the celebrity family history research show Who Do You Think You Are? on Friday to see Jennifer Frazier, Kentucky State Law Librarian, filling in some of the last vital pieces of the puzzle for NFL superstar Jerome Bettis.

Some of the key pieces of information in researching his family history were found in a court decision: his ancestor Abe Bougard had taken on the Illinois Central . . . [more]

Slaw readers will have noticed a tendency among some of us who write here to geek out from time to time — about things other than law, I mean. I’m going to indulge here about a new bit of tech, so fair warning. (There is a slender link between the tech discussed here and law, if that helps you stay involved…)

The Raspberry Pi is a tiny computer invented in England and selling for $35. It was conceived and built by a charity with the aim of making computers available to schoolchildren in order to have them learn how to . . . [more]

Because I use computers a lot and tend to have more than a few of them, I get asked from time to time to help a friend choose which computer to buy. Should she spring for more RAM? Should he pick this brand? And because there are perhaps half a dozen or more features in play, each of which can have a number of modulations, the “perms and coms” are large and much anxiety can ensue, even after I point out that the differences between package A and package B are so small that either would be just fine. The . . . [more]

Quebec media is reporting today that the city of Huntingdon, south of Montreal, will be contesting what is commonly known as Bill 101, or officially, the Charter of the French Language (see here or here).

In January of this year, the Office de la langue française (“Office”) received a complaint alleging that the city was sending out bilingual documents in its communications to its citizens. The Office invited the city to respect section 15 of the Charter of the French Language that states:

15. The civil administration shall draw up and publish its texts and documents in the official

This is a letter, a rare thing nowadays. It was posted in 1845 by Miss Elizabeth Barrett to Mr. Robert Browning, one of 573 love letters exchanged by the two in the course of twenty-one months, all of which are held—and made available online—by Baylor University and Wellesley College.

Coming at them through this link, you’ll see a chronological catalogue, with date, sender and the first line spelled out. (Simply letting your eye drop down the first lines, is a treat; they tease and delight even—or perhaps especially—in this truncated form.) A link beside each item takes . . . [more]

Every age has had its paranoia, I imagine. After all, the world does have its dangers and among them are indeed some of the people who have risen to power — who themselves get paranoid about challenges to their power. In relatively recent memory there was the destructive McCarthy period in the US and later, Nixon’s creepy fears. Closer to home, not too long ago the RCMP kept files on just about everyone who jaywalked, and hippies were certain their phones were tapped and flushed their dope down the toilet whenever there was an unexpected knock on the door.

Now, . . . [more]

A search for Canadian legal decisions on “leap day” doesn’t turn up much other than an immigration case where an application for citizenship depended on the number of days the applicant was in Canada, and Leap Day became an issue in the calculation.

Some of us who dealt with the Y2K bug will recall that leap day was a potential secondary problem for the year 2000. Common wisdom is that a leap year is any year divisible by 4. But that’s not the entire formula. A leap year is any year divisible by 4, except those that are divisible . . . [more]

I have a friend who seems incapable of learning what colour puce is. It’s not one of those things where we look at turquoise and you see blueish but I see greenish. No, she always comes up with something chartreuse instead. It’s a naming problem. And when you get right down to it, names don’t cut it when it comes to colour, though we keep on trying.

Of course, there’s the whole marketing schtick, where you’re selling the sizzle as much as the steak. It’s not “beige.” Never “beige.” It’s “paper lantern” or “lemon meringue.” “Orange”? Oh no, you’re looking . . . [more]