Many workplaces are insisting that employees say “Happy holiday” or “Season’s greetings” to promote intercultural respect and inclusiveness, and not to offend clients and other co-workers.

♫ O how I wish I could sing like an Angel
I’d sing carols so high and sweet
O if I had the voice of an Angel
I’d be singing that sweet Child asleep…. ♫

“Christmas Angel”: Music and Lyrics by Corlynn Hanney, performed by the Argyle Alumni Choir.

My annual Holiday Greetings (photographs set to music) are on my blog at:
http://thoughtfullaw.com/2010/12/06/2010-seasons-greetings/

At this time of year I would like to take a moment and wish each and everyone the Best of the Holiday Season and a Wonderful and Happy New Year and I hope you enjoy my . . . [more]

December 6th is an on odd date in history with many tragic events; odd that it is also St. Nicholas Day, and the 2010 version of December 6th brought with it a storm surge/weather bomb that few expected in this region. December 6th is the anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique Massacre in 1989. Those of us who remember that time likely have vivid memories of it, so much so that I don’t feel that I am able to do that event justice in this forum; I will focus on another event which December 6th marks the anniversary. Actually, I’m . . . [more]

The 2010 CLawBies–or Canadian Law Blog Awards–are now open for nominations.

How to Nominate in 2010:
This year’s nominations deadline is Tuesday, December 28th, and the methods remain the same as in previous years. Publicly nominate a Canadian-authored law blog using ANY of the following:

1. Tweet your endorsement on Twitter.com with the hashtag text: #clawbies2010. We’ll be monitoring!
2. Email your favourite blog, including a couple sample posts or any other notable highlights, to Steve Matthews at steve@stemlegal.com. We’d prefer a public nomination, but this is still acceptable.
3. Write a blog post about three other Canadian law blogs

. . . [more]

The back page of the “Report on Business” section of the Nov. 29/10 Globe and Mail is a full page add for a type of electric space heater. The word “free” appears repeatedly on the page. The first words under the picture that occupies the top 1/3 of the page are, in bold, in block capitals, in larger size than the balance of the caption: “FREE MIRACLE HEATERS ARE ON THE WAY“. 

 The picture is of a man – (undoubtedly) an actor – who looks like a friendly Amish grandfather. I want to believe that no Amish community is . . . [more]

Here’s a sentiment that more than a few Slaw readers will agree with, I’d guess:

Technology rocks! Especially when it’s available to the world and doesn’t cost a thing. But learning about it? That’s not so great.

This is part of Google’s explanation for why they set up Google Demo Slam, the target of today’s fillip. (You’ll need to have Flash installed to use the site.) The notion is simple: make a video doing something unusual with one of Google’s tools and they’ll host it on this site. To fulfill the promise of the “slam” in the name, they . . . [more]

At last night’s Maple Leaf debacle, both the Leaf players and the team ownership & advertisers were extremely successful in their “giveaways”. That wasn’t a good thing for the Leaf players. Enough about that. I’m going to talk about 3 of the ownership “giveaways”; that is, contests resulting in prizes being awarded to people attending the game.

In one, a man won a trip for 2 to Las Vegas. He had to answer three questions. The cynic would say the difficulty was determined by the fact that the questions would be posed to a member of the “Leaf Nation”. Leave . . . [more]

Every year, our organization, like many others, donates money to a viable and worthwhile cause. Let’s not kid ourselves, not all the reasons for these donations are altruistic.

Slaw Wordled

You’ve got to have standards. Not the kind that castles and ships fly or that armies carried into battle (see, e.g., the Battle of the Standard, in reference to which the word was first used in English to mean flag, the OED tells us, because a versifier there wrote: ‘it was there that valour took its stand to conquer or die’), but growing out of that notion of a centre from which commands are issued all the way to a measure of uniform quality. Modern life is so complex that it’s standards or chaos, it seems to me.

Some . . . [more]

The RCMP has recently made changes to the national system for accessing information about individuals’ criminal records. This post describes the relevant background and the changes, with a focus on what is relevant to employers .

Background on CPIC and background checks

The Canadian Police Information Centre or “CPIC” is an information system through which Canadian law enforcement agencies obtain information on crimes and criminals from an RCMP administered national database. The national database contains a range of information useful to law enforcement, including records about hybrid and indictable offences. “CPIC agencies” (local police forces) voluntarily report information to the . . . [more]

Several sources are reporting that a Chinese company called MIC Gadget has stopped selling their Steve Jobs action figure after receiving a nastygram from Apple’s lawyers stating that it violated Apple trademarks and copyrights. See for example Mobiledia, MacLife, Mashable.

This image is from the MIC store.

I get that companies need to police their brands – but let’s think about this for a minute.

Its not as if this in practice causes any harm to Apple or Steve Jobs or confusion about their brand. It doesn’t put Steve or Apple in any bad light- in fact, . . . [more]