As most everyone will know, the story broke last week that lawyer Edgar Schmidt is suing the federal Attorney General because of a practice within the Department of Justice, where he is employed, that too easily finds legislation passing the Charter "sniff" test. Two documents in that case are available on Slaw via the links below.

The lengthy decision of Justice D. M. Brown released today in York University v. Markicevic is required reading for all civil litigators in Ontario.

It contains an up-to-the-minute, detailed consideration of the governing legal principles of: Mareva injunctions; fraudulent preferences; the admissibility of subjective intent and drafts in interpreting releases; and the test for summary judgment. It also powerfully reinforces the case law requiring unsuccessful parties to file their own bills of costs if they attack the quantum of costs sought by the successful party. See Justice Brown 2013-01-21 York U v. Markicevic . . . [more]

(beyond lip service), say two members of the Ontario Court of Appeal (if you read between the lines), even if you’re the Attorney-General of Canada or the Prime Minister of Canada. See USA v Leonard & Gionet 2012 ONCA 622. . . . [more]

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice just confirmed that when an employer attempted to temporarily lay off an employee of 12 years, it actually terminated her because the temporary layoff was made without providing consideration to the employee and was not a possibility included in the employment contract.

No, you can’t sell those pictures you found on Twitter. But their owner also can’t enjoy an absurd windfall if you do.

Three years ago we saw heartbreaking images of a devastating earthquake in Haiti. Photographer Daniel Morel saw the devastation firsthand. As it is his work to do, he captured photos of what he saw. He also shared his images via Twitter. As it turned out, it seems much of what the world saw in the early aftermath were those pictures taken by Mr. Morel. We saw them not, however, through any arrangements made by Mr. Morel.

Agence France . . . [more]

GTA Linux User’s Group, Political Outreach Group (David Collier-Brown, Editor)

Slaw readers may have noticed a flurry of interest around Voltage v. Doe and TekSavvy, an effort to get the courts to compel TekSavvy to identify 2000 households which Voltage Pictures argues are engaging in commercial copyright infringement via the “bit torrent” program.

Slaw has considered the subject of discovery of IP addresses recently in two posts: https://www.slaw.ca/2009/09/13/norwich-orders-applied-to-gmail-account/ and https://www.slaw.ca/2009/09/15/york-university-v-bell-canada-enterprises-observations-and-implications-for-future-norwich-jurisprudence/.

The technical community is following such cases with both interest and trepidation, as we expected suits against individuals to be rare, and limited to $100 to $5,000 . . . [more]

Nobody likes it when someone cuts the cheese. But if it happens at work, repeatedly, is that grounds for claiming a “hostile work environment?”

The U.S. Social Security Agency (SSA) issued this warning letter to one of its employees on December 10, 2012.

The employee was warned during a performance review by his supervisor on May 18, 2012 that his co-workers were complaining, and was warned again on July 17 and August 14. He provided medical documentation at one point that he was lactose intolerant, but the supervisor stated in the letter, “It is my belief that you can control . . . [more]

An interesting trade-mark battle is emerging between between Major League Soccer (MLS), and the Supporter Groups (SGs) for three of its franchises — Vancouver, Portland and Seattle. The battle is over the term ‘Cascadia Cup’, an award given to the best of those three teams, based on head-t0-head competition. For the uninitiated, one would think the MLS was in good standing to make such a claim; and obviously they thought so, filing their TM application with CIPO in mid-December.

The troubles begin when you look at the Cup’s origin; and consider that the Cascadia Cup:

• Was created by

. . . [more]

I recently had the occasion to spend some time at one of Nova Scotia’s more famous sites, Oak Island. Despite the relatively small footprint of the island, there is a wealth of legend regarding the island. Growing up in the Maritimes I thought Oak Island was a real life Treasure Island and in fact I may not have been far off. Dating from 1795 when a youth noticed some lights on the island and began to dig, the legend of the Oak Island Treasure has traveled far and wide. It is reputed that a pirate (or Spanish or French) treasure . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada has issued a release with the list of appeals that it will hear in January 2013.

For each case listed, there is a summary of the issues involved.

And if you go to the scheduled hearings page and click on the name of any of the cases, you will be able to find the factums filed by the parties. . . . [more]

The government, through the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, is holding a two-month public consultation to develop updated accessibility requirements for the Building Code.

The lockout is over and the players are back at practice. Time to skate on? Yes, but I think we ought to look at the “game tape” to review the effectiveness of some of the legal wrangling that took place in Canada. After all, we’ll likely be back in the same place in 10 years. As discussed in a previous post, the NHLPA filed proceedings before the labour boards of Quebec and Alberta against the NHL, seeking to have the lockout declared illegal. What happened to those proceedings? Not much…

The interim relief sought in both cases was rejected . . . [more]