Victor Willis, lead singer of the Village People, that camp disco-era singing group, has won an important victory in a California court. Willis wrote YMCA and other hit tunes performed by the group, the copyright to all of which wound up in music companies, as is so often the case for musicians starting out. However, US copyright law was revised in 1978 to include “termination rights,” a provision enabling creators to resume ownership of the copyright after 35 years. Despite various arguments by the music companies, the court accorded Willis the rights to the songs at issue.
In an article this weekend, the Montreal French-language daily, La Presse, reported that the provincial Liberal government is looking to amend the Quebec Labour Code in response to labour turmoil at the Journal de Montreal (another Quebec daily). In that dispute, the striking union argued that the Journal de Montreal’s management got around the anti-scab legislation by contracting out work to journalists working from home. The law, as it is currently written, does not prohibit this kind of technological circumvention as it generally only bars the use of employees from an employer’s establishments (with many nuances) while a strike . . . [more]
The Quebec provincial government has filed today a reference motion with the Quebec Court of Appeal regarding the legality of Bill C-7 (see article here).
Bill C-7, or in its full title, an Act respecting the selection of senators and amending the Constitution Act, 1867 in respect of senate term limits, seeks, as it name suggests, to modify the way the country selects senators and how long they can sit for. The federal government would select its senators from a list of nominees proposed by the provinces, following an election in each of those provinces. Senators named after . . . [more]
The Federal Court released their decision in the veteran class action of Manuge v. Canada today, finding that the offset of disability benefits was a breach of Article 24(a)(iv) of the Service Income Security Insurance Plan (SISIP) Policy.
An overview of the case can be found in the December 2011 issue of The Lawyers Weekly, and McInnes Cooper, counsel for the plaintiffs have a list of key documents here. You can also see the class action website, which include a YouTube video. . . . [more]
The Toronto Lawyers Association (TLA) has raised an alarm over proposed Bill 34, Security for Courts, Electricity Generating Facilities and Nuclear Facilities Act, 2012 in Ontario. If passed as it is currently worded, Bill 34 will allow courthouse security to search all persons entering the court, including lawyers. The TLA maintains this is a potential exposure to lawyer-client privileged communications:
. . . [more]Under the proposed legislation, sections of the Police Services Act will allow for a search without warrant any person, vehicle or property in a person’s custody seeking access to a public courthouse. These search powers would include a person’s lawyer,
The New Brunswick Court of Appeal has published a substantial review of the impact of using email to transfer real estate. Its decision in Druet v. Girouard 2012 NBCA 40 overturned the decision of the Court of Queen’s Bench, 2011 NB 204 (in French only on CanLII; the English text is at [2011] N.B.J. No. 260, and [2011] A.N.-B.no 260.)
In this case the parties exchanged a total of seven emails about the plaintiff Girouard’s possible purchase of the defendant Druet’s condominium apartment in Moncton. The final email was from Druet, withdrawing from the transaction. Girouard took the view . . . [more]
In a landmark decision just 24 days after April 1, the Canadian Trade-marks Office has clarified the definition of “fish”. Constitutional lawyers continue to wrangle over whether this stunning policy reversal will be given retroactive effect.
Subject: Mise à jour Manuel de marchandises et services – Wares and Services Manual Update
. . . [more]Dans le but d’éviter toute ambiguité que ‘poisson’ est un terme spécifique et en termes ordinaires du commerce, l’entrée ‘Poissons pour l’alimentation’ dans le Manuel de marchandises et services sera remplacée par ‘Poisson’ seul, avec la note suivante: Cette entrée fait référence à la définition la plus courante de
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), and the Offices of the Information and Privacy Commissioners (OIPCs) of Alberta and British Columbia have developed a guide titled Getting Accountability Right with a Privacy Management Program. The guide aims to help organizations implement an effective privacy management program that meets private-sector privacy legislation and to provide consistent direction on what it means to be an accountable organization when dealing with individuals’ personal information, accountability being the first and foremost obligation under privacy legislation.
. . . [more]These guidelines will help businesses take data protection from policy to practice, explained BC Information
As an Anglophone employment and labour lawyer from Quebec, I don’t often get to read decisions in my native language. Recently, Justice David Collier, also a Quebec Anglophone jurist from my ex-firm Norton Rose Canada LLP, rendered an employment law decision which merits some attention in the “Rest of Canada” – both because it’s well-written and sound but also because it is a rare English-language decision from La Belle Province which summarizes civil law employment law concepts in English.
In Gilman c. Fieldturf Tarkett Inc., 2012 QCCS 1429 (CanLII), Justice Collier deals with applications from several disgruntled field . . . [more]
The Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta released the decision today in R. v. Whatcott, upholding the decision by the Provincial Court of Alberta, which held that William Whatcott’s s. 2(b) Charter rights were violated when the University of Calgary prevented him from distributing what was characterized as “anti-gay literature.”
Although the Crown appealed on the basis that the Charter did not apply to the enforcement of a university policy prohibiting the distribution of all printed material on campus without permission, regardless of content, the court focused on the use of provincial trespass legislation to respond to an . . . [more]
This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada | Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada