Seems that every couple of years or so I feel compelled to refer to the witticism about the unpleasant nature of making laws and sausages. This time, however, the link between the making of food and laws is rather more serious; this time the laws would compel us to avert our eyes — from farming, at least.

As factory farming has grown over the years, competition has increased and the pressure on farmers to keep the price of food low has remained steady. The result in many, or most, cases has been a deterioration in the conditions in which food . . . [more]

A survey by British ISP BE Broadband shows that if the three strikes proposal in the UK Digital Economy Act becomes law, it won’t significantly deter behaviour. Only 5% of those surveyed said they would reduce or stop using filesharing software. 47% said they would simply take steps to conceal their IP address. 

This article at TorrentFreak.com talks about some of the concerns about three strikes laws, such as putting innocent users at risk, and a UN report that says such laws breach human rights.

Three-strikes laws are a controversial proposal to address download infringement concerns of creators and publishers . . . [more]

It is being reported in the news that yesterday, the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned a decision rendered by the Superior Court of Quebec refusing to authorize a class action filed by three residents of a suburb of Quebec City against the Quebec Minister of Transport due to the alleged noise pollution caused by the nearby A-73 highway (see a French article in La Presse).

In 2009, three residents filed a motion requesting authorization to institute a class action in the name of approximately 1000 residents living in proximity to the highway. According to studies, the noise level caused . . . [more]

The CRTC today published proposed regulations for the anti-spam act. Apparently there are still some to come from Industry Canada. The CRTC invites comments on the draft until August 29. From the CRTC notice:

The Commission calls for comments on new draft regulations, Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations (CRTC), with respect to the form and certain information to be included in commercial electronic messages (CEMs) and with respect to requests for consent for the sending of CEMs, the alteration of transmission data in electronic messages, and the installation of computer programs. The draft regulations are made pursuant to legislation which gives . . . [more]

Legislation cracking down on crooked immigration consultants (Bill C-35) comes into force on June 30, 2011. At the same time, the...

Following a rotating strike and a lockout, the Act to provide for the resumption and continuation of postal services (the “Act“) officially entered into force on Monday night. The Act ends the dispute between Canada Post and its 48,000 employees and imposes “final offer selection arbitration”. Everybody should have gotten some mail yesterday.
The law imposes specific salary increases for the years 2011 to 2014. Unlike all other provisions of the agreement, the parties cannot chose to agree to different salary levels and the arbitrator is bound to include them in the final collective agreement. It is interesting . . . [more]

Yesterday the United States Supreme Court delivered a 7-2 opinion about violent video games: Brown, Governor Of California, et al. v. Entertainment Merchants Association et al. [PDF]. Justice Scalia wrote the majority decision, in which it was decided that a California law prohibiting the sale or rental of “violent video games” to minors is invalid as violating the first amendment protecting freedom of speech.

As might be expected, Scalia reviewed those restrictions on speech that have been supported by the courts, finding them in American traditions as spelled out in United States v. Stevens [PDF], a case concerning depiction of . . . [more]

In Webb v. Birkett, 2011 ABCA 13, the Alberta Court of Appeal held that the defendant solicitor Birkett was negligent in representing the plaintiff Webb in a collaborative family law settlement.

The Alberta Court of Appeal held that CFL practitioners must meet the same standard of care required of other family law practitioners — including taking appropriate steps to get the financial information needed to properly advise the client. A lawyer must obtain sufficient reliable information to be able to ascertain what the client would likely receive, or be required to pay, for spousal support, child support and matrimonial . . . [more]

Denis Rancourt has a long history of legal proceedings with the University of Ottawa (UofO), where he was once a physics professor. He was in the news again this week for being named the defendant in a libel suit by Joanne St. Lewis, a law professor at UofO, over a blog post on Rancourt’s site, UofO Watch.

Tom Spears of the Ottawa Citizen provided background to the case yesterday,

The contention began when St. Lewis, as the director of the university’s Human Rights Research and Education Centre, submitted an evaluation of a student-produced report alleging systemic racism at

. . . [more]

Unless you are a Canadian who has been spending a lot of quality time in a cave over the past month you are no doubt aware that Winnipeg has regained an NHL team by way of Atlanta causing a bit of a chain reaction. The Atlanta Thrashers have moved to Winnipeg to become the TBAs (but might have a name today by the time you read this). The reaction being that Winnipeg had a pre-existing AHL hockey team the Manitoba Moose which has now moved to St. John’s, Newfoundland.

On the surface many believed that “the Moose” would be . . . [more]

On June 14th, the non-profit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre launched an online portal on Business & Children.

The Portal covers issues such as child labour, dangerous products, education, forced labour, pollution damaging health, pregnancy discrimination, sexual exploitation and trafficking. The content comes from many sources including NGOs, international organizations such as UNICEF and the ILO, governments, journalists, academics, and companies themselves. It features responses by companies to allegations of misconduct as well as positive initiatives they, NGOs and other organizations have taken to protect the rights of children.

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre tracks the . . . [more]

Since the economic burden of mental illnesses in Canada has been estimated at $51-billion per year, with almost $20-billion of that coming from workplace losses, the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) has launched a collaborative project with the Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ) and the standards division of the Canadian Standards Association (CSA Standards) to create a voluntary national standard for mentally healthy workplaces. The standard aims to help Canadian employers support the psychological health and safety of their employees. According to the government, Canada is the first country in the world to develop such a standard.