The Alberta Law Reform Institute (ALRI) has launched a new website. It has a new look, new address and best of all new features. 

The new website offers three easy methods of communication:

A Mailing List – Receive notices of new publications or any other significant activities. Be assured that this will not create a flood of messages in your inbox, but simply an occasional update from ALRI.

A Feedback Form – A quick method to comment on their work or provide your suggestions. You can find this option under the Your Views tab on the new website.

An . . . [more]

On Friday June 3, 2011, the Ontario government enacted the Integrated Accessibility Regulation under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. The Regulation gave force of law to three new standards to address barriers facing persons with disabilities in the areas of transportation, employment and information and communications.

It isn’t uncommon to read in local, national and international newspapers stories of domestic workers being ill-treated, underpaid and overworked. While Canadian employment standards offer some protection to domestic workers, this certainly isn’t the case across the globe.

With the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) International Labour Conference currently taking place in Geneva from June 1 to June 17, with the agenda including an item entitled “Decent work for domestic workers”, there are hopes that a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation will be adopted to afford what is seen as urgently-needed protection to domestic workers (see the ILO website for more . . . [more]

From Dr. M Veerappa Moily, the Centre’s Minister of Law & Justice comes a Press Release:

The scope of this program is creation and management of the ‘National Legal e-library’ for 933 schools in India, Bar Associations, Government Legal departments etc. and meet the needs of academic librarians, students, faculty and young practitioners. It aims to provide a practitioners view and a comprehensive understanding of core subject areas of law.

Various technology tools that make the concept of E-Library indispensable are Easy Access to provide a campus wide access using IP Authentication, Results clustering to familiarize new users

. . . [more]

It is not surprising that many Canadian are cyncial of their federal Parliamentarians.

Example in point: Bills C-1 and S-1 have been published. Despite respectively being – in name – “An Act respecting the administration of oaths of office” and an “Act relating railways” – of course neither bill has anything to do with either topic and neither bill will pass first reading.

Apparently, it all has to do with a “custom” dating back over 400 years ago for “pro forma” bills. I didn’t find the explanation on LegisINFO or Wikipedia to be entirely satisfactory. Wouldn’t . . . [more]

In April 2010, Terry Childs, a former IT employee with the City of San Francisco was sentenced to four years in prison for blocking access to the city’s network (which he designed) and refusing to turn over the passwords. It took Childs...

Forgive me, please if this is a tad parochial, but yesterday the Toronto Civil Court Lists were made available on the Internet

The Toronto Lawyers Association announced that working with Regional Senior Justice Ed Then, and his Court staff they have finally secured for the benefit of the profession internet access to the Toronto Civil Court lists.

They should be available here. They undertake to post the next day’s list by 5 pm each day (the lists are subject to change).

Currently they have Trials, Pre-Trial & Case Conferences, Motions and Masters’ Motions available. Soon they hope . . . [more]

The first session of Canada’s 41st Parliament is set to open tomorrow (Thursday, June 2, 2011).

Regardless of how you voted in the last election, are you cynical or hopeful that our elected politicians will earn their keep and have a productive Parliamentary session? (Alas, I remain cynical).

Early activity this week should see the election of a new Speaker of the House and perhaps some indication of the direction the new majority Conservative government will take in Friday’s Speech from the Throne.

A good Canadian Press article provides a great overview of what to expect with this new . . . [more]

A couple of days ago I was taken by friends to see Hangover II (please don’t hate me). On the off-chance that you have thoughtful friends like mine, I should warn you that there are certain… infelicities in the film, most of which might make you laugh despite your best, or even modestly fair, judgment (don’t hate yourself), but one of which is legal in nature and might be no laughing matter. It goes like this (the New York Times has the full version):

Mike Tyson went to S. Victor Whitmill to obtain a tattoo and left with a . . . [more]

Today’s release from the Supreme Court of Canada, R. v. J.A., 2011 SCC 28 is a real head-scratcher. The facts are both titillating and fascinating.

J.A. and his long time partner, K.D. were a sexually explorative adult couple. On several prior occasions they had experimented with the delicate art of erotic asphyxiation — in which one partner chokes the breath out of the other to heighten the sexual pleasure associated with a lack of oxygen to the brain. Now, during my recent trip to Ecuador’s Cotopaxi Glacier 5000 metres above sea level I don’t recall any sexual stirrings as my . . . [more]

On the last day of April the UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championship held an event at Rogers Centre (nee Skydome) in Toronto. Personally, I’m not a fan but I find aspects of the MMA odyssey, that could be said to have culminated on April 29th in Toronto, to have interesting legal aspects. What does a combat sport have to do with law? Quite a bit; until 2010 mixed martial arts was illegal in Ontario; however, a regulatory change announced last August and commented on here at Slaw at the time was implemented last Autumn and allowed for this multi-million dollar . . . [more]

There’s a recent trio of pieces in the Economist’s column on language, Johnson, that should be of interest to lawyers, as they all revolve around that tricky word “shall.” The fuss started when Robert Lane Greene, who edits the column and writes as R.L.G., praised the US government’s Federal Plain Language Guidelines [PDF] for recommending that writers drop “shall” and calling it that “officious and obsolete [word] that has encumbered legal style writing for many years.” That column racked up fifty comments, not all of them approving.

A day later, R.L.G. took another crack at the “shall,” in the light . . . [more]