This Quebec-born boy still has trouble fathoming why so many people are going gaga over the English Royal Wedding. Don’t we all have hockey playoffs to think about? And isn’t there that little thing to do with the federal elections and Jack’s unexpected Big Orange Wave?

Never mind.

To help us out, the Harvard Law School Library has published a post on Royal Wedding: Pomp, Circumstance, and Law to explain all the legalities about how people in the British royal family get hitched.

Apparently, it is a lot more complicated than simply showing up at city hall, calling a florist . . . [more]

Royal weddings bring with them fanfares, fascinators, and fol-de-rol (folie de roi?) — and a renewed interest in the singular business of constituting and propagating a monarchy. A former family law teacher, I’ve a modest interest in the marriage, as opposed to wedding, side of things, because while, as everyone knows, the rich are different from you and me, the royal family is even less like us when it comes to tying the knot.

Some things royal are governed by tradition in its guise as the common law. Succession to the throne, for instance, operates in part [see . . . [more]

While Quebec is consulting and holding public hearings on euthanasia and assisted suicide, on April 26, 2011, British Columbia’s Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and three other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in BC’s Supreme Court challenging Canada’s Criminal Code provisions against euthanasia and assisted suicide.

We have mentioned before that the Anti-Spam act (bill c-28) will not come into force until the fall. (It may potentially be delayed because the election has delayed the creation of the regulations that must be in place before it is in force.) Several sections of the act that amend PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) were however proclaimed in force effective April 1

The PIPEDA amendments from the Anti-Spam act are in force to the extent that they are administrative in nature. Those that interact with the anti-spam provisions are not yet in force, and presumably will . . . [more]

Thank you to Simon Fodden for inviting me to contribute to Slaw. I am delighted to be here!

One of yesterday’s headlines caught my eye: passing legislation to make voting mandatory in Canada. This debate is certainly not new, as each election and the somewhat disappointing turn out seems to bring similar questions to the forefront; however, any law addressing this matter has yet to be passed, as opposed to a number of countries that have already adopted such legislation.

As with any law, not voting would have consequences, i.e. penalties (a fine of some sort). Such a law could . . . [more]

Collaborative blogs, and inviting guest bloggers, is one of the most effective ways to maintain continuity for professional blogs. But who owns the intellectual property of the posts, especially if the site goes commercial with the intent to gain profit?

Jonathan Tasini started writing for the Huffington Post when the site was just 7 months old, writing 216 pieces, and stopped blogging on February 10, 2011, just 3 days after a purchase of the site by AOL was announced.

He’s launched a class-action lawsuit against AOL Inc., TheHuffintonPost.Com, Inc., Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer for damages and injunctive relief. The . . . [more]

In a recent training session I attended, I was surprised to hear how many of the participants indicated that, to control business-related driving hazards, they use global positioning systems, or GPS, to help keep track of their employees, whether using an employer-provided vehicle or personal vehicle.

An information bulletin by Michael Watts, Roger Gillott and Sarah Harrison of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP from October 22, 2010, Proposed legislation aims to create greater public accountability, has garnished quite a bit of controversy this week.

The article discusses the Broader Public Sector Accountability Act, 2010 (BPSAA), which received Royal Assent on December 8, 2010. The Act creates new rules for transparency and accountability for publicly funded broader public sector organizations, including hospitals and LHINs.

The new rules come into force on January 1, 2012, and amend the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy . . . [more]

On April 15, 2011, the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) released its expert report on catastrophic impairment definition review. The recommendations are considered significant as they reflect a departure from the long-standing position of jurisprudence in Ontario for the definition of catastrophic impairment under the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, including the approach used in Desbiens v. Mordini.

The panel recommended the creation of an interim catastrophic impairment to ensure access to rehabilitation services while a final determination of catastrophic status is being determined. The panel was split on whether Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 9 . . . [more]

The British Columbia Court of Appeal (Cojocaru v. British Columbia Women’s Hospital and Health Center 2011 BCCA 192) has overturned — 2-1 –the ruling of a judge whose written reasons for judgment:

. . .cannot be considered to represent his reasons, do not meet the functional requirement of public accountability, and do not allow for meaningful appellate review.

The judge in question adopted 321 paragraphs of his 368 paragraph judgment “almost word-for-word” from the respondent’s written closing submissions and did not acknowledge the borrowing.

It’s by no means unheard of for judges to adopt counsel’s written submissions as . . . [more]

The Supreme Court has wrapped up its two-day hearing into the federal government’s request that the Court rule on the constitutionality of proposed legislation to create a national securities regulator.

Appeal courts in Alberta and Quebec have ruled that the proposal would violate the Constitution because it would intrude on provincial powers.

The facta of all the parties and intervenors of the case are available on the Court’s website.

As well, the hearings were broadcast via webcast and the webcasts are archived.

The Department of Finance has posted background material on the issue, as well as links to . . . [more]

As mentioned earlier this month on Slaw, the UNCITRAL Secretariat has published WP.107 for its meeting next month, setting out the first draft of a set of rules for procedure in online dispute resolution (ODR). That document is available online. With the same link you will find the report of the first meeting of the Working Group on ODR, from December 2010, to see how the group got to where it is now.

The principle of the draft rules is that they should apply readily to low-cost, high-volume disputes, so they should be simple and accessible and allow . . . [more]