This is not about the election – it is about the need to consider this issue carefully before passing any new laws.

Michael Geist and David Fraser (here and here) have written detailed articles on this issue that I concur with and recommend. I want to weigh in as well as this is an important issue. I have a problem with legislation that erodes privacy and requires ISP’s or others to retain information for the sole purpose of government access to it. And when that access is not tempered by the need for a warrant.

Issues include erosion . . . [more]

The recently released case by Justice Guy DiTomaso in Kohl v. ING Insurance Company of Canada, 2011 ONSC 2138, discusses the ability to amend a claim while arbitration is still pending.

The Plaintiff, Roy Kohl, was involved in a car accident when his car hit a brick wall on October 18, 2005. Ian Hu of Oatley Vigmond LLP commenced an action on his behalf for accident benefits and damages for bad faith and mental distress on December 10, 2008 against his insurer, ING Insurance Company of Canada, represented by Deborah Neilson of Carroll Heyd Chown. . . . [more]

A number of Facebook users in Quebec tried to begin a class action against FB for alleged infringements on their privacy. A Quebec court has now refused certification as a class action and dismissed the case: St Arnaud c. Facebook Inc. 2011 QCCS 1506.

One ground for dismissal was that FB users sign an agreement that all disputes must be adjudicated in Santa Clara County, California.

A more interesting element of the decision was that the ‘contract’ with FB was not a consumer contract within the meaning of Quebec law, since there was no payment and no obligation on . . . [more]

Many interested stakeholders who participated in the AODA consultation process from February 1, 2011 to March 18, 2011 are very concerned about the timelines and a number of the requirements related to the implementation of the transportation standard. The cost implications for the transportation standard are believed to be significant. Provisional estimates, for certain smaller transit systems, would see the annual ongoing operating costs equate to upwards of 50 percent of the current operating costs.

Various Canadian Privacy Commissioners have taken the position that car license plate numbers are personal information, and thus subject to privacy legislation. That comes up, for example, in the context of Google street views, where Google has been told they must blur license plate numbers. 

Various Privacy Commissioner decisions have also limited the use of driver’s license information. For example, a store may ask to see a driver’s license as identification for someone returning a purchase as a fraud prevention measure, but the store is only supposed to look at it, not record the information on it.

Those principles are . . . [more]

If you haven’t noticed by now, we’re in (yet another) Federal election. The leaders of the four major parties are currently scheduled for a televised debate on April 12 (English) and 14 (French).

But what about the fifth party, the Green Party, which received almost as many votes in the 2008 election as the Bloc Quebecois? Because the Green Party’s 8% of the popular vote is spread across Canada, rather than concentrated in a single province, they did not receive a single seat, while the Bloc won 49 seats.

Given the relative popularity of the Green Party, its leader, Elizabeth . . . [more]

We have mentioned before the recent work of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law on online dispute resolution (ODR) and a colloquium held to review the potential future work of UNCITRAL on e-commerce issues.

ODR

The UNCITRAL Secretariat has produced a working paper for the meeting next month of the ODR Working Group. Working Paper 107 is a draft set of procedural rules that might apply to ODR processes. Along with it, you’ll find WP.106, the provisional agenda for that meeting.

Will this work? Is it likely to be useful? Or is it too high-level to provide real . . . [more]

The employment standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is found under part III in the Proposed Integrated Accessibility Regulation (PIAR), which is slated to become law around July 2011 (not confirmed). This standard requires an organization that is an employer to engage in the proactive identification, removal and prevention of barriers hindering the full participation in employment of persons with disabilities. It also requires that organization to have policies and procedures for establishing individual accommodation plans where barriers cannot be removed proactively, shifting the onus from the individual who needs the accommodation to the person who . . . [more]

It can be frustrating when a client comes for trade-mark advice, but has already started down a less than optimal path with their branding from a trade-mark perspective. If they have already used the brand and built up some goodwill, or have invested emotional energy into the brand, it can be difficult to change. Here are a couple of common issues that arise.

The most common mistake is adopting brands that are descriptive of the product or service. The thought behind that is “how else is anyone going to know what my product or service is?”

That is wrong for . . . [more]

Whatever you may think of the current election, the law regulating it is a significant piece of legislation, comprising some 22 parts, three schedules, and 577 sections. The Canada Elections Act sets out the ground rules — who may vote, how they must do it, how one becomes a candidate, and who counts the ballots, etc. Much of this is almost routine for us, particularly given the fact that we’ve had four federal elections in six years. But some of what’s in the act is not the stuff of news chat, and so I thought it might be amusing to . . . [more]

Those who watched the 2009 Tony Awards will recall that Bret Michaels was injured while exiting the stage after the opening performance of Nothing But a Good Time. If you need a reminder of the incident you can view it here.

Michaels suffered a fractured nose and split lip. He has experienced a number of other health problems since, some of which, such as a subarachnoid hemorrhage, have been attributed to the incident. California attorneys, Spillane Weingarten LLP, filed a statement of claim Friday against the Tonys, CBS Entertainment, and a number of related producers and promoters . . . [more]

This post will focus on the specific requirements under the AODA Information and Communication Standard. The Information and Communications Standard (Part 11 of the PIAR) focuses on accessible information and communications relating to the provision of goods and services. The definition of “information and communication” is very broad and can include such things as websites, brochures, flyers, invoices, order forms, feedback forms, complaint forms, telephone calls, marketing materials, etc. The main goal of the standard is to promote inclusive design of information and communication platforms and to specify requirements to prevent and remove barriers to persons with disabilities when creating, conveying, distributing, procuring and receiving information and communication to and from your organization.