In her annual report to Parliament on the Privacy Act last week, the federal Privacy Commissioner expressed concerns about several issues. The Privacy Act deals with privacy issues for the Federal government.

Issues included the way surplus equipment and paper is disposed, and improper and unauthorized access to documents. Highlights from the press release include:

• Wireless audit: Of five federal entities examined, none had fully assessed the threats and risks inherent in wireless communications. Gaps in policies and/or practices resulted in weak password protection for smart phones and inadequate encryption for Wi-Fi networks and data stored on mobile devices. Shortcomings

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This is a post that invites discussion about a position paper published by the Ontario Medical Association that is of relevance to employers, disability insurers and employer and employee advisors.

The OMA is the doctors’ association in Ontario, and health policy is part of its mandate. In March 2009, the OMA published a revised version of its longstanding policy paper on return to work issues. “The Role of the Primary Care Physician in Timely Return to Work” has been published for over a year and a half, but it seems not to have received much attention in the . . . [more]

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently released its decision in Jaffer v. York University, 2010 ONCA 654, which reaffirms the proposition that the Superior Court of Justice does have jurisdiction over academic disputes that are grounded in contract or tort.

University administrators will find the ruling important in assessing their liability to civil claims, and students bringing civil suits against universities will find it useful in constructing proper pleadings.

Background

The plaintiff, Ashif Jaffer, had Trisomy 21, also known as Down’s Syndrome, and was accepted to York’s Glendon College in September 2006. Although attempts were made to determine . . . [more]

The fall 2010 session of the Supreme Court of Canada began earlier this week.

Not everyone knows that electronic facta filed by the parties in cases before the Supreme Court of Canada are available on the Court’s website. This has been so for cases filed since February 2009.

For example, if you want to find out about the arguments of the parties in upcoming hearings of the fall season, you only need to click on the style of cause (party name) link for a particular case.

For example, today, the Court heard an appeal in the case of Information . . . [more]

[Under the Québec Civil Code, an instalment sale is a sale on credit by which the seller reserves ownership of the property until full payment of the sale price. Even though a debate has been going on as to whether this constitutes a security, one should keep in mind that the seller does not have any hypothecary rights. As owner, he does not need any such right to repossess the sold property in case of default. Paradoxically however, in instances where the seller wishes to reclaim the object of the sale from the buyer in default, the Québec RPMRR demands . . . [more]

A legal advisor to the European Court of Justice has advised that it is illegal to charge different premiums to women and men for life insurance and car insurance, merely because women live longer and have fewer accidents.

The differences are not inherent in women and men, and therefore are discriminatory.

This advice is not binding on anyone, but the ECJ usually goes along with its advisors.

Does this make sense to you? or is it just too politically correct for words? . . . [more]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) based in Strasbourg has published a series of Factsheets that deal with various themes such as the situation of the Roma, the rights of homosexuals, prison conditions and environmental rights. They include both decided cases and pending applications before the Court.

The full list of Factsheets:

• Case-law concerning the European Union
• Child protection
• Data protection (English version in progress)
• Detention and Mental Health
• Detention conditions and treatment of prisoners
• Dublin cases (which European state is responsible for asylum applications)
• The environment
• Expulsions and extraditions
• Forced labour and trafficking
• Homosexual rights
• Homosexuality: criminal aspects

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On September 28, 2010, the Superior Court, without deciding whether or not there is a constitutional right to sell sex or the right policy model (criminalization, regulation or abolition), agreed with the plaintiffs’ arguments, ruling that the Criminal Code provisions relating to prostitution contribute to the danger faced by sex-trade workers in Ontario.

As followers of Canadian legal news will know, a judge of the Ontario Superior Court today ruled that Canada’s prostitution laws violate the Charter. To quote from the National Post story:

The judge struck down three sections of the Criminal Code that make it illegal to operate a “common bawdy house,” to profit from prostitution-related activities or “communicates” on the street for the purpose of prostitution. The provisions “force prostitutes to choose between their liberty interest and their right to security of the person,” said the judge, in finding that the laws breached the Charter of Rights.

A PDF . . . [more]

As a general rule, do public documents ( and notarized documents in particular ) emanating from Canada for production in the United States and vice versa require any authentication before they may be admitted in evidence or used for any official purpose or recorded in any way in the destination jurisdiction? Are there specific exceptions with special authentication requirements?

I suppose one would have to turn to US law for an answer about US-bound documents, but does anyone have a rough-and-ready practical notion?

I am aware of section 45 of the Evidence Act of Ontario that provides for the admission . . . [more]

Today the Audiencia Provincial in Madrid released a significant ruling in the fight between Spanish television channel Telecinco and Google’s Youtube service. Surprise, surprise, sometimes fans post videos from television broadcasts on Youtube without tracking down rights owners to clear copyright.

But is Youtube liable for any infringement?

The Spanish company argued that its intellectual property rights were being violated, but a court in Madrid ruled that it was the responsibility of the copyright owner to identify such infringement and alert Google. It had set out to obtain what it believed would be an international precedent.

Historically, . . . [more]

The Federal Court of Canada released the decision today in the George Galloway hearing, The Toronto Coalition to Stop the War et al. v. The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness et al. I previously attended the hearing in Toronto and posted on it here, which was later picked up and expanded upon by The Court.

Mosley J. dismissed the request for judicial review, not because the case was without grounds, but because Galloway never actually tested the measures enacted against him,

[148] Had Galloway actually been found inadmissible by a visa officer relying on the

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