General consultations on Quebec’s Bill 94, An Act to establish guidelines governing accommodation requests within the Administration and certain institutions started on May 18, 2010. Much to my annoyance, many journalists and media outlets are referring to the bill as “the facial covering bill” or “the niqab bill”. To summarize, the bill says...

French laws against the niqab -- and against cross-dressing.

This week’s issue of The Lawyers Weekly (vol 30., no. 3, May 21/10) has an article on the first page crowing about the successful dismissal, under Quebec legislation, of an action found to be a SLAPP (a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) action. The article continues on p.3 under the caption “Decision will ‘no doubt discourage’ abusive suits and SLAPPs.”

I’m going to put aside (what is to me the obvious) conflict between anti-SLAPP legislation and the “not plain and obvious that the action must fail” threshold which, in substance, is all that is needed on the merits issue for . . . [more]

This week in biotech, everyone was taking up a challenge.

• Grand Challenges Canada was launched this week to spend $225 million of the Canadian government’s money on 5 “grand challenges” over a 5-year period. The first task — a grand challenge indeed — is to create a new class of point-of-care (POC) diagnostics. Along with the X-Prize’s ventures into healthcare, we are seeing an interesting experiment in the ability of prizes to drive innovation.
• In a sign of progress being made globally against basic health challenges, this week with fewer children are dying as malnutrition, HIV and TB all

. . . [more]

Between the government’s withdrawal of funding for NGOs that provide maternal health programs overseas, and a proclaimed emphasis on maternal health at the upcoming G8, some in Canada are wondering if we’re heading to a new vote on abortion.

Liberal MP Paul Szabo of Mississauga South said,

Is (a vote) inevitable? I would say yes.

If such a vote was held today, what would the outcome be? . . . [more]

The surviving terrorist from the Mumbai event has been sentenced to hang. The story is online at the Guardian. India currently has 52 people on “death row,” awaiting execution of their sentences. I hadn’t realized that India has not carried out a sentence of capital punishment since 2004, and prior to that not for nine years.

China, with a roughly similar number of citizens, but where the data on capital punishment are secret, is estimated to kill somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people a year through the legal process.

One of the reasons cited for the infrequency of hangings . . . [more]

Earlier this week, I was at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries in Windsor, where I had the opportunity to hear Pierre-Paul Lemyre from LexUM.

He was speaking about the Guidelines for Canadian Court Web Sites being developed by the Canadian Centre for Court Technology.

He mentioned that the Centre is organizing a Canadian Forum on Court Technology in Ottawa on September 22 and 23.

The final version of those web site guidelines should be about ready by then. Slaw contributor Patrick Cormier described the process for developing those guidelines in January 2010. . . . [more]

Airport full-body security scanners raise many legal concerns, and while this isn’t exactly a new issue, it made headlines recently by raising employment law concerns—particularly with respect to workplace harassment and violence. However, the more publicized issues that this technology raises are privacy and human rights concerns.

A recent English case considered when an email message is received, for the purpose of accepting an offer of a contract. Thomas v BPE Solicitors, [20100 EWHC 306 (Ch). (The relevant parts of a very long decision are at paras 85 – 90.)

In short, the court held that the postal rule did not apply to an email, as it had been established by authority that it did not apply to other instantaneous forms of communication, like telexes (Entores [1955] 2 Q.B. 327 and Brinkibon [1983] 2 A.C. 34). That said, was the mail received for legal purposes . . . [more]

The text of the Eliminating Pardons for Serious Crimes Act, Bill C-23, introduced in the House yesterday, is available here. It amends the Criminal Records Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-47. The official summary of the Bill reads as follows:

This enactment amends the Criminal Records Act to substitute the term “record suspension” for the term “pardon”. It extends the ineligibility periods for applications for a record suspension. It also makes certain offences ineligible for a record suspension and enables the National Parole Board to consider additional factors when deciding whether to order a record suspension.

According . . . [more]

On May 6th, the federal government introduced Bill C-22, the Protecting Children From Online Sexual Exploitation Act. If passed, the Act will impose a duty on persons who provide an “internet service” (internet access, e-mail or internet content hosting) to report child pornography offences in certain circumstances. This includes when a service provider has reasonable grounds to believe its service is being used to commit a child pornography offence. Fines and offences range from $1,000 to $100,000 for repeat offenders.

This adds to duties embodied in legislation in Manitoba (in force since April 2009), Nova Scotia (in force since . . . [more]

It might be time to visit once again the substance and situation of Bill C-232, which received 3rd Reading on March 31 and awaits Royal Assent to become law. The text the legislation is as follows:

1. Section 5 of the Supreme Court Act is renumbered as subsection 5(1) and is amended by adding the following:

(2) In addition, any person referred to in subsection (1) may be appointed a judge who understands French and English without the assistance of an interpreter.

1. L’article 5 de la Loi sur la Cour suprême devient le paragraphe 5(1) et est modifié par

. . . [more]