Lots of biotech and pharma deal activity is ongoing in Canada and around the world, including Roche’s debt offering to fund its Genentech bid and an unsolicited offer by JLL Partners for Patheon, which was founded in Canada.

New regulations are on the way for organic food in Canada, where cloned animals will be excluded; and for genetic information in the U.S., where the EEOC started hearings to implement Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

Regulatory optimism from GTC Biotherapeutics, which started a collaboration with New Zealand’s AgResearch for animal-produced biosimilars; but pessimism from . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada recently published a special edition of its Bulletin of Proceedings called Statistics 1998 to 2008.

The statistics are broken down into 5 categories:

• Cases Filed: the number of complete applications for leave to appeal and notices of appeal as of right filed by litigants with the Court’s Registry each year
• Applications for Leave Submitted: number of leave applications submitted to panels of the Court for decision, the number of leave applications granted and the percentage granted of the total submitted
• Appeals Heard: number of appeals heard each year and the number of hearing days

The Supreme Court of Canada announced this morning that it has granted leave to appeal the decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal in Yugraneft v. Rexx Management. This decision has been the subject of considerable discussion among arbitration practitioners: as was discussed several months ago on Slaw, the case raises a number of difficult questions about how international arbitration and Canada’s treaty obligations in that respect interact with local procedural law – specifically limitation of actions – when seeking to enforce the award, and more generally whether foreign judgments and arbitral awards should continue to be treated, . . . [more]

Way back in the early 80s Wendy’s hamburger chain ran a TV commercial that featured three old ladies exploring a competitor’s “really big bun” and the relative absence of meat; one of the women had a deep, harsh voice and used it repeatedly to bark out: “Where’s the beef?” Now, in this day of supersizing, the question isn’t so much about the size of the patty as its provenance. That goes for just about all forms of food, our concern fuelled by dangerous additives, e coli, listerosis, and the lack of control over suppliers distributed across the globe.

As of . . . [more]

One of the great wonders of the web is the ability it affords us to glimpse the world from different perspectives by reading current papers from around the world.

Starting with today’s Hindu, a great paper from Chennai, we find the following stories:

Bloggers not entitled to any special protection for expressing critical views, Supreme Court of India holds:

Bloggers may no longer express their uninhibited views on everything under the sun, for the Supreme Court said they may face libel and even prosecution for the blog content. Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam refused to . . . [more]

Today is the deadline for public comment submissions to the CRTC with regard to their net neutrality hearings in July. This is from Michael Geist:

The CRTC has set out a series of questions in its public notice, some of which may be too technical or legal for many Canadians. However, there are some key questions that anyone with an interest in net neutrality can address including questions about how network management could result in unjust discrimination or undue preferences as well as how network management could result in controlling content or influencing telecommunications. Moreover, the CRTC asks

Brian Bowman (Pittblado, LLP) has a new blog — Brian Bowman – On the Cutting Edge — that’s been active since the beginning of the month. The blog:

provides practical assistance to Canadian businesses so they can better deal with issues related to privacy, access to information, online reputation management, intellectual property and technology legal matters.

Bowman is a Past Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s National Privacy and Access Law Section. Welcome to the blogosphere, Brian.

[via Information Roundup] . . . [more]

Master’s students at the Université de Paris X – Nanterre have produced a comparative guide that provides an overview of the legal situation in 70 countries on issues relating to:

• nationality, adoption, marriage and divorce
• estates
• international private law

The guide is written in French.

[Source: Précisément.org, un blog pour l’Information juridique] . . . [more]

We will be posting news of our new project on our website shortly, but let me give Slawyers advance notice. The Board of Governors recently approved a project on joint and several liability, primarily considering whether the Ontario Business Corporations Act should be amended to eliminate or restrict the joint and several liability imposed on professionals. For example, auditors may be liable if there are misrepresentations or omissions in the financial materials and statements they prepare for their clients and if the other defendants are unable to pay damages awarded for their wrongdoing in the same case, the auditors may . . . [more]

I’ve always had a fascination with DNA, simply because it tells the hidden story of our species that should put to rest many of the controversial debates on the issue.

I have already spent a small fortune investigating my Y-chromosome and mitochondral DNA. Given our very mixed ancestry, I was curious to see what I came up with.

Apparently I’m haplogroup R1a1a from my father’s side, not that exciting because it’s the largest group in the world. But I can also cross-reference my markers with samples of human populations around the world, and I seem to have an remarkable . . . [more]

Have you noticed any blanked out avatars or websites in your travels lately? February 16 – 23, 2009 thousands of New Zealanders are protesting “Guilt Upon Accusation” pending new section 92A of their Copyright Act being brought in by Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Act 2008 No. 27 that they say

assumes Guilt Upon Accusation and forces the termination of internet connections and websites without evidence, without a fair trial, and without punishment for any false accusations of copyright infringement.

This legislation reportedly puts the emphasis on internet service providers (ISPs) having to police who is using their services and, according . . . [more]

After doing online writing for about a year and a half now, one of my most read pieces is Employee Privacy in Canada. I also get plenty of legal inquiries by e-mail on it, and of course have to respond that I cannot provide legal advice.

It’s also a topic of interest to in-house counsel, who increasingly have to respond to managers about the checks and monitors they are allowed to use for their staff.

Perhaps then it’s no surprise that the subject was also prominently featured at the OBA 2009 Institute of Continuing Legal Education on Feb. 3, . . . [more]