I know it hasn’t been discussed much generally, but I think it’s an appropriate time for me to talk about Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on Slaw. I’m not breaking any news by saying that it has been reported that Rob Ford may have have a substance abuse problem. While John Stewart, Jay Leno, David Letterman and everyone else have made light of his somewhat public gaffes, any form of substance abuse issue (real or perceived) is sad.

I’m an employment and labour lawyer, so I am often required to look at substance abuse issues through the lense of human . . . [more]

After the 2012 discovery of the remains of King Richard III under a city parking lot in Leicester, the 17th great nephew of the king managed to persuade a UK judge that he has “sufficient interest” in the question of where the remains should be re-interred, to seek judicial review of the discretionary decision of the Justice Secretary granting a license of exhumation under the Burial Act 1857.

The historical figure was killed at the battle of Bosworth Hill on 22 August 1485.

When the decision was made pursuant to the license to move the remains to Leicester Cathedral, the . . . [more]

The release of five class action decisions penned by Ontario Superior Court Justice Belobaba earlier this month has garnered significant attention in the press and in the profession, and has reignited a debate about cost shifting in class actions. In virtually identical language in Brown v. Canada (Attorney General), Sankar v. Bell Mobility, Crisante v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Dugal v. Manulife and Rosen v. BMO Nesbitt Burns, Justice Belobaba excoriated class action lawyers for over-lawyering certification motions, unnecessarily lengthening the proceedings and generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and disbursements. The result, he bemoans, . . . [more]

The amendments to the Defamation Act passed in the UK earlier this year will come into force on January 1, 2014. There is a draft regulation on website owners’ liability for defamatory comments posted on their sites. There is quite a back-and-forth process.

Is a scheme like this a good idea for Canada? It is a kind of ‘notice and notice’ system, in which the original poster of the allegedly defamatory statements have to identify themselves (via the website operator) for litigation by the complainant, or the statements are deleted.

Here is Pinsent Mason’s description:

[Website operators have

. . . [more]

On November 13, 2013, Quebec’s Minister of Justice, Bertrand St-Arnaud, tabled Bill 61, An Act mainly to recover amounts paid unjustly by public bodies in relation to certain contracts in the construction industry in the national assembly. If enacted, Bill 61 would allow the minister of justice to seek compensation from businesses that defrauded public bodies or used fraudulent tactics or practices in the course of the tendering, awarding or management of public construction contracts, on behalf of all public bodies or government agencies.

Some exciting news today for fellow Hansard geeks:

https://twitter.com/LoPInformation/status/403177276843757568

The full digitized historical federal Hansard, Senate and House of Commons, is now available online, browsable and searchable. Canadiana.org’s Historical Debates of the Parliament of Canada portal was launched today: http://parl.canadiana.ca/

The project has been in development for some time. It complements the content that has been available on parl.gc.ca (House: 1994 onward; Senate: 1996 onward), to create a full collection of digital federal Hansard.

https://twitter.com/LoPInformation/status/402900381400719360

Full details about the portal and the search functions are here: http://parl.canadiana.ca/support/about. . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada has just held that the collective right to freedom of expression in a lawful strike situation trumps an individual’s right to control their information in a public setting, striking down the Alberta Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).

In its decision, Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner) v. United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 401, 2013 SCC 62, the Supreme Court weighed the collective rights of a union’s freedom of expression under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms against the rights of individuals whose personal information was collected, used and disclosed without consent by the . . . [more]

A class action was filed by Munyonzwe Hamalengwa on Friday on behalf of the Black Action Defence Committee against the Toronto Police for the practice of racial profiling. The issue of racial profiling of African-Canadians has been closely examined by several academics and media sources, with findings that have been troubling to some.

The claim seeks $65 million in damages, as well as the following remedies:

A declaration that police have breached the Charter and an order requiring them to “desist from engaging in and condoning racial profiling” of blacks and other “colourful” minorities.

A declaration that racial profiling is

. . . [more]

Preserving one’s reputation is a fine value – and one that the law of libel strives to protect. But it’s not absolute, and the law recognizes that some communications are so important that they must trump reputation. That’s why communications that enjoy privilege are defensible in defamation cases. So is there a qualified privilege when reporting relevant information to the police in good faith, protecting the individual reporting the information from a libel suit. The answer is Yes.

Judge Denny Chin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York today dismissed the copyright violation lawsuit that US author groups had launched against Google.

The search giant has been digitizing tens of millions of books to create a massive online library / bookstore but the project was opposed in a lawsuit by US publishers and author organizations that started in 2005. The publishers’ group split off and settled earlier.

The judge wrote that the ambitious project respects authors’ rights and is a case of “fair use” (equivalent to fair dealing in Canadian copyright . . . [more]

An attempt by a Canadian online dating service, Plenty of Fish, to buy the database of a bankrupt competitor has run aground on privacy considerations (in Texas, of all places).

This has echoes of a situation a decade ago where the database of a toy company was going to be acquired. My recollection (subject to correction by Slaw readers) is that the purchase was derailed by public outcry more than by operation of law.

How would you go about making sure that your clients’ databases of personal information are saleable assets – or can this be done in Canada (or . . . [more]

Bernard Drainville, Quebec’s Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions and Active Citizenship, has finally introduced legislation affirming the values of secularism and religious neutrality with respect to the province of Quebec. The name of the "Quebec Charter of Values" has changed, but the substance remains essentially intact.