One of the most difficult parts of statutory research for beginners is learning that statutes are published in two formats: chronological laws and codified laws. In the US, federal legislation is first published as a slip opinion and then bound into a volume of the Statutes at Large. These documents are useful for a researcher who wants to answer questions about intent or statutory language, as you want to see the entire law as it appeared when it was passed. However, most of the time a legal researcher merely needs to know what the law is at this moment on . . . [more]

On May 12, 2023, in response to the Government of Canada’s proposed amendments to the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) and the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (Sergei Magnitsky Law) (Magnitsky Act) in Bill C-47, the Budget Implementation Act 2023, No. 1 (Bill C-47),[1] the International Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA Section) has filed a submission with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance.[2] Bill C-47 is intended to make consequential amendments with respect to commitments made by the Government in its 2023 Budget. The same text was filed with the . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : La tenue d’un nouveau procès est ordonnée à l’égard d’un ancien policier déclaré coupable d’agression sexuelle; la réponse du juge aux questions soumises par le jury était incorrecte et incomplète en droit, et elle a induit le jury en erreur quant à la manière d’évaluer les réponses . . . [more]

For the past four years, Youth Voices [Note 1] worked with Deer Crossing the Art Farm (Gibsons BC) on an initiative to raise awareness of the need to provide meaningful participation and voice to kids experiencing parental separation. On May 25, 2023, this partnership launched “Seen and Heard” – both a physical art installation and a digital platform for children and young people to tell their stories .

For four days, the art installation was located in the plaza outside of the Vancouver Art Gallery, near to the BC Provincial and Supreme courthouses. It presented two colourful little houses, each . . . [more]

An Ontario arbitrator recently ruled that a manager breached safety rules when he grabbed an employee he believed was being insubordinate. As a result, the employer was ordered to pay the employee $3,000 in damages for the breaches. . . . [more]

I am happy to share a newly created dashboard to facilitate navigation of the results from the Canadian Legal Problems Survey. You can access the dashboard here. It is designed to allow you to explore the data to better understand what legal problems Canadians experience, how they respond, and how demographic variables correspond to legal problems. The data is pulled from the Canadian Legal Problems Survey Public Use Microdata File (PUMF), which is available from the Statistics Canada website.

There is also an auxiliary app to assist in navigating the code book, which provides supporting materials on . . . [more]

As Chief Justice Morawetz enters his 5th year as head of the Ontario Superior Court, it is both appropriate and necessary (given the court’s acknowledged culture of complacency) to ask “how well is he overseeing court operations?” Answering this question with the tools and data presently available is challenging, as Ontario lacks a history of accountability (or transparency) from either the judiciary or the court itself. Yet as the old truism goes, “you can’t improve what you don’t measure.”

i) The Role and Importance of the Superior Court

Canada’s system of parliamentary democracy has three branches, . . . [more]

“Zeus granted Tithonus immortality but not youth. When hateful old age was pressing hard on him, with all its might, and he couldn’t move his limbs, much less lift them up, then she thought up this plan, a very good one indeed – she put him in her chamber, and she closed the shining doors over him.” – Hymn to Aphrodite, Homer

Many of us have traded away our health for wealth. The consequence is an early death and, perhaps worse, painful old age. I have noticed, now in my second decade of dastardly discourse, how my colleagues and I . . . [more]

Introduction

The recent Bencher election for the Law Society of Ontario (the “LSO”) was a heated and political affair. Candidates presented themselves for election, publicized platform commitments, communicated with electors by email and pamphlet, and even, controversially, organized themselves into competing slates. It had the look and feel of the kind of election we are all familiar with for federal, provincial, or municipal office. One of the differences, however, is that those other elections all have meaningful campaign finance legislation that regulates money in politics. While By-Law 3 sets out in detail some aspects of LSO elections, it is silent . . . [more]

One Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted from May 18 – June 21, 2023 inclusive.

Oral Judgment

Criminal Law: Sexual Assault R. v. Hay, 2022 ABCA 246; 2023 SCC 15 (40316) The Chief Justice: “Mr. Hay appeals from the unanimous decision of the Court of Appeal of Alberta setting aside an acquittal and . . . [more]