I had occasion to cancel a credit card and get a new one recently, which made me look at and think about credit card numbers. I suppose that I’d always thought of them as a more or less random string of integers, maximizing the number of such strings that would be available to banks etc. (10 X 10 X 10 etc. for each integer place…) and making it just that bit more difficult for criminals to suss out a number.

Turns out I couldn’t be more wrong: credit card (and bank card) numbers are highly structured entities and only make . . . [more]

The Canadian Press is reporting that the planned extension of US passenger screening is going ahead next year. Unlike existing rules, which require airlines to provide passenger information for flights headed to the US, the new rules will require them to provide this information even if the flight is only traversing US airspace. (See: The Canadian Press: New U.S. air security rules create turbulence in Canada.)

This raises a whole host of issues, particularly on the privacy front. The names are being scrubbed against the US no-fly list, which is notoriously of dubious quality. It has interfered with the . . . [more]

Some time back I wrote about typefaces and why lawyers might want to care about which face they put forward. Of course, the choice of typeface isn’t the only aspect of the print world (whether on paper or in pixels) of interest: how the text is laid out is an obviously important feature affecting readability, one element of which I want to touch on in this post.

That element is justification, by which I mean whether or not the text is made to line up on the right edge of the column in what is sometimes called “flush right.” There . . . [more]

Voici le discours . . . [more]

Since it’s important, here it is – in English .

No time for a witty comment . . . [more]

As delivered by the wonderfully named Herménégilde Chiasson, yesterday’s Throne Speech in Frederickton contains a paragraph on legal information.

The speech from the throne opened the third session of the 56th Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick.

* Timely access to justice is important and your government will receive the report of the Task Force on Access to Family Justice. It is expected that the report will provide recommendations for improved access to justice, expanded use of alternatives to family court, and increased access to legal information and legal assistance in family law matters. Your government will provide its . . . [more]

The Globe and Mail’s article yesterday on the Alberta Court of Appeal decision in Yugraneft Corp. v. Rexx Management Corp. left me wondering. In Yugraneft, the Court held that an application to register and enforce a foreign arbitral award under the 1958 Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (a.k.a. the New York Convention) is subject to the ordinary limitation period of two years.

The decision has indeed been the source of much concern among Canadian arbitration practitioners; even the decision by the Court of Queen’s Bench in 2007 created quite a stir. My own sense . . . [more]

Like many Slaw readers, I monitor legislation in Canada, especially federal legislation. Our 1st session of the 40th parliament officially began on November 18, 2008 with the Throne Speech on November 19, 2009. We are now on day 8 of this parliament and Bill C-2, the first government sponsored bill, has yet to appear on the Projected Order Of Business or the Order and Notice Paper.

As I clicked my shortcut to LegisINFO and saw no Bill C-2 again today, I found myself wondering if this long delay was out of the ordinary. To do a fast grab of . . . [more]

CBC’s Search Engine says, provocatively:

With the election of Barack Obama, digital culture in the U.S. hit a tipping point, where a robust online public sphere proved itself capable of changing the world. Meanwhile, here in Canada we’re approaching our own tipping point, where a series of ignorances and capitulations threaten to turn our country into a digital ghetto.

Having spent some time yesterday discovering that Skype is not able to provide Skypein telephone numbers for Canada the way it can for 21 other countries and that Google’s really interesting Grand Central isn’t available in Canada, I’m ready . . . [more]

Earlier this week, Facebook won a huge judgment – $832 million to be exact – against a Canadian spam lord, Adam Guerbuez. This was the biggest award ever made under the US federal anti-spam legislation. Facebook doesn’t expect to collect much from the judgment, but it’s definitely another blow against spammers.

in an article in today’s Globe, Michael Geist explains that Facebook brought their action in California rather than Canada because Canadian law doesn’t provide an adequate remedy against spammers. He describes our own laws as “simply inadequate”.

I wonder if anti-spam legislation is on the Tories’ agenda for . . . [more]

I just arrived home and am catching up on the terrorist attack on Mumbai this evening (tomorrow morning in India).

BlogTalkRadio SAJA (South Asian Journalist Association) are holding web-based phone-in discussions every 12 hours, 10 – 11:30 am/pm ET or 8:30 – 10:00 am/pm Indian time. The guests on the first call (evening of Nov. 26 in Canada) included Benjamin Piven, former Fulbright Scholar in Mumbai and Suketu Mehta, author, “Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found.” Author Rohit Bhargava has posted the details on his Influential Marketing Blog.

For those wishing to follow the latest news, some . . . [more]

In an emotional farewell to staff, Anne Roland, Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada since 1990, reminisced yesterday about the many changes she has seen at Canada’s highest judicial institution where she started working 32 years ago. Roland retired this week.

As Registar, she acted as the Court’s top administrative official, with responsibilities for appointment and supervision of Court staff, the management of the Library and the Registry, and the publication of the Supreme Court Reports.

Madame Roland emigrated from France and joined the Canadian public service some 37 years ago, working first in translation before moving to the . . . [more]