On May 26, 2022, Convocation is considering recommendations from the Competence Task Force. The key recommendations are outlined below:

• Effective January 2024, all licensees who are designating as sole practitioners for the first time would be required to take a practice essentials course comprised of practical training on foundational practice and business management topics.
• The Rules of Professional Conduct and the Paralegal Professional Conduct Guidelines be amended to adopt the commentary regarding technological competence included in the Model Code of Professional Conduct.
• The Certified Specialist Program be wound up, effective September 1, 2022, with:
  1. current Certified Specialists able to use

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An interesting article in a US legal periodical last month discussed the rising incidence of an already widespread problem for new lawyers. Impostor syndrome — “the internal experience of doubting your abilities or feeling like a fraud” — has afflicted junior lawyers for a long time. But the pandemic has made it worse:

“Many [new lawyers] have spent very little time in physical offices, which means they have less opportunity to commiserate with peers and may feel as if they are somehow ‘uniquely deficient’ when they are not…. For many lawyers, a lot of confidence is instilled by being immersed

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Each Wednesday we tell you which three English-language cases and French-language cases have been the most viewed* on CanLII and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this last week, the most-consulted three English-language decisions were:

1. R. v. Brown, 2022 SCC 18

[2] At common law, automatism is “a state of impaired consciousness, rather than unconsciousness, in which an individual, though capable of action, has no voluntary control over that action” (R. v. Stone, 1999 CanLII 688 (SCC), [1999] 2 S.C.R. 290, at para. 156). It is sometimes said that . . . [more]

In April, former Alberta Justice Minister Jonathan Denis was found in contempt of court because a letter sent on his behalf threatened to bring an action for defamation against a plaintiff who was in the middle of giving testimony in a civil trial.

The plaintiff, Dr. Sauvageau, was Alberta’s top forensic pathologist from 2011-2014, and was suing the province alleging that she had been forced out of the job because she raised concerns relating to political interference. Mr. Denis was not a defendant in the action, but was the justice minister at the time the allegations pertain to.

As reported . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

A Possessive Puzzle
Neil Guthrie

Is it Amber and Veronica’s children or Amber’s and Veronica’s children? It could be either, depending on what is meant. The first refers to the children Amber and Veronica parent together; the second to two sets of children, separately parented. … . . . [more]

Thoughts on the BCCA's decision in Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia v. British Columbia (A-G), 2022 BCCA 163 on the jurisdiction of the Civil Resolution Tribunal of BC.

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In the so-called culture wars these days, there can be highly politicized debates around transgender rights and the proper use of pronouns. In Ontario, these debates are without legal basis, as gender identity and gender expression are protected grounds under the Human Rights Code.

Under some misguided notion of challenging students to think critically, there are teachers who reiterate the talking points of both sides of such culture wars, but do so at their own peril.

A recent decision by the Discipline Committee in Ontario College of Teachers v Teal illustrates the regulatory context in the educational setting.

The . . . [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 April 14 – May 18, 2022 inclusive.

Oral Judgments

Criminal Law: Provocation
R. v. Alas, 2021 ONCA 224; 2022 SCC 14 (39654)

The Chief Justice: “Mr. Alas was convicted at trial of second degree murder after he stabbed the deceased six times during an altercation . . . [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) : Bien que l’accusé n’ait aucun antécédent judiciaire, ce facteur n’est pas déterminant dans un contexte de violence conjugale commise de façon répétitive à l’endroit de sa conjointe et de ses enfants pendant une période de plus de 8 ans; par conséquent, une peine globale d’emprisonnement de 36  . . . [more]

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Written by Lewis Waring, Paralegal, Student-at-Law, Editor at First Reference

In Nguyen v Central Stampings Limited (“Nguyen”), an employee’s feeling that an employer’s conduct derived from discriminatory intent due to his sex was not sufficient to obtain compensation for violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code. . . . [more]