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

Agreeance: Is That a Thing?
Neil Guthrie

I was on a call recently, and someone said ‘OK, now that we’re all in agreeance, …’ That made me wonder about the word, which I’ve seen and heard occasionally. … . . . [more]

On April 1, 2022, Pope Francis apologized to residential school survivors, after a week of private meetings with delegations from Indigenous people in Canada,

I also feel shame… sorrow and shame for the role that a number of Catholics, particularly those with educational responsibilities, have had in all these things that wounded you, and the abuses you suffered and the lack of respect shown for your identity, your culture and even your spiritual values.

For the deplorable conduct of these members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God’s forgiveness and I want to say to you with all my

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) : Compte tenu de l’absence d’éléments permettant d’inférer que le témoin avait quelque intérêt que ce soit à incriminer l’appelant et du fait que son témoignage n’était pas vital pour l’accusation, le juge de première instance n’a commis aucune erreur en refusant de faire une mise en garde . . . [more]

Each Friday, we share the latest job listings from Slaw Jobs, which features employment opportunities from across the country. Find out more about these positions by following the links below, or learn how you can use Slaw Jobs to gain valuable exposure for your job ads, while supporting the great Canadian legal commentary at Slaw.ca.

Current postings on Slaw Jobs:

• Lawyer (Full-time) | Etobicoke, ON
  (Kostyniuk & Greenside Lawyers)
• Real Estate Legal Assistant (Full-time) | Abbotsford, BC
  (Waterstone Law Group LLP)
• Litigation Association (Full-time) | Vancouver, BC
  (Bernard LLP)

Bringing people-centered justice to all will fail if we wait for people to come to the door of a law office asking for help. Justice must be made as accessible as possible by going out to where people live or spend much of their time. The rural mobile law van operating in the Wellington County and North Halton area just west of the City of Toronto is so far showing success in expanding access to justice in a rural area by extending that proactive offer of service, making legal assistance at least more accessible than before. A six-month pilot project . . . [more]

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

For this last week:

1. R. v. Samaniego, 2022 SCC 9

[1] Managing a criminal trial is a demanding task. This trial was no exception. It devolved into a nine-day, highly contested jury trial over a seemingly straightforward issue: whether Mr. Samaniego and/or his co-accused, Mr. Serrano, had possession of a handgun. The experienced trial judge had her hands full keeping the proceedings on track. Without . . . [more]

I teach a class at the University of Arizona College of Law called, Foreign, Comparative and International Legal Research. In my class, I discuss with the students the different ways in which this type of advanced legal research is dependent on constantly moving variables and components. Beyond a handout of the top five sources to consult, I instead strive to make the students understand that they need to create a research strategy, keep track of changes on foreign and international law, and consult a significant amount of non-legal information. All of this needs to be done while always evaluating . . . [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

Womxn
Neil Guthrie

No, that isn’t a typo. The spelling is deliberate, an attempt to decouple woman and women from that male-sounding second syllable. See this article, for example. … . . . [more]

It seems almost trite to say that we are living in strange times. One ‘emergency’ seems to follow another. Indeed, as normalcy recedes in our memories we now seem to have trouble determining if the strange events we confront really are ‘emergencies’ or just some kind new normal.

In Ontario, special measures made under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. E.9, to address the worldwide pandemic have been in place for almost two years. Under the British Columbia Emergency Program Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 111, not only have similar COVID measures been introduced, but . . . [more]

If you are an aspiring litigator, one of the most enjoyable and rewarding activities you may participate in are moot competitions.

The tradition of moots goes back a thousand years, to the earliest inceptions of the common law, where novices in the law would get accustomed to a grilling by more seasoned practitioners.

Although moots are an excellent tool for training, especially for developing and maintaining composure and presentation while under pressure, they differ significantly from the true practice of law in one area in particular. Whereas much of the outcome of a case will be informed by the demonstrated . . . [more]