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)
• Tax Lawyer – Canadian Sales Tax (Full-time) | Vancouver, BC
  (Thorsteinssons LLP)
• Real Estate Legal Assistant (Full-time) | Abbotsford, BC
  (Waterstone Law Group LLP)
• Litigation Association (Full-time) | Vancouver, BC
  (Bernard

Written by Daniel Standing LL.B., Editor, published by First Reference

In 2019, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal found that Levan Francis was the victim of discrimination on the basis of his race and colour at the hands of his employer, the Ministry of Justice, North Fraser Pre-trial Centre. The damage was extensive: Francis suffered a serious mental illness that prevented him from working in any occupation. In a follow-up decision, the Tribunal determined what remedies were available to Francis. Since the governing principle on remedy is to put someone back in the original position, the fact that almost . . . [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. Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia, 2022 ONSC 1303

[52] To define the modes of liability underlying the new tort of family violence, the proper starting point is the definition of “family violence” found in s. 2 of the Divorce Act. Based on this statutory definition, to establish liability on a civil standard, the plaintiff must establish:

Conduct by a family member towards . . . [more]

In 2018, the Patent Act was amended to expand the scope of the “Prior Use” exception to patent infringement. This exception declares acts not to be an infringement of a patent if a person had done the same act prior to the claim date of a patent. Basically, if someone is doing something prior to the filing of a patent, they can continue to do what they were doing. In the recent Federal Court decision, Kobold Corporation v. NCS Multistage Inc., 2021 FC 1437, the Court had the first opportunity to consider the amended prior use exception.

Prior . . . [more]

On January 4, 2022, the Canada United States Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) Panel on Canada’s Dairy Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs) released its ruling.[1]

The Panel Decides—Both Sides Claim Victory

The Panel ruled that Canada’s practice of reserving 85-100% of dairy TRQs for processors violated Article 3.A.2.11(b) of CUSMA. The United States claimed victory, correctly pointing out that the Panel had accepted the U.S. argument on the central issue. As per USTR Katherine Tai:

This historic win will help eliminate unjustified trade restrictions on American dairy products and will ensure that the U.S. dairy industry and its workers get the full . . . [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

Small Things
Neil Guthrie

Small and incorrect, that is. Thank-you: This isn’t wrong when used as a noun (She sent a bottle of wine as a thank-you) or as an adjective (That thank-you bottle was much appreciated). … . . . [more]

Given the profound impact the pandemic has had on society, it’s obviously no surprise that questions around the governmental actions and other responses will continue to appear in our legal system for years.

While courts have taken judicial notice that the virus exists, which is perhaps not that controversial, they have also adopted and followed in many ways governmental messaging around the pandemic. This appears to be justified on an expediency and principled basis, at least early on in the pandemic when the information and evidence was still emerging.

Two years later, there is a greater appetite to challenge widely . . . [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 February 5 to March 9, 2022 inclusive.

Oral Judgments

Criminal Law: Delay
R. v. Boulanger, 2022 SCC 2 (39710)

Jordan ceiling exceeded, more than one month; delay presumed unreasonable.

Criminal Law: Delay
R. v. Ste-Marie, 2022 SCC 3 (39381)

Defence cannot “benefit from…delay causing conduct . . . [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) : Le juge devait tenir compte de la compréhension actuelle de la nocivité de la violence sexuelle contre des enfants et des principes énoncés dans R. c. Friesen (C.S. Can., 2019-10-16), 2020 CSC 9, SOQUIJ AZ-51680674, 2020EXP-902, en prononçant la peine relativement à une infraction d’attentat à la . . . [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)
• Tax Lawyer – Canadian Sales Tax (Full-time) | Vancouver, BC
  (Thorsteinssons LLP)
• Real Estate Legal Assistant (Full-time) | Abbotsford, BC
  (Waterstone Law Group LLP)
• Litigation Association (Full-time) | Vancouver, BC
  (Bernard

Written by Daniel Standing LL.B., Editor, published by First Reference Inc.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but in reading the decision Smorhay v Goodfellow Law, 2021 AHRC 170 (CanLII), one wonders how the employer did not foresee serious problems on the horizon. Corinne Smorhay was a legal assistant. She had worked in law offices before but had no construction law experience. Despite this, a headhunter recommended her to Goodfellow Law, a construction law firm that needed a secretary who could hit the ground running. When she was the only applicant who showed up for the interview, she got the . . . [more]

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Is Law Computable?: Critical Perspectives on Law and Artificial Intelligence. Edited by Simon Deakin and Christopher Markou. Oxford; New York: Hart Publishing, 2020. xxi, 320 p. Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 978-1-5099-3706-6 (hardback) $130.05.

Reviewed by Tim Knight
Head of Technical Services
Osgoode Hall Law School Library, York University
In  . . . [more]