Happy New Year! Welcome, 2022. Whether you are starting the New Year in a positive situation or find yourself facing many challenges, it can be helpful to remember there is always much within your ability to control and influence.

To help kickstart some reflection and to not overburden and overwhelm, what 2 questions would you ask yourself about what you want to give focus and attention to this year? To help you along, I have enlisted the help of my colleagues and fellow coaches at AMP (Associate Mentoring Plus).

Kathryn McNaughton, AMP Director of Education and Coach

1. How

There is often far too much in dispute in litigation. Counsel are often encouraged for this reason to formulate agreed upon facts, narrow the issues, and focus the dispute as much as they can.

Courts also assist with this process. One of the mechanisms for doing so is judicial notice, which was defined by the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Find as follows,

48 In this case, the appellant relies heavily on proof by judicial notice. Judicial notice dispenses with the need for proof of facts that are clearly uncontroversial or beyond reasonable dispute. Facts judicially noticed are

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) : L’appel d’Ugo Fredette à l’encontre de 2 verdicts de meurtre au premier degré est rejeté; suivant les principes énoncés dans R. c. Thatcher (C.S. Can., 1987-05-14), SOQUIJ AZ-87111031, J.E. 87-647, [1987] 1 R.C.S. 652, le jury n’avait pas à être unanime en ce qui concerne les divers . . . [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:

• Real Estate Legal Assistant (Full-time) | Abbotsford, BC
  (Waterstone Law Group LLP)
• Litigation Associate (Full-time) | Vancouver, BC
  (Bernard LLP)
• Policy Counsel – Temporary Position – Conseillère ou conseiller en matière de politiques – poste temporaire (Contract role) | Ottawa,

On December 10, 2021, New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Associate Minister for Māori Development, Nanaia Mahuta, and Minister of Trade and Export Growth, Damien O’Connor, announced the successful conclusion of the Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation Arrangement (IPETCA) and invited other APEC economies to declare their intention to join.[1] Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, Mary Ng, announced Canada’s endorsement of IPETCA on the same day.[2]

The IPETCA represents to unique new step for Indigenous participation in the global economy. It is a trade arrangement collaboratively developed by New . . . [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. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65

[1] This appeal and its companion cases (see Bell Canada v. Canada (Attorney General), 2019 SCC 66 (CanLII)), provide this Court with an opportunity to re-examine its approach to judicial review of administrative decisions.

[2] In these reasons, we will address two key aspects of the current administrative law . . . [more]

Recently, I had the pleasure of joining a half-dozen Canadian and U.S. open science advocates in an online meeting with Senator Laure Darcos of the French Parliament. In advance, we were provided with the Second French Plan for Open Science: Generalizing Open Science in France, 2021-2024, published in July 2021 (with the first French plan launched in 2018). During our meeting, more than one of us commented on how the Plan set a far more advanced and progressive national agenda than anything we could point to in our countries. At the conclusion Senator Darcos expressed surprise at this, saying . . . [more]

INTRODUCTION

In its December 2021 decision in Ontario Teacher Candidates’ Council v. The Queen, the Divisional Court held that the standardized Mathematics Proficiency Test (“MPT”) the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) had developed and the Ontario government had implemented for prospective teachers was unconstitutional because it disadvantaged Black and Indigenous candidates.

As a remedy, the Court allowed all candidates who had otherwise satisfied teacher qualification requirements to enter the profession. . . . [more]

Colombia has long been one of the most dangerous places in the world for human rights advocates, but the danger intensified in 2020 and 2021 with a surge of massacres and assassinations of human rights defenders and community leaders. The dire situation in Colombia has drawn the attention of the international coalition for the annual Day of the Endangered Lawyer marked each year on 24 January.

This year, LRWC is working with the Law Society of Ontario’s Human Rights Committee and Human Rights Watch to organize an online event to discuss the situation of lawyers at risk in Colombia. The . . . [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

Neil Guthrie

Commas can be confusing, and one of the most common misuses is this: Join partner, Eleni Papadopoulos for this informative seminar on … Sometimes another comma will be placed after the person’s name as well. … . . . [more]