We are very happy to announce that the National Self-Represented Litigants Project has opened an East Chapter (NSRLP-E) to serve and advocate for the needs of self-represented litigants (SRLs) in Atlantic Canada. While we have only just begun the Project, our staff and students have been preparing directories of services for all the Atlantic Provinces, primers, public legal education materials, and case summaries.

Importantly, our students are hard at work reaching out to SRLs and writing reports that will help guide our work on the needs and experiences of SRLs in Atlantic Canada.

For example, one of our researchers recently . . . [more]

CaseLines is being used in most court proceedings in Ontario. It is a technology that many counsel struggle with using. In the decision Bowman v Uwaifo, 2022 ONSC 678, Justice Myers provides advice on using CaseLines.

Below, I have summarized his recommendations in point form.

1. Know the CaseLines page number for all documents uploaded to the platform. Counsel and litigants are expected to refer the court to documents using the page numbering in CaseLines. “All you have to do is tell the judge, ‘please go to page A100 or B-1-189’ and the judge can open the correct page

Over the past few years, the precipitous fall of Hong Kong seems to be a saga no one wants to stick around to see the ensuing episodes. Widespread censorship, crackdown on press and academic freedom, and backlash on dissenting voices are enforcing a total takeover of Beijing over the city. Xi Jinping is making clear that the special administrative region will not escape his dictatorial and authoritarian vision of government and the world. Nowhere is this repression more acute than in the Hong Kong universities that were pivotal in giving the city its internationally renowned intellectual and academic . . . [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. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario v. O’Connor, 2022 ONSC 195

[61] Without some anonymizing of doctors who come forward in an effort to assist the medical community at large by assisting the regulator, the Applicant may be unable to operate efficiently and effectively: Osif v. College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia, 2008 NSCA 113, at para. . . . [more]

Law firms are in the midst of one of the most difficult “talent” markets they’ve ever faced. Every law firm I’ve worked with over the past two years has been desperately seeking qualified (or, you know, breathing) Associates and staff members to deal with business expansion, partner retirements or in particular, gaps left by those who left one firm for another.

Those Associates are being lured away by sometimes weekly calls from recruiters in search of a new commission. They’ve somehow convinced law firms to pay salaries well over industry standard, and to create signing bonuses more in line with . . . [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

Gross Negligence
Neil Guthrie

As a follow-up to my last tip, which was on strictly prohibited and strictly forbidden, what about gross negligence? This is a term we have imported from US law. Canadian (and English) judges and authors were not keen on it initially. … . . . [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) : La possibilité qu’un contrevenant soit obligé de recevoir une peine d’emprisonnement de 6 mois lorsqu’il est poursuivi par procédure sommaire pour l’infraction de leurre, tandis qu’un autre contrevenant pourrait se voir imposer une peine moindre s’il est poursuivi par acte criminel, heurte l’idée de la cohérence au . . . [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:

• Tax Lawyer – Canadian Sales Tax (Full-time) | Vancouver, BC
  (Thorsteinssons LLP)
• 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

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) that is responsible for the Canadiana collection of digitized documentary heritage has replaced the subject heading “Indians of North America” with “Indigenous peoples.”

This will effect a little under 2,000 records.

“The content, metadata, and resource descriptions in the Canadiana collections contain language that reflects the biases, norms, and perspectives of the time in which they were created. With the guidance of CRKN’s Preservation and Access Committee (PAC), CRKN staff are replacing inappropriate language in the metadata and resource descriptions introduced during legacy cataloguing practices. The first phase of this critical three-phase project is

Written by Lewis Waring, Paralegal, Student at Law (last year), Editor at First Reference

In Turnbull v Edmonton Pipe Trades Educational Fund o/a Alberta Pipe Trade College (“Turnbull”), an employer discriminated against its employee in violation of the Alberta Human Rights Act when it dismissed her one day after learning of her high-risk pregnancy. By failing to investigate whether the employee’s condition could be accommodated, the employer failed to implement its procedural duty to accommodate and paid the employee $35,000 in damages to dignity and lost wages.

Background

The employer, an Alberta technical college, employed the employee for a period . . . [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.

In Your Face: Law, Justice, and Niqab-Wearing Women in Canada. By Natasha Bakht. Toronto: Irwin Law, 2020. xiii, 251 p. Includes illustrations, bibliographic references, and index. ISBN 978-1-55221-549-4 (softcover) $34.95. ISBN 978-1-55221-550-0 (e-book) $34.95. 

Reviewed by Sonia Smith
Liaison Librarian
Nahum Gelber Law Library, McGill University
In CLLR 46:3

In this . . . [more]