Editor’s Note: I learned of Gary Rodrigues’ passing this morning. As one of our longstanding Slaw writers, Gary will be remembered for his incredible knowledge and stories behind Canadian legal publishing. Our ‘Legal Publishing’ group here at Slaw have always been well connected to each other. As such, I asked Robert McKay if he might be willing to compose some thoughts. Thankfully he agreed and crafted the kind tribute below. RIP Gary. :( .. Steve M.

Slaw readers and many others, among them lawyers, law librarians, legal information publishers and legal academics, in many parts of the world, will mourn . . . [more]

It transpired, on the cusp of partnership, that one of the lawyer’s junior associates arranged a meeting with a CEO of a tech startup and presented an irresistible synergy.* The startup was a match for a client, a deep-pocketed conglomerate on the lookout for an investment. A buy-out of the startup would rocket the client’s value on the market and establish the lawyer as the go-to man for equity financing, credit facilities, a corporate governance overhaul, an IPO, and produce corresponding billings. Such a catch would net him first partnership, then power dwarfing the law firm itself and finally propel . . . [more]

If mediation is meant to provide a genuine opportunity to resolve disputes, why do so many mediation briefs read like pleadings and offer little value to the process? This article examines the pitfalls of current practice and offers practical guidance on how to make briefs work as genuine tools of persuasion for counsel.

Mediation briefs are meant to advance settlement. Yet too often, they do the opposite. Instead of opening space for dialogue, they entrench positions. Instead of persuading the other party, they restate pleadings which can inflame an already tense situation.

Why do so many briefs fall short? In . . . [more]

Recently, I was tasked with a particularly complicated legal research question which involved one of my favorite topics: capital cities. The information and analysis we needed was only available to us once we managed to see the pieces through the thread of this place’s capital city. The crucial need to know the capital city of this place was not apparent to us at the beginning of the legal research journey. We had clearly ignored an important step in every foreign or national legal research. But what’s in a capital city? And how can it help you in your legal research . . . [more]

It is rare that a term of imprisonment is given for breach of a Court Order, such as an injunction. The Federal Court issued an Anton Pillar order in a case of copyright infringement involving a pirate IPTV streaming service. After the persistent refusal of the defendant to comply, the Court was forced to consider a term of imprisonment as an inducement to seek compliance with its orders.

Since such enforcement action is fairly rare in copyright infringement cases, the Court reviewed the options for enforcing contempt of Court in Bell Media Inc. v. Marshall Macciacchera (Smoothstreams.tv), 2025 FC . . . [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) : Lorsqu’une preuve concernant le comportement sexuel d’une victime est présentée pour la première fois en appel, la Cour doit d’abord se demander s’il est plausible que la preuve aurait été admise au terme de la procédure en 2 étapes prévue aux articles 278.93 et 278.94 C.Cr.; cela . . . [more]

As a supplement to our Sunday Summary each month, Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa presents Supreme One-Liners, a super-short descriptive guide to the most recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers its more comprehensive weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, summarizing all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted.

Appeals

Debtor-Creditor in Québec: Extinctive Prescription
Mohawk Council of Kanesatake v. Sylvestre, 2025 SCC 30 (41131)

Clarification of extinctive prescription in debtor-creditor context.

Leaves to Appeal

Aboriginal Law: Third Party Claims
Skii km Lax Ha, et al. v. Malii, et al., 2024 . . . [more]

You’re running a fever and have been coughing for the past few days, so you head down to your local clinic. You wait and wait, and finally the receptionist calls your name.

Walking into the examination room, you’re surprised to see not one but three doctors. “We’re a Cough Board,” one of them says, “and we’re here to diagnose and propose treatment for you.”

You stare at them blankly for a second. But then you remember something you saw in a medical drama on TV. A “tumour board,” you recall, is a meeting of specialists convened to try to figure . . . [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.

How to Use Digital Learning with Confidence and Creativity: A Practical Introduction. Edited by Gearóid Ó Súilleabháin, Donna Lanclos & Tom Farrelly. Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar, 2024. 362 p. Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 9781035311286 (hardcover) US$180.00; ISBN 9781035360543 (softcover) US$53.95; ISBN 9781035311293 (eBook) US$43.16.

Reviewed by Brianna Calomino . . . [more]

CALL/ACBD is accepting nominations for the 2026 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing.

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries has long had an annual award for excellent legal publishing. Some years ago, we renamed the award we present after Queens University Professor, Hugh Lawford (1933-2009) to recognize his contributions to legal publishing in Canada. As a group of legal information specialists, our work depends on being able to access and share high-quality legal knowledge.

We value innovation and this award is open to legal content in all information formats.

The award honours a publisher (whether for-profit or not-for . . . [more]

Quantitative methods are at once well-established and novel when speaking about access to justice. We’ve been reporting on our activities to funders, boards, and communities for decades, but we’ve also occasionally been complacent about what message we are conveying. When I think about data on the law and how we can approach using it better, I often think about Jon Snow and his search for the source of a cholera outbreak in London in 1854. Here you can see the original map that allowed him to identify the source as the water pump on Broad Street, which he created through . . . [more]