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. Toronto (City) v. Ontario (Attorney General), 2021 SCC 34

[1] While cast as a claim of right under s. 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, this appeal, fundamentally, concerns the exercise of provincial legislative authority over municipalities. The issue, simply put, is whether and how the Constitution of Canada restrains a provincial legislature from changing the conditions . . . [more]

If you’ve been following my work over at Law21, you’ll know that I’ve been immersed lately in lawyer competence: what its components are, what its less obvious elements include, and how we can go about building it. I’ve been fortunate to work with some Canadian law societies in making recommendations and helping develop frameworks to govern and guide developments in this area.

Whenever we talk about lawyer competence, we need to work out exactly what the threshold or minimum standard of that competence should be. One line of thinking in this regard is that the minimum standard . . . [more]

CALL/ACBD is accepting nominations for the 2022 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. Slaw.ca was recognized with this award in 2009.

The . . . [more]

To be an effective advocate, you must not only be highly skilled in specific and substantive areas of the law, but you must also ensure that you are able to advocate your case competently and confidently. You must also be adept at making sound, strategic decisions and are able to think on your feet when called upon. These skills are not perfected overnight.

Over 40 years, Osgoode has trained more than 4,500 Canadian litigators on essential oral advocacy skills in our Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop (ITAW). However, effective oral advocacy is a skill that requires constant refinement and practice and . . . [more]

As we (fingers crossed) emerge from the COVID pandemic over the coming months, one of the things we will ponder is how much we want go back to in-person mediation, arbitration and other proceedings.

There will always be many advantage to meeting face-to-face. The personal connection does help facilitate discussion and settlement of disputes. It is also an advantage for adjudicators to see and hear counsel and witnesses in the flesh.

But online tools have improved a lot in the past 18 months. So has our comfort level using those tools, many of which have been around much longer. How . . . [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

Finding Black’s Law Dictionary Online
Susannah Tredwell

One resource that users may not be aware is available in Westlaw Canada’s LawSource module is Black’s Law Dictionary, possibly because it is the only “international” piece of content included in the module. … . . . [more]

Persuasion and law go hand in hand with the use of language that is often very complex. Writing has long been a go-to option lawyers use to build their personal brands. Some of their writing is meant to be consumed by other lawyers while other content is written for client and business development purposes. Writing for a file, however, is very different than writing for business development. Below are nine tips for improving business development writing. Understanding these tips—and the differences in writing styles—will make writing for business development much easier.

1. Have a purpose: Create content that is useful and

Examinations for discovery are a regular feature of civil proceedings. Litigators are deeply accustomed to the facilities, court reporters, and transcripts necessary to provide this important procedural step.

One significant feature of these in-person proceedings that everyone misses is the bountiful food offerings that these facilities offer. An hor d’oeuvre or sip from a coffee is often one of the best ways to avoid interrupting, and let something that is non-essential slide.

All of these trimmings are gone in the virtual context, with discoveries continuing throughout the pandemic through virtual conferencing. That doesn’t mean that everyone is comfortable with the . . . [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) : L’argent liquide volé constitue un «bien» au sens de l’article 462.37 (3) C.Cr.; il est donc inexact de soutenir que seule l’impossibilité de confisquer un bien tangible permettrait de recourir à l’amende de remplacement d’une ordonnance de confiscation des produits de la criminalité.

Intitulé : Badaro c. . . . [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:

• Senior Specialist, Marketing Projects (Full-time) | Calgary, AB or Vancouver, BC
  (Bennett Jones)

I never thought I’d be writing a Slaw column about why a Canadian court shouldn’t try to identify lawyers and litigants who could be “thought of as being” Muslim with the goal of trying to prevent those identified from appearing before a particular judge. Yet here we are.

Background

Recently it was reported that the Tax Court adopted a two-part screening initiative in relation to one of its judges, Justice David Spiro:

1. All files assigned to Justice Spiro were to be reviewed to try to ensure that he would not adjudicate a matter that had any parties, agents or lawyers