The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright) is a copyright collective meaning that it manages certain rights on behalf of copyright holders. Importantly Access Copyright does not itself hold any of the copyrights that it manages.

York University (York) is Canada’s third-largest university with over 50,000 students and approximately 1,500 full-time faculty members.^[1] York had a license to use some of the works licensed by Access Copyright from 1994 to 2010. Access Copyright applied to the Copyright Board for an interim tariff during a period when renewal negotiations were languishing. York initially complied with the interim tariff but then . . . [more]

INTRODUCTION

The Supreme Court of Canada in Fraser concluded that, with the minor adjustment of reading in an additional provision, the Ontario Agricultural Employees Protection Act (“AEPA”) is constitutional. In UFCW v. MedReleaf Corp. Phase 2 (“MedReleaf”), the Ontario Agricultural, Food and Rural Affairs Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) concluded that the caselaw since then does not warrant a different outcome. The recent Divisional Court decision in United Food and Commercial Workers International Union v. Aurora Cannabis Enterprises Inc. (“Aurora”) upheld the Tribunal’s decision.

The United Farm and Commercial Workers International Union (“UFCW”) had also brought complaints about MedReleaf’s conduct during 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

Unnatural Compounds
Neil Guthrie

No, not enclosures where odd things happen. Rather, combinations of words that look strange. The New York Times – generally a newspaper one admires – has taken to writing things like monthslong: see, for example, Mary Hui, ‘After a Dip, Hong Kong Real Estate Again Eyes the Stratosphere’ (22 March 2019). … . . . [more]

We have become accustomed for some time to hearing about new start-ups and initiatives on the technology side of legal information provision. Indeed, some might say that we hear of too many of them and that a percentage of them might disappear into obscurity before long. We read less of fresh ideas and innovation in relation to the provision of actual added-value legal content from law publishers. Perhaps this is not surprising, for obvious reasons.

It is all the more pleasing to observe an exciting fresh start from my friend and law publishing comrade, Jason Wilson, together . . . [more]

Industrialization transformed western society, reorganizing economies for the purpose of manufacturing and wealth generation. These changes came with at considerable costs, some of which are only being more recently recognized, such as harm to the environment.

The more immediate and obvious harms to workers were of a greater concern a century ago and were in many ways the focus of organized labour, both before and after unions became legal on 1872, with the passing of the Trade Unions Act. This statute was enacted specifically to gain union support prior to the election that year, forming the 2nd Parliament of . . . [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 July 17 – August 20, 2021 inclusive.

Appeals

Bankruptcy and Insolvency: CCAA; Priorities
Canada v. Canada North Group Inc., 2019 ABCA 314, 2021 SCC 30 (38871)

The CCAA generally empowers supervising judges to order super-priority charges that have priority over all other claims, including . . . [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.

ACTION COLLECTIVE (RECOURS COLLECTIF) : L’autorisation d’exercer une action collective à l’encontre d’écoles et de collèges privés de niveaux primaire et secondaire au motif qu’ils auraient omis de respecter les contrats de services éducatifs en ne livrant pas une prestation de services adéquate durant la première vague de la pandémie . . . [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)
• Hospitality Clerk (Full-time) | Vancouver, BC
  (Bennett Jones)
• Legal Assistant, Resource Team (Corporate & Litigation) (Contract role) | Edmonton, AB
  (Bennett Jones)

By Lewis Waring, Paralegal, Student-at-Law, Editor, First Reference Inc.

In Moore v Instow Enterprises Ltd, (2021 BCSC 930) (“Moore”), a British Columbian employee was entitled to less notice than the standard amount of one month per year of service mainly due to his failure to mitigate his losses. By refusing to make a reasonable attempt to find alternative similar employment, the employee failed to meet his obligation to mitigate his loss of income as a result of his dismissal. . . . [more]

Regulators of legal services often say that their most important job is to “protect the public.” If this statement is true, then we need to consider its implications for the future regulation of the legal profession. And that starts by posing a deceptively simple question:

What exactly do we mean by, “the public”?

When you hear that term, does it summon for you the image of a Fortune 500 GC? An assistant deputy minister in the government? An experienced construction company owner? Is that who you think of as “the public”? Probably not.

Instead, you think of ordinary people. Dads, . . . [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. Del Giudice v. Thompson, 2021 ONSC 5379

[120] The first criterion for certification is that the plaintiff’s pleading discloses a cause of action. The “plain and obvious” test from Rule 21 of the Rules of Civil Procedure for disclosing a cause of action from Hunt v. Carey Canada,[35] is used to determine whether a proposed class proceeding discloses a cause . . . [more]