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.

CONSTITUTIONNEL (DROIT) : La Cour confirme le rejet de la requête en jugement déclaratoire visant à faire déclarer inconstitutionnels certains articles de la Loi sur l’exercice des droits fondamentaux et des prérogatives du peuple québécois et de l’État du Québec; elle intervient par contre afin de rayer du dispositif . . . [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:

• Operations Manager – College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents (Full-time) | Remote/Canada
  (College of Patent and Trademark Agents of Canada)

One of the earliest nautical handbooks published in the English language and intended for a mass market was called The Seaman’s Vade Mecum. Published in 1744 by William Mountaine (who, despite publishing a series of books on seafaring, was not himself a sailor, but a mathematician), the book remained the go-to book for seafarers until the end of the age of sail. The name itself translates from the Latin as “go with me”, and it was used to denote a pocket handbook that a prudent sailor always kept close to hand. And that’s exactly what we in the Canadian . . . [more]

Written by Daniel Standing LL.B., Editor, First Reference Inc.

At first glance, Abbasbayli v Fiera Foods Company, 2021 ONCA 95 appears to be concerned mainly with the law around striking pleadings. On further analysis, however, it offers important advice to employers on the matter of personal liability of corporate directors. . . . [more]

Spring greetings!

Following up on an announcement we made in November of 2019, CanLII and Slaw.ca are proud to announce the addition of 14 new ebooks to CanLII’s commentary collection. The series now encompasses 27 ebooks that feature legal writing on a variety of subjects.

Each ebook contains a set of selected columns from a Slaw.ca contributor that have been edited and formatted for display on CanLII:

• James Côté on Legal Technology
• Doug Ferguson on Legal Education
• Gabriel Granatstein on Employment and Labour Law
• Ian Hu on Legal Innovation
• Mark Hunter on Legal Marketing and Communication
• Martin Kratz on

Conflict management systems are increasingly common within large corporations and other organizations. Workplace interpersonal disputes and bad behaviour are inevitable, but also manageable. Interests can be reconciled, rights can be upheld, and peace can be restored. A conflict management system is built to do exactly that.

Some workplace disputes call for open communication and compromise. However conflict management systems can also ensure that unacceptable behaviour — e.g. harassment, discrimination, and bullying — is corrected and deterred within an organization. Information, mediation, and arbitration are among the building blocks of a good conflict management system. Minimizing the time consumed and the . . . [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. R. v. Ghotra, 2020 ONCA 373 (CanLII)

[23] The case law, however, has specified a narrow conception of “providing an opportunity,” with the analysis often focusing on whether the police or the accused took the initiative in the interaction and when: Bayat; R. v. Imoro, 2010 ONCA 122, 251 C.C.C. (3d) 131; R. v. Swan, 2009 BCCA 142, 244 . . . [more]

The work of environmental law in a time of intertwined biodiversity and climate crises is not just an intellectual or professional exercise for me and my colleagues at West Coast Environmental Law. This is particularly the case when decisions are made about mega-projects that fly in the face of law, science and self-determination of Indigenous peoples. Over this past COVID winter, for example, we felt the weight of stress and uncertainty about that fate of the Site C dam.

We wrote about  Site C in August 2016 and since then, the destruction of the Peace River Valley has continued, while . . . [more]

The Biden administration has made a key announcement on how Americans talk about immigration. The terms “illegal alien” and “assimilation” have been replaced by “undocumented noncitizen” and “integration”. The details of this shift in terminology has been sent to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). As reported by NPR:

“As an essential steward of a more secure and humane immigration system, ICE will set a tone and example for our country for years,” wrote Tae Johnson, ICE’s acting director in his memo announcing the new language guidance.

“The way that we choose to communicate

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

Up Your Research Game With Lexbox Premium
Emma Durand-Wood

If you’re a power Lexbox user, you’ll be interested to know that Lexbox Premium is now available. The premium account includes: integration with Clio, 5GB of uploads storage (or even more: 20GB for an additional fee) … . . . [more]

Jane wants to ask the partner she works with about raising her salary, but she is afraid to initiate the conversation.

John works with a disorganized partner who is a last-minute delegator. John has ideas about how he can better support the partner but doesn’t know how to raise the subject.

Why is it that speaking up and making requests can be so hard to do? Why does self-advocacy raise so many fears?

The difficulty in speaking up is often about the tension between exercising personal power and tending to our relationships.

It can seem like communicating about what’s important . . . [more]