Canada’s online legal magazine.

Hameed Redux: Everybody Stay in Their Own Lane

INTRODUCTION

In Hameed v. Canada (Prime Minister) (“Hameed (FC)”), Brown J. seized the opportunity to “encourage” the federal government to fill the too many judicial vacancies on the federal bench. In my Slaw post, “When a Judge Finds His Dream Case: Hameed v. Canada (Prime Minister)” (February 28, 2024), I suggested in not so many words that Brown J. was perhaps too eager to find a way to have an impact on the problem that Chief Justice Wagner had himself not only spoken about but had identified in a letter to then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Now the . . . [more]

Posted in: Case Comment

Tips Tuesday: Getting the Most Out of Legal AI Research Tools

It’s pretty much impossible to get away from a discussion of how AI is going to affect legal practice these days. From AI tools that allow users to summarize documents to tools that create new precedents to tools that carry out legal research, it feels like there’s an AI tool for every part of the legal process. 

We’ve also seen the stories about legal research using AI gone bad: for example, this Federal Court case or this Ontario case. (There’s even a database of legal decisions involving AI hallucinations.) The problem in these situations is not that the lawyer . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information

What Quickens the Lawyer’s Heart?

Perhaps, you say, it is akin to the hockey player, who skates with the puck again and again into the offensive zone, only to be met with a stick here, a shoulder there, caroming into the boards or sliding splayed out into the ice, but upon another foray sneaks one way around a stick while pushing the puck the other, then erupting forth past a shoulder, gathering the puck and looking up to find only a wide-eyed squid between heaven and hell. A sudden rise in heat, pressure transforming into euphoria, but not quite yet, the sensation of success and . . . [more]

Posted in: Practice of Law

Monday’s Mix

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award­-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. The Lean Law Firm 2. Meurrens on Immigration 3. The Authentic Lawyer 4. OsgoodePD Blog 5. Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

The Lean Law Firm
E243: Taking a structured approach to Legal Project Management

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring how Legal Project

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ

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) : On ne peut conclure à l’inapplicabilité de l’article 162.1 (2) a) C.Cr. à l’égoportrait de la victime au seul motif que l’on n’y voit pas son corps entièrement dénudé; la question est de savoir si la victime est suffisamment dévêtue pour pouvoir la considérer comme «nue» au . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

People-Centered Justice and the Civil-Criminal Divide

A considerable amount of Canadian legal scholarship exists within the boundaries of either civil or criminal law. Each camp generally invites separate consideration of gaps, standards, trends, shifts, and other issues. Rarely do these two domains of scholarship meet. A similar divide is apparent in legal practice, with the civil and criminal legal systems commonly viewed as separate arms within our broader legal machinery. There are certainly valid reasons for the siloing of these bodies of law. For those trained in law, the divide between civil and criminal law and the reasons for it will be clear, logical, and in . . . [more]

Posted in: Justice Issues

Albert’s Court Finds Privacy Regulation Unconstitutional

Can the Alberta Privacy and Information Commissioner limit a foreign corporation from collecting images of Albertans for use in facial recognition software? That was the issue that came to the Court of Kings Bench of Alberta on the application by Clearview AI Inc. (“Clearview”) for judicial review of the decision of the Alberta Privacy and Information Commissioner.

Clearview obtains images of Albertans and Canadians by scraping publicly available data from web pages and social media sites on the internet. The privacy commissions of Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, and Canada investigated Clearview’s practice of scraping images from the internet. A joint . . . [more]

Posted in: Intellectual Property

Generative AI & Legal Research: A Mismatch?

This submission is part of a column swap with the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) bimonthly member magazine, AALL Spectrum. Published six times a year, AALL Spectrum is designed to further professional development and education within the legal information industry. Slaw and the AALL Spectrum board have agreed to hand-select several columns each year as part of this exchange. 

Practical applications of generative AI in legal research.

“How do you use generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) for legal research?” The question usually surfaces in the context of continuing legal education presentations. The answer for most law librarians is, “I . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information

Monday’s Mix

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award­-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Employment & Human Rights Law in Canada 2. Know How 3. OsgoodePD Blog 4. The Defence Toolkit 5. Librarian of Things

Employment & Human Rights Law in Canada
The Top 5 Outdated HR Policies That May Need a 2025 Refresh

The world of work has evolved rapidly

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ

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 : Une conductrice ayant heurté 3 piétons en descendant une rue à reculons et à contresens est déclarée coupable sous 3 chefs d’accusation de négligence criminelle causant des lésions corporelles; l’analyse de l’ensemble de la preuve permet d’inférer que l’incident découle d’un geste intentionnel, et non d’une prétendue défaillance . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Book Review: Wrongfully Convicted: Guilty Pleas, Imagined Crimes, and What Canada Must Do to Safeguard Justice

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.

Wrongfully Convicted: Guilty Pleas, Imagined Crimes, and What Canada Must Do to Safeguard Justice. By Kent Roach. Toronto: Simon & Schuster, 2023. xxxvii, 359 p. Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 9781668023662 (hardcover) $34.99; ISBN 9781668023679 (softcover) $24.99; ISBN 9781668023686 (eBook) $24.99.

Reviewed by Leslie Taylor
Research and Instruction Librarian . . . [more]

Posted in: Book Reviews, Thursday Thinkpiece

It Was 30 Years Ago Today

This month’s column is aimed at Gen-Xers like me and the Boomers who preceded us in the legal profession. Readers in your 20s, 30s, and 40s – I’ll catch you next time out.

Preparing a talk the other day, I realized with a mild shock that last month, I celebrated the 30th anniversary of my call to the bar. Although maybe “celebrated” isn’t quite the right word – “commemorated”? “Glossed over with mild discomfort?” “How the hell did that happen?” 1995 was also the last year in which I engaged in anything like the practice of law, so I suppose . . . [more]

Posted in: Practice of Law