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.

TRAVAIL : En matière de licenciement collectif, l’exception prévue à l’article 84.0.3 L.N.T., à l’égard d’un établissement dont les activités sont saisonnières ou intermittentes, s’applique lors d’une fin d’emploi définitive.

Intitulé : Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail c. Immeubles des Moulins . . . [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:

• Director, People and Culture (Full-time) | Remote/Vancouver, BC
  (Ecojustice)
• Legislative Affairs Specialist (Full-time) | Remote/within commuting distance to Victoria, BC
  (Ecojustice)

As we watched scenes of violence, vandalism, and rioting at the US Capitol on January 6^th, there was an acute sense of loss of control, not only across the United States but throughout much of the world.

This was a brazen upending of the norms of respect and acceptance of institutional authority that lie, both symbolically and practically, at the heart of democracies around the world. The United States likes to call itself “the greatest democracy” but it is just one of many. Each is less than perfect, but a central article of faith is striving to honour . . . [more]

When discussing the modernization of the justice system the conversation can often be about how we adapt the technology to replicate the bricks-and-mortar experience.

But how might the institutions and decision-makers themselves adapt to work with the emerging technology?

Legal scholar Tania Sourdin talks about three primary kinds of technology in the context of the justice system:

• Supportive – things like online legal applications that support and advise people using the justice system
• Replacement – things that replace the role of people, such as e-filing technologies and online dispute resolution
• Disruptive – things that fundamentally alter the way legal professionals

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

In Saskatchewan Polytechnic Faculty Assn. and Saskatchewan Polytechnic (Derow), 2020 CanLII 78471 (SK LA), Re (“Derow”), a unionized teacher’s dismissal related to racist comments against indigenous persons was set aside and he was reinstated to his position with conditions.

The teacher, in this case, had been working for Saskatchewan Polytechnic for 34 years and had been employed in the school’s carpentry program. Instead of dismissal, the arbitrator held that the employee would be suspended for six months and required to undertake appropriate education. Upon his return to work, the . . . [more]

Periodically on Thursdays, we present a significant excerpt, usually from a recently published book or journal article. In every case the proper permissions have been obtained. If you are a publisher who would like to participate in this feature, please let us know via the site’s contact form.

Sentencing in Canada: Essays in Law, Policy, and Practice

Editors: David Cole & Julian Roberts
ISBN: Print (Paperback): 9781552215395
Publisher: Irwin Law
Page Count: 498 pages
Publication Date: August 24, 2020
Regular Price: $75.00

Excerpt from Chapter 16: Evaluating the Youth Sentencing Regime in Comparison with Adult Court, by Andrea EE Tuck-Jackson . . . [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.

Researching Legislative Intent: A Practical Guide. By Susan Barker & Erica Anderson. Toronto: Irwin Law, 2019. xxi, 284p. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-55221-513-5 (softcover) $60.00; ISBN 978-1-55221-514-2 (PDF) $60.00.

Reviewed by Ann Marie Melvie
Law Librarian
Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan
In CLLR 45:4

As a Canadian legal . . . [more]

I’ll be writing about law firms less frequently in future, for reasons outlined here. But given how critical I’ve been about the way in which lawyers run their firms, I thought I’d share with you news of a growing movement in the business world that could bring about monumental change for law firms.

My fundamental critique of law firms isn’t the billable hour or rampant inefficiency or the resistance to innovation — it’s the apparent absence of any real purpose to the firm beyond the enrichment of its partners.

I’ve been telling audiences for a while now that a . . . [more]

Recently “Zoom Cat-lawyer” revealed a lot about the legal profession. Its seriousness. Its humour (or lack thereof). Its low tolerance for mistakes.

In the Zoom call, the lawyer was unable to quickly remove the filter by himself. The judge and opposing counsel seemed to have little patience for his technological incompetence.

In “Think Again”, Professor Adam Grant writes “Sharing our imperfections can be risky if we haven’t yet established our competence. In studies, lawyers and teachers searching for jobs, expressing themselves authentically increased the odds of getting job offers if they were rated in the 90th percentile or above for . . . [more]

Practical skills training is currently a popular topic in legal education discourse. Beyond whether and how to increase “practice-ready” skills training in Canadian law schools, much of the discussion is focused on what practical skills should be included as part of a law student’s education–advocacy, legal drafting, legal writing, negotiation and practice management being some of the most frequent candidates. An essential lawyerly skill which is seldom explicitly mentioned in this conversation and which is in dire need of more attention in any discussion of legal education is that of civility.

Typical dictionary definitions of civility reference polite or courteous . . . [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. Le, 2019 SCC 34 (CanLII)

[160] In view of our application of the three Grant lines of inquiry to the facts of this appeal, and with great respect to the courts below, we do not find this to be a close call. The police crossed a bright line when, without permission or reasonable grounds, they entered into a private . . . [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

There Are Some Hard to Find Foreign Cases on CanLII
Susannah Tredwell

One of CANLII’s lesser known resources is its Foreign reported decisions database which “includes some decisions issued by foreign courts and tribunals and that are of special interest for Canadian law.” … . . . [more]