Over 500,000 individuals and their qualifying family members received the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), prior to the pandemic. Our social supports system will be even more important in the economic recovery following the pandemic.

ODSP is a last resort income support paid to individuals who are disabled, as defined in s. 4(1) the of the Ontario Disability Support Program Act, 1997,

(a) the person has a substantial physical or mental impairment that is continuous or recurrent and expected to last one year or more;

(b) the direct and cumulative effect of the impairment on the person’s ability to attend

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.

RESPONSABILITÉ : La juge de première instance n’a pas commis une erreur manifeste et déterminante en estimant que les gendarmes n’avaient pas cherché, de façon objective, à déterminer l’existence de motifs raisonnables et probables de croire qu’une infraction avait été commise, mais qu’ils s’étaient plutôt concentrés sur les éléments incriminants . . . [more]

I am really very pleased to announce the new National Family Law Arbitration Course, a 40-hour course organized by myself, Lorne Wolfson and the inimitable Lawrence Pinksy. This course is intended to provide a comprehensive introduction to the arbitration of family law disputes in Canada, and includes two optional 7-hour pre-course programs for mental health professionals and family law lawyers inclined toward masochism and therefore interested in working as parenting coordinators.

While good arbitration courses abound in this country, they tend to focus on employment, construction and other corporate and commercial disputes; none are designed to address the special . . . [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:

• Research Resources and Inclusivity Initiatives Librarian (Full-time) | Ithaca, New York
  (Cornell University Law Library)
• Legal Content Developer (Full-time) | Toronto, ON
  (CLEO – Community Legal Education Ontario)
• Indigenous Law and Indigenous Outreach Librarian (Full-time) | Victoria, BC
  (University of

Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter developed the theory of creative destruction to describe how something good, and even much needed, can come out of a tragedy. The theory suggests that some businesses must die and paradigms must be “swept away” in order to make room for new ones that will better survive the future.

This is a concept found in nature. For example, we know that left to their own devices, forests will burn down from time to time to clean out the forest floor and force a renewal. While it might feel heartless to apply the same principle to business, . . . [more]

If popular culture is to be believed, the success of a legal dispute is determined foremost by the calibre and character of one’s legal representative; the ability to deliver an inspiring closing argument is a clear signal that a favorable outcome is forthcoming. The recipe, it would appear, is one part institutional knowledge added to one part intuitiveness sprinkled with a dash of showmanship. (A devil-may-care regard for the truth and facts is optional.) Notwithstanding the oft times sensationalistic portrayal of lawyers in film, novels and the news, the role that legal professionals play in securing satisfactory outcomes for people . . . [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.

Commissions of Inquiry. By Hon. Stephen Goudge & Heather MacIvor. Toronto: LexisNexis, 2019. xvi, 510 p. Includes appendices and index. ISBN 9780433503118 (softcover) $120.00.

Reviewed by Paul F. McKenna
Lecturer, School of Information Management
Dalhousie University
In CLLR 45:3

This comprehensive work deals with all things related to the concept, characteristics, . . . [more]

“The competition that kills you may not look like you”. – Richard Susskind

In “Law is Not Ready for Amazon. Is Amazon Ready for Law?”, Mark Cohen writes that Amazon will continue to encroach on the legal market. The legal market meets Amazon’s three criteria for disrupting an industry. Amazon’s three criteria that must be met include: “(1) an original approach that does not mimic existing models; (2) scalability; and (3) potential for significant return on investment.”

Currently, legal providers are fragmented. There is no Goliath. And today’s leading legal providers focus on high-end clientele, and ignore a . . . [more]

Since April, we have been calling for justice leaders of the world to get out of their national cubby holes and come together to share fears, failures, successes, and strategies, just like public health minister are doing. The COVID-19 crisis is too big and too unprecedented to deal with on your own national level. On 20 October, 22 ministers of justice did just that at the Justice for All in a Global Emergency meeting convened by Minister of Justice of Canada, David Lametti (see end for participants). It was a significant moment. For 90 minutes, they shared their experiences in . . . [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. Attorney General for Ontario v. Persons Unknown, 2020 ONSC 6974 (CanLII)

[76] In my view, the “Persons Unknown” format does not allow the Attorney General to seek ex parte interpretations of laws to restrict unnamed respondents from suing others in future. Neither is it appropriate for the Attorney General to seek this court’s legal opinion on a hypothetical question of interpretation. . . . [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

Bad Business Jargon: The Continuing Saga
Neil Guthrie

Yet more. Above-captioned: This is a truly awful way to describe anything. Substitute this or a concise description of the subject of your e-mail or letter and it will read oh, so much better. Action item: Plain old task will do nicely, thank you. …

Practice

Trauma-Informed Lawyering: The Education You Didn’t Know You Needed
Emma Durand-Wood

What . . . [more]

In March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic changed our legal world the way no one could have imagined. Our courthouse went from a beehive of litigation activities to a silent graveyard. Practice directives containing emergency measures were issued and activated to deal with the change. Our civil litigation system that historically relied on an in-person process to undertake almost every task – from the filling and service of litigation documents to routine chambers applications and trials – suddenly moved to the online world built on technologies.

The legal profession was forced to adopt technologies to address administration and litigation needs at . . . [more]