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. Toronto Transit Commission v Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113, 2020 CanLII 71739 (ON LA)

Most importantly, the facts do not disclose condonation. Aside from the point made in the case law that criminal and near-criminal acts cannot be used to support a condonation defence (see, for example, the Stelco (Shime) decision, cited above, where the arbitrator says this would amount to collusion . . . [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

An Easy Way to Find Out About Foreign Legislation
Susannah Tredwell

If you’ve been asked to find foreign materials in a jurisdiction you know little or nothing about, GlobaLex (https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/index.html) provides a number of country-specific resources covering Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. … . . . [more]

“Someone should <do something>!”

“Someone should <change something>!”

“Someone should <fix something>!”

I’ve uttered these phrases. Maybe you have as well. You’ve certainly heard them said.

So many of the challenges and opportunities we see could be realized if only “someone” would do the thing that opens the door, addresses the negative, or creates the good.

So who is this “someone,” and what’s preventing them from acting?

Whether are talking about the practice of law or the business of law, the administration of justice or access to justice, the making of law or the application of law, the “someone” in . . . [more]

. . . [more]

Facebook is increasingly known to be used by older people, with well over a third of Canadians on Facebook being older than 45 years in August 2020. Despite the smaller user base, Facebook is almost two-thirds of all social media use by visits by all social media users in Canada.

With that much use, there’s bound to be problems. And where there are problems, there is often litigation.

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal recently released a decision in Strom v Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association, which set aside the decision by the Discipline Committee of the nurses’ regulatory college, that . . . [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 as well as leaves to appeal granted so you will know what the SCC will soon be dealing with (September 12 – October 9, 2020 inclusive).

Appeals

Bankruptcy and Insolvency: Priorities; Anti-Deprivation Rule
Chandos Construction Ltd. v. Deloitte Restructuring Inc., 2020 SCC 25 (38571)

The anti-deprivation rule exists in Canadian common law and has . . . [more]

PÉNAL (DROIT) : L'infraction de communications harcelantes (art. 372 (3) C.Cr.) requiert l'intention de transmettre de telles communications; l'utilisation du mot «harceler» ne suffit pas pour y ...

Last May my colleague Ivan announced four upcoming major milestones in Lexum’s plan for getting started with legal Knowledge Management-as-a-Service. Early this summer we reported the transformation of Lexbox into a private document repository allowing you to search your own material straight from the CanLII website. Later we integrated our citator to insert links pointing to public legal information cited by your documents, as well as an alert system for tracking updates to this material. We are now ready to announce the latest development in line with this strategy: Lexum and Clio have partnered to facilitate the integration . . . [more]

It all started out well. Like most years, in the fall of 2019 we looked at the strategic plan for the firm, growth opportunities and developed a targeted approach and budget for 2020. As we roll into the fall of 2020 planning is different. Mentally this has been a year like no other in recent times and as a marketer it is one where we have constantly be making adjustments to our plan.

With the benefit of hindsight, planning for 2021 will look different. Our master plans, our insight and our playbook will change. There are annual items from previous . . . [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:

• Library Statistics Analyst (Contract role) | Ontario
  (Legal Information and Resource Network [LIRN])
• Paralegal – Real Estate (Full time) | Chilliwack, BC
  (Waterstone Law Group LLP)

. . . [more]

We lawyers, adjudicators, and mediators are normally quite resistant to change. Dealing constantly with conflict, we seek comfort in the dispute resolution processes we know.

So it’s still surprising to me to see how quickly the “dispute resolution industry” has adapted to the new reality of physically-distanced dispute resolution imposed by the COVID pandemic.

Will we ever want to go back to the old way of doing things?

In the spring there was a flurry of tutorials on how to do online dispute resolution. Many people struggled to learn how to ZOOM. Those who had been advocating and doing online . . . [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.

Going Public: A Survivor’s Journey from Grief to Action

Dr. Julie Macfarlane is a Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law at the University of Windsor. She is the author of Going Public: A Survivor’s Journey from Grief to Action (Between the Lines, 2020). She was named a member of the Order . . . [more]