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

One of the most important crucial aspects of managing the employment relationship is written policies. Company policies, when drafted and applied properly, can be an effective shield against liability in many employment law cases. Through policy, an employer sets the rights and obligations of the employer and the workers within the workplace. When employers draft up-to-date policy that stays within legal boundaries and workers are kept notified about their rights and obligations under that policy, employers may often successfully fend off legal action such as wrongful dismissal or constructive dismissal. . . . [more]

“One cannot, in reality, suffer from memories all the time; one can rest and enjoy oneself in the intervals” – The Eternal Husband, Dostoevsky

Siobhan woke up, soaked in sweat in the darkness of her apartment. City lights snuck in under her curtains, flickering shadows across her dresser. It was another hot summer night, and she had turned her air conditioning up so high it was, as her father would say, cold as an ice box, and by that he meant the huge ice lockers that stored the day’s catch. As a child her brother had locked her in . . . [more]

The ADR Institute of Canada (ADRIC) has recently adopted Med-Arb Rules and announced a new Chartered Mediator-Arbitrator (C.Med-Arb) professional designation to enhance the use of med-arb in Canada.

The new Rules and professional designation recognize that med-arb is a distinct process that is different from either mediation or arbitration on their own.

In med-arb, the same person acts as both mediator and arbitrator, typically endeavouring to help the parties settle their dispute in a first mediation phase, then making a binding decision on all unresolved issues in a second arbitration phase.

The process offers parties both flexibility and finality, and . . . [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. Sullivan, 2020 ONCA 333 (CanLII)

[42] The trial judge was correct in finding s. 33.1 to be in prima facie violation of both ss. 7 and 11(d) of the Charter. Section 33.1 violates each of the constitutional principles that were identified by Cory J. for the majority in R. v. Daviault, 1994 CanLII 61 (SCC), [1994] 3 . . . [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

Curbside Pick-Up
Neil Guthrie

Who would have thought, back in January, that we’d be doing quite so much of this? It feels like shopping in Bulgaria in the mid 1970s, lining up for the remaining 40-watt bulb on the shelf. If you live in the United Kingdom or other parts of the Commonwealth, you would be doing it at the kerbside. … . . . [more]

The Legal Health Check-Up (LHC) is an innovation that has been successfully implemented by several community legal clinics in Southwestern Ontario. Reviewing the outcomes of the LHC over the past 5 years reveals how this innovation has had transformative impacts on service delivery in 3 community legal clinics in Ontario. The LHC was first piloted by Halton Community Legal Services (HCLS) between October 2014 and January 2015, after which it became a permanent component of the delivery approach. Three other clinics began experimenting with the LHC at about the same time. Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, the Legal Clinic of . . . [more]

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries / Association canadienne des bibliotheques de droit (CALL/ACBD) is pleased to announce that LGBTQ2+ Law: Practice Issues and Analysis, Joanna Radbord, General Editor, is the winner of the 2020 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing!

Members of the LGBTQ2+ community face unique hurdles, especially in areas of family, immigration, estates, and criminal law. LGBTQ2+ Law: Practice Issues and Analysis takes a practical approach to identifying and analyzing key LGBTQ2+ issues that arise in these various legal contexts. The first text of its kind, it draws on the expertise and . . . [more]

With widespread discussion around law enforcement and their interaction with young Black men, some people have tried to claim that these problems are not prevalent in Canada.

We know this to not be true on many grounds, but one of the early post-Charter cases was in 1997 with R. v. RDS, where the presiding judge took judicial notice of racial profiling that occurred in Halifax.

The Supreme Court of Canada rejected the calls of judicial bias, and upheld the trial decision. Worth noting is that the trial judge taking judicial notice of profiling was herself from the Afro-Nova Scotian . . . [more]

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): L’accusé, déclaré coupable du meurtre au second degré de sa conjointe, devra purger 11 ans 1/2 d’emprisonnement avant de pouvoir bénéficier d’une libération conditionnelle, compte tenu de la dénonciation et de la dissuasion requises en raison du contexte conjugal, mais aussi de la déficience intellectuelle de l’accusé, laquelle . . . [more]

I am delighted to report that it is not too late to participate in the Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2020 Virtual Conference Series. This educational conference is being supported by legal information partner sponsors and there is no cost to attend. Register by following the links at https://www.callacbd.ca/2020-Virtual-Conference

We have some exciting sessions for our final week of learning:

My CALL-eagues and I hope that you are not suffering from Zoomsaustion and can join in.

Thank you to all our sponsors for this virtual conference series: LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters, CiteRight, Elsevier, Emond Publishing, HeinOnline, LLMC Digital, Lucidea, and vLex . . . [more]

Parenting assessments, known as custody and access reports, custody evaluations or bilateral assessments elsewhere, are commonly used in family law disputes in British Columbia whenever there is a significant difference of opinion about the parenting arrangements best suited for a child. However, in the absence of standards guiding the professionals who prepare these assessments, whether psychologists, clinical counsellors or social workers, the methodologies used to assess and describe the circumstances of the children and the capacities of their parents are as varied and unpredictable as the reports themselves. Thankfully, the number of execrable reports is dwarfed by the number of . . . [more]