When the SARS outbreak struck Canada (and the world) in 2003 it was not only a lesson in public health preparedness. This tragedy also offered some lessons for those of us in legal.

What were the responsibilities of employers, employees? What was the purview of the state? What responsibilities did Canada have under International Conventions? What about the World Health Organization and the US Center for Disease Control? Who did the public listen to?

As we prepare for COVID-19 it is extremely useful to look at the legal literature that came out a few years post-outbreak. For example, volume 43, . . . [more]

It is pretty clear that, in the past, lawyers did a great job disrupting themselves.

The term “disruption” comes from Clayton Christensen’s observation that the ability of a company to make a higher and higher performing product always outstrips the ability of customers to make use of these performance improvements. As technology pushes a product’s performance into “performance oversupply,” it changes the circumstances of the market. It becomes harder for to sustain attractive profit margins on the product. Companies in other parts of the value chain can begin to steal market share, or “disrupt” the incumbents. Companies find themselves . . . [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

Of Bad Business Jargon There Is No End
Neil Guthrie

Some further things to expunge from your professional (and non-professional) vocabulary. Availability: This is, like functionality, a multisyllabic word that can usefully be replaced by something short and simple – and therefore clear and direct. … . . . [more]

In a recent Law Society continuing education program on Indigenous Law Issues 2019, former Justice Harry LaForme offered a critique on the failure to appoint indigenous persons to the bench. In so doing, he made pointed comments regarding J0dy Wilson Raybould, Beverly McLachlin and Kim Campbell, three key influencers in making such appointments. He described the performance of Wilson Raybould as “sad”, and the reported statements of McLachlin and Campbell as “patronizing” or worse.

(LaForme’s remarks may be reviewed in full on the unique service provided by the Law Society which provides web access to continuing education programs offered . . . [more]

One of the greatest advantages of corporations as a vehicle for developing capital in society is that they usually transcend the lifetime of any particular founding individual. Corporations do not necessarily live forever though, and the winding up or bankruptcy of a company can give rise to some complexities around the division of assets.

The Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) was first enacted in 1933 during an economic depression, and found to be constitutionally valid in a 1934 reference. Its purpose was described by the British Columbia Court of Appeal in Chef Ready Foods Ltd. v. Hongkong Bank of . . . [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 Ju stice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Une agente de l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada échoue dans son appel des verdicts de culpabilité prononcés par un jury sous des accusations d’importation de 182 kilogrammes de cocaïne et d’abus de confiance ainsi que dans son appel de la peine globale d’emprisonnement de 10  . . . [more]

Creative Commons licences (also commonly referred to as CC licenses) are a less-restrictive alternative to those in the traditional copyright system. Since 2001, they have been used to encourage collaboration and create a space to allow for the public sharing of information.

There are a number of different licences, each with varying levels of restrictions, but with the overall goal of allowing people to share and build upon the work of others. Permissions to use the creator’s work are granted up front and to everyone. The Creative Commons organization has created a system of open licences using plain language . . . [more]

Written by Daniel Standing LL.B., Editor, First Reference Inc.

A recent decision of a Human Rights Adjudication Panel, T.M. v Manitoba (Justice), 2019 MBHR 13 (CanLII) has clarified the extent of an employer’s obligation to provide its employees with a safe and respectful workplace. The decision is the first time a complaint of harassment on the basis of sexual orientation was considered in that forum-is a powerful one and is full of important takeaways for employers, employees and workplace investigators alike. . . . [more]

Jury duty is an obligation dreaded by some and evaded by others. Medical reasons, familial obligations, travel plans, and the loss of an income are some of excuses used to avoid jury duty.

Recently, Justice Robert Goldstein of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto wrote to Canadian Tire about their policy on paying jurors. While presiding over jury selection, a prospective juror told Justice Goldstein that Canadian Tire would not pay them while performing jury duty. In response Justice Goldstein wrote a letter to Canadian Tire’s general counsel, Jim Christie, and Timothy Tallon, the owner of the St. . . . [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. Reference re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, 2020 ABCA 74

[21] For reasons explained in detail below, the regulation of GHG emissions or any variation on this theme does not qualify for inclusion as a federal head of power under the national concern doctrine. Assigning this Act or a class of laws of this nature to Parliament would forever alter the constitutional . . . [more]

I’ve got blog-worthy good news. So good, in fact, that I’m persuaded to take a break from my consecutive blogs on amending American copyright for open access (my developing case here). Instead, I devote this blog to a far more here-and-now breakthrough in increasing public access to research.

It arises out of the work of a half-dozen anthropologists (and me), who think that, given their study of people and society, they have a moral duty to share that work with those people and that society. This group, Libraria by name, has worked over the last two years with Berghahn . . . [more]