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. Lifechoice Ltd. v Adams, 2019 CanLII 28274 (AB ESU)

[28] Like most commissioned salespeople, the Respondent’s income was dependent in whole or in part on her sales success. The fact an individual is paid commission does not remove him or her from the definition of “employee” under the Code. There must be some indicia of entrepreneurial activity on the part . . . [more]

The Ontario government has been making orders under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMCPA) to address the coronavirus epidemic. It has quickly advised of the orders through press releases on the Ontario government news website. The orders take the form of regulations (and orders in council and sometimes only orders in council). However, it has not always been as quick — or quick enough — to post the regulation itself under the EMCPA. This is a problem. . . . [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.

Technology

Free Access to Easy-to-Use Compliance App
Lesha Van Der Bij

To say COVID-19 has sped up the pace of legal change is an understatement. Usually it takes months (or even years!) to make changes to Canadian laws, but now we are seeing significant amendments announced and in force on the same day. With many businesses worrying about day-to-day survival, there is little or no time to stay on . . . [more]

IT WAS INEVITABLE: as the courts shut down and the work-from-home edict spread, I was reminded of Luddite lawyers sitting in their offices. It would be a gargantuan undertaking to take files to and fro between home and office, and impossible to convert to a paperless office in the blink of an eye. Not surprisingly discoveries and mediations were cancelled, revealing those behind the curve. What we have preached as best practice for decades is now the only practice: paperless remote work is the one game in town.

Speaking of behind the curve, the conservative-to-a-fault Law Society of Ontario relaxed . . . [more]

Friday, April 3, 2020 – Effective March 19, 2020, the B.C. Supreme Court suspended regular operations of the Supreme Court of British Columbia until further notice. While the courthouses are closed, applications may be made to the Court only for essential and urgent matters. The move is part of the Court’s efforts to protect the health and safety of court users and to help contain the spread of COVID-19.

The procedural approach of the Courts to the present crisis may be expected to continue to evolve. Those wishing to have matters brought before the Court will need to check frequently . . . [more]

Love it or hate it, everyone is on Zoom these days, including lawyers.

The company notes that daily use went up from 10 million users a day in December 2019, to over 200 million daily users in March 2020. On March 23, 2020 alone, the app was downloaded 2.13 million times globally.

Social distancing during COVID-19 has in no insignificant way pushed the use of this platform to new levels, with share prices going from $70 in January to $150 by the the end of March 2020. Yet, the platform was never designed with this type of use in mind. . . . [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) : Les appelants, déclarés coupables sous divers chefs d’accusation relatifs à des opérations frauduleuses dans le contexte de l’affaire Cinar, échouent dans leurs appels des verdicts de culpabilité les visant et des peines qui leur ont été imposées.

Intitulé : Xanthoudakis c. R., 2020 QCCA 446
Juridiction . . . [more]

The increased utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) has been identified as giving rise to numerous privacy concerns.^[1] For illustration, “the data protection principle of limiting collection may be incompatible with the basic functionality of AI systems”. AI systems generally rely on large amounts of personal data to train and test algorithms, and limiting some of the data could lead to reduced quality and utility of the output.^[2]

Another issue is that organizations using AI for advanced data analytics may not know ahead of time how the information that is processed by an AI system will be used or . . . [more]

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

In Hicks and Winnipeg Exclusive Bus Tours Inc., Re, (Sept. 19, 2019), Doc. YM 2727-3941 (Can. Lab. Code Adj.) the arbitrator Bryan Schwartz was appointed by the federal Minister of Labour to hear a complaint of wrongful dismissal under the Canada Labour Code. The case provides a stark reminder to employers about the sufficiency of evidence necessary to support a claim of just cause for dismissal. . . . [more]

As I am writing this, everything else has been knocked out of the news and our consciousness by the emergence of COVID-19 as a pandemic.

As we struggle to cope with COVID-19 we are facing hard questions – sometimes choices – as members of our own communities, as Canadians, and as world citizens.

• How well does our existing infrastructure – health care, labour rights, social services – mitigate some of the impact of the virus?
• Did our civic governments take enough notice of the earlier warning signs of the pandemic and respond in time?
• Are we doing enough to protect

In person if necessary, but not necessarily in person…

The Superior Court of Justice in Ontario issued a notice on March 13, advising people not to go into any courthouse, if they have been advised to self-isolate in response to the growing COVID-19 pandemic. The courts remain open to the media and public (this may have changed since I wrote this…) but anyone who has COVID-19 symptoms, has been advised to self-isolate, or has travelled from an area under a travel advisory should stay away. This includes civil litigants and criminal defendants, who are advised to contact their lawyer or . . . [more]