Canada has come a long way since the SARS pandemic in 2003. With the outbreak of COVID-19, here is a non-exhaustive overview of some of the ways that pandemics have come up in our legal system.

Keri Gammon makes the argument in the Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies that given the need for local implementation, provincial jurisdiction for pandemics is still warranted,

In extreme cases, such as where one province fails to act altogether in respect of a  public health emergency, federal jurisdiction may be required if only on a temporary basis. But with respect to

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 (January 9 – March 12, 2020 inclusive).

Appeals

Constitutional Law/Aboriginal Law: Jurisdiction of Courts
Newfoundland and Labrador (Attorney General) v. Uashaunnuat (Innu of Uashat and of Mani‑Utenam), 2020 SCC 4  (37912)

There is no doubt . . . [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 appels interjetés par 3 personnes à l’encontre de verdicts de culpabilité pour des infractions liées à un vol de sirop d’érable d’une valeur de près de 18 millions de dollars sont rejetés; la peine de l’un d’entre eux est toutefois modifiée pour que le montant . . . [more]

To a significant extent in legal and professional publishing, as in other areas of publishing and indeed business and real life, commercial and financial failure plays a critical part in charting its paths. Probably, it is its failed projects and ventures which determine its future rather than its overall historical success, where such has been achieved over time. Here, maybe more than in some other fields, just like the inevitable conclusion of all political careers, the expectation of failure is embedded at its very core, though perhaps often needlessly. It is so embedded that in so many scenarios, notably in . . . [more]

Written by Lewis Waring, Paralegal, Editor, First Reference Inc.

O’Reilly v IMAX Corporation, 2019 ONCA 991, the Court of Appeal for Ontario (“ONCA”) awarded a former president of IMAX two years of severance after the court agreed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice’s ruling that he had been wrongfully dismissed. The employee in this case was 53 years old at the time of the decision. He had worked for IMAX Corporation for 22 years, finishing his tenure as President, Institutional and Strategic Sales. His compensation package at the time of his dismissal included a salary of $335,000, commissions . . . [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.

Law’s Indigenous Ethics. By John Borrows. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019. vii, 381 p. Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 978-1-4875-0491-5 (hardcover) $59.73; ISBN 978-14875-23555-8 (softcover) $39.95; ISBN 978-1-4875-3115-7 (eBook) $39.95.

Reviewed by Mary Hemmings
Law Librarian and Instructor
Faculty of Law, Thompson Rivers University
In CLLR 45:1

John Borrows . . . [more]

In the Internet age, contracts of adhesion are common. Consumers routinely confirm their acceptance to terms and conditions that they have not read or understood.

In Apps v. Grouse Mountain Resorts Ltd., 2020 BCCA 78, the court addressed when contracts of adhesion are binding. In this case, a snowboarder from Australia was injured in the terrain park. He brought an action for negligence, the failure to warn, and for breaching the Occupiers Liability Act. The BC Court of Appeal found that the trial judge erred in upholding the waiver.

The plaintiff Mr. Apps raised “an issue that has . . . [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. West Edmonton Mall Property Inc v Proctor, 2020 ABQB 161 (CanLII)

[116] The tweets and pronouncements of Donald Trump do not confer upon Ms. Proctor a license to defame anyone, even in her emulation of him. There is no legal paradox operating here. I assess Ms. Proctor’s conduct toward the Ghermezians and their organizations according to Alberta law. I do not . . . [more]

A puzzling question: where on a Saturday morning might you find 35 creative professionals – designers, artists, writers, technologists, and more – donating their time and expertise to help generate support for bail reform in Ontario?

The answer: why, of course, you’ll find them squeezed into a conference room at the Law Society of Ontario!

On Saturday February 1st, a diverse group of creatives – armed with coffee, muffins, flipcharts, sticky notes, and sharpies – excitedly dove into a 6-hour design sprint to find new ways to create enthusiasm for bail reform.

The Law & Design CoLab’s fourth . . . [more]

The federal government has now introduced changes to its legislation on medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in response to the Truchon decision. The existing Criminal Code provisions, enacted after the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Carter, had been criticised on several grounds, particularly in requiring death to be “reasonably foreseeable” before someone is eligible for medical assistance in dying. The 2019 Quebec Superior Court decision in Truchon held that the foreseeability requirement in the Criminal Code and the parallel Quebec provision in that province’s End-of-Life Care Act are unconstitutional. The government’s Bill C-7 is in response to Truchon . . . [more]

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]