People have been talking more about failure in recent years, and they have been listing the things that haven’t worked out for them on social media or in failure resumes. I have been thinking about this too. I confess I don’t feel comfortable broadcasting a list of my failures here because we live in a judgemental world, though I assure you they happen. That said I think I am relatively comfortable with failures (presumably as a result of regular exposure), so I thought I would take this opportunity of writing a column that will be published on Christmas Eve . . . [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

Endangered Species Alert: Correct Use of the Apostrophe
Neil Guthrie

You may have seen the news that John Richards, the founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society, has decided to call it quits after 18 years of fighting for the correct use of the troublesome punctuation mark. Part of the reason is that Richards, a retired journalist, is 96 and needs to scale back his activities. … . . . [more]

Contrary to what you may have heard, there isn’t a crisis of free speech on campuses in North America. The evidence, as analyzed by the Niskanen Center, demonstrates otherwise.

This hasn’t prevented numerous states from introducing legislation around these concerns, or even the American President from signing an Executive Order around these concerns earlier this year.

That doesn’t mean that universities are free from controversy. There is pedagogical benefit to introducing conflicting viewpoints, but challenges in doing so effectively, as described in The Atlantic,

Schools teach many things. For the most part, though, they have not taught students

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.

CONSTITUTIONNEL (DROIT) : L’appel du jugement de la Cour supérieure ayant rejeté la demande de sursis provisoire quant à l’application des articles 6 et 8 de la Loi sur la laïcité de l’État est rejeté.

Intitulé : Hak c. Procureure générale du Québec, 2019 QCCA 2145
Juridiction : Cour d’appel . . . [more]

While attending the latest fête of yet another elderly, past-his-due-date lawyer, I was drawn into a hateful, envious reverie of what this passing generation benefited from: big game clients hunted down by golfing foursomes, cases settled over scotch, reputations defined by progeny than by proficiency, minorities oppressed, women suppressed, and partnerships by fiat and fealty but not effort and effect. Gazing warily into my sparkling glass, a thought slapped my face awake from reverie to reality: it is not so different now, than it was then.

As my attention fades in and out from the drone of the acceptance speech, . . . [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 (newest first):

• • Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor (International Economic Law ) (Full-time) | Ottawa, ON
    (University of Ottawa)
  • Assistant Professor or Associate Professor (Business, Tax Law) (Full-time) | Ottawa, ON
    (University of Ottawa)

I was recently invited to a lunch where we were invited to consider both the end of the year and the end of the decade. This came as a surprise as I hadn’t thought about that simple matter of the two digits turning over this year. Since then, I was reminded that because there was no “zero” year, the end of the decade will actually not be for another year, but we all know that’s not the usual way of counting these things.

The end of the year means that we have reached the time when we like to look . . . [more]

As promised in our previous post, we are back to discuss the fourth and final chapter of our upcoming report detailing the pursuits of the “Towards Cyberjustice” Project (the other parts can be found here: part 1, part 2, part 3). Whereas our previous posts highlighted the various papers, studies and pilot projects conducted by the Cyberjustice Laboratory and its partners throughout this seven-year long venture, our final post is dedicated to the future avenues of research that were inspired by our accomplishments over these last years, which are also supported by the Social . . . [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. Mundinger v. Ashton, 2019 ONSC 7161

[67] The Medicine Act is foundational legislation with regard to the practice of medicine in Ontario. Anyone who wants to know what a physician is or is qualified to do would begin by looking at the Medicine Act. If the legislature intended to depart from the definition of physician in that Act, one would . . . [more]

In Bell Media Inc. v. GoldTV.Biz, 2019 FC 1432, the Federal Court dealt with a novel motion in Canada for a “site-blocking order”. The broadcasting company plaintiffs sought an interlocutory mandatory injunction against the innocent third party Internet Service Providers [ISPs] seeking to compel the ISPs “to take steps to block their customers from accessing websites and Internet services operated by the anonymous Defendant”. The plaintiffs allege that the defendants are infringing copyright by operating unauthorized subscription services that provide subscribers access to the plaintiff’s programming content over the Internet. The innocent third party respondents are the major Canadian . . . [more]

There is no question that legal education has become increasingly complex, partly as a result of the will of educators and students and partly as a result of external forces. While some may argue that legal education has not changed very much since the earliest days (emphasizing the continued emphasis on case law, for example), in my view it has been tranformed over my own legal lifetime. The introduction of “perspectives” courses, intensive weeks, the diversity in students and faculty, experiential learning, various supports, some curriculum review and other efforts towards inclusion have had greater impacts on some schools than . . . [more]