The front page story in The Globe and Mail a day or two ago about the option of using eagle feathers in swearing oaths or making affirmation in courts in Alberta, where they have been available for some time now, got me thinking about the process of swearing or affirming before testifying in court more generally.

The rules around swearing oaths and affirming seem simple: the purpose is to bring home to the witness the importance of telling the truth. For some people, it is necessary to do that by swearing on a religious book, for others, who have no . . . [more]

The Action Group on Access to Justice (TAG) has collaborated with Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO) on a number of initiatives to help develop awareness and implement programs that reflect community-specific needs. Julie Mathews, the recipient of the Law Foundation of Ontario’s fellowship grant, will be presenting her research during Ontario’s Access to Justice Week with Professor David Wiseman at the uOttawa Faculty of Law who is supporting this research. Offering us a sneak peek, Julie shares her thoughts and findings on the community justice help below.

The importance of drawing a clear line between giving legal information and legal . . . [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

Thanks!
Neil Guthrie

I used to work with someone who might fairly be described as curmudgeonly. This person detests people who reply to an e-mail with a one-word Thanks. … . . . [more]

“Law Librarianship in the Age of AI” is an excellent collection of essays which landed on my desk last week. In the preface editor Ellyssa Kroski, Director of Information Technology at the New York Law Institute, says the book provides answers to these questions: “what exactly is AI, what does it really mean for the legal field, and how does it affect law libraries and law librarians?”

Topics include machine learning, AI tools and applications, opportunities for law librarians, legal research and education, access to justice, and ethical uses of AI.

Also included is a great . . . [more]

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 (October 12 – November 15, 2019 inclusive).

Appeals

Criminal Law: Delay; Youth
R. v. K.J.M., 2019 SCC 55 (38292)

Two main issues: do the presumptive Jordan ceilings apply to youth justice court proceedings; was the . . . [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.

RESPONSABILITÉ : La Commission scolaire des Hautes-Rivières, la directrice de l’école Micheline-Brodeur et 2 enseignantes de cette école sont condamnées à verser 68 000 $ aux parents d’une élève qui, en quatrième année, a été victime d’intimidation.

Intitulé : B.L. c. Labrie, 2019 QCCS 4648 *
Juridiction : Cour supérieure . . . [more]

The legal profession could be improved a bit. Ok, it could be improved a lot. One might say it could use more “innovation.” Yet it seems like the harder one pushes for innovation, the harder others push back.

Despite acknowledgement that the nature of legal services will take time to change it feels we continually need, as Jae Um puts it, “a call for patience (and some perspective).” After the 2008 crash people mused, is this The End of Lawyers? Many saw 2008 as a call to action, driven by fear over the long-term relevancy of lawyers. . . . [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):

• Insolvency Lawyer (Full-time) | Toronto, ON
  (The Heller Group)
• Construction Lawyer–Senior Associate or Partner (Full-time) | Toronto, ON
  (The Heller Group)
• Senior Legal Counsel (Full-time) | Toronto, ON
  (The Heller Group)

On Sept. 23, 2013, the New York Times published an article with the headline, “In Supreme Court Opinions, Web Links to Nowhere,” by Adam Liptak. The article stated that a recent study had found that 49 percent of the hyperlinks cited in US Supreme Court decisions no longer worked.

The article cited the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as a potential model for other courts. That court maintained an archive of .pdf versions of all websites and documents cited in its opinions, at https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/library/webcites/. (These are now available via PACER since Jan. 1, 2016.) The article also . . . [more]

The Story So Far

The saga of Bill C-75 and its impact on student legal clinics has staggered to an end – sort of. Unfortunately a significant access to justice issue remains. Here is a brief summary of what happened.

When Bill C-75 was introduced by the federal government in 2018, the bill raised the maximum penalty for summary conviction offences to two years. However, the bill did not amend s. 802.1, which stated that “agents” (including law students and articling students) can only appear on criminal matters in summary conviction matters where the maximum penalty is six months.

Law . . . [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. Threlfall v. Carleton University, 2019 SCC 50

[49] When, in other parts of the absence regime, the C.C.Q. intends that reality be ignored, this is stated expressly. In particular, the declaratory judgment of death mechanism clearly illustrates when a legal fiction will triumph over the true state of affairs. Indeed, the presumption of life and the declaratory judgment of death . . . [more]