Just as the Toronto medical officer of health called for limiting the exemptions to Ontario’s mandatory vaccine regime for school children to only one, on medical grounds (although this has not been received positively by the provincial health minister), Vaccine Choice Canada and five mothers have challenged the requirement that in order to attend public school, children must receive vaccinations.

The Immunization of School Pupils Act already includes grounds for exemption for medical, religious and conscientious grounds; however, the group challenging the legislation consider the exemptions — and therefore the legislation — contravene their rights, in part because of the . . . [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

Finding Information About Private Acts
Susannah Tredwell

“Private acts” are acts that are passed to deal specifically with the private interests of a person, company, or organization; for example the Acme Assurance Company Incorporation Act, S.C. 1931, c. 71 is a private act. Private acts can be found both federally and provincially. …

Practice

How Do You Get Other Lawyers – or Yourself – to Write . . . [more]

It is no secret that that self-regulation can be compromised by the tension between the public interest and the interest of the regulated profession[i]. This tension leads some to say that self-regulation is inherently flawed and should come to an end.

In this column, I suggest that:

• it may be useful to recognize that conflicting professional interests are more in tension in some areas than in others and accordingly to look for ways to mitigate that tension where it is potentially problematic
• there may be limited measures that can be used to mitigate such tension without having to

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently released a brief decision in Demetriou v. AIG Insurance Company of Canada, overturning a decision on a summary judgment motion.

The claim involved a man who had traveled to a resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Unfortunately he did no leave his ring at home, and wore it on a gold chain around his neck. This was a special ring, one that had been passed on to him by his maternal grandmother, and he had been provided it by his parents so that one day he could give it to one of his . . . [more]

One Sunday each month OnPoint Legal Research provides Slaw with an extended summary of, and counsel’s commentary on, an important case from the British Columbia, Alberta, or Ontario court of appeal.

Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine v. Medical Services Commission, 2019 BCCA 315

AREAS OF LAW:  Constitutional; Public; Human Rights

~The Medical Services Commission decision to deny a private medical clinic approval as a diagnostic facility was reasonable and the clinic provided an insufficient evidentiary foundation to establish its claim that the denial breached rights under s. 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for the clinic’s . . . [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.

CONSTITUTIONNEL (DROIT) : L’argument des appelants au soutien de leur demande de déclaration d’inconstitutionnalité de la Loi de 2013 sur la succession au trône, voulant que cette loi modifie la charge de la Reine et qu’elle n’ait pas été adoptée suivant la bonne procédure, est rejeté.

Intitulé : Motard . . . [more]

In Keatley Surveying, the small issue of whether a statutory regime of land titles registration involving the filing and dissemination of land surveys was addressed through a much larger question of copyright ownership of those land surveys. Ownership in the copyright of land surveys became the basis for maintaining the integrity of a land titles system when it could have been addressed through the statutory obligation exception in the Copyright Act.

Teranet is a statutorily empowered third party manager of Ontario’s land registry system. Land surveys registered on title are scanned and digitized, then made available to the . . . [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)
• Family Law Lawyer (Full-time) | Sherwood Park,

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

A recent case of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, Saskatchewan (Employment Standards) v North Park Enterprises Inc., 2019 SKCA 69 (CanLII), illustrates the importance of the Latin maxim, audi alteram partem which means “listen to the other side,” or “let the other side be heard as well.” All administrative bodies, including labour boards, must comply with the rules of natural justice and procedural fairness. Within those rules there exists the duty to act fairly, which includes allowing the parties the right to be heard. In this case, the Saskatchewan Labour Relations . . . [more]

The Uniform Law Commission in the United States has now published the revised text and commentaries to the Uniform Electronic Wills Act adopted at its annual meeting in July 2019.

Here is the official description of the Uniform Act:

The Uniform Electronic Wills Act permits testators to execute an electronic will and allows probate courts to give electronic wills legal effect. Most documents that were traditionally printed on paper can now be created, transferred, signed, and recorded in electronic form.

Since 2000 the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and a similar federal law, E-SIGN, have provided that a transaction is

On August 27, 2019, my friend and colleague at the uOttawa Faculty of Law Ian Kerr passed away due to complications arising from cancer. He was only 54 years old.

Ian was a giant in his field. A visionary in AI and Ethics who thought about the implications of autonomous vehicles before they even had a name. He was a teacher who deeply cared about his students. He was a researcher who supported, mentored and championed his colleagues. But most of all he was our friend and we miss him dearly.

When Ian left us, tributes flowed in from around . . . [more]