Canada’s online legal magazine.

International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law

The 17th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law will take place in Montreal, Quebec this year June 17-21. Aptly the venue will be the Cyberjustice Laboratory at the Université de Montréal. This is a biennial conference organized by members of the International Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law.

The Cyberjustice Lab is international in scope and pursues a multidisciplinary approach, assembling “stakeholders, legal professionals, public actors and academics to rethink the justice system and both overcome its modern challenges as well as improve access to justice.” They investigate with a view that “technology, and especially AI, . . . [more]

Posted in: Technology: Internet

Monday’s Mix

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award­-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Le Blogue du CRL 2. Employment & Human Rights Law in Canada 3. Legal Sourcery 4. Kate Dewhirst 5. David Whelan

Le Blogue du CRL
Sélection SOQUIJ – Guimont c. Bussières, 2019 QCCA 280Upcoming Research Training

COMMUNICATIONS : La Loi sur la presse ne s’applique pas à

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

Investigating Issues of Intersectionality

The notion of “intersectionality” has become a popular buzzword in pop culture and social activist groups. It describes the notion that various grounds of discrimination, such as gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, disability, etc., can affect and interact with each other in overlapping and complex ways.

First coined within the feminist movement in the early 80’s to help illustrate the exclusion of racialized women from many feminist initiatives, it helped illustrate how advocacy on behalf of a discriminated or marginalized group can also inadvertently create its own patterns of oppression and exclusion, not only towards other discriminated groups, but within . . . [more]

Posted in: Justice Issues, Substantive Law: Judicial Decisions

Summaries Sunday: Supreme Advocacy

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 26 to February 22, 2019 inclusive).

Appeals

Civil Procedure/Private International Law: Foreign Judgments
Barer v. Knight Brothers LLC, 2019 SCC 13 (37594) 

The jurisdiction of the Utah Court is recognized; presenting substantive arguments in . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Summaries Sunday: OnPoint Legal Research

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.

Price Security Holdings Inc. v. Klompas & Rothwell, 2019 BCCA 36

AREAS OF LAW: Property; Leases; Trusts; Beneficiary; Standing to sue third-party debtor

~Special circumstances must be established to justify a departure from the general rule that a beneficiary cannot directly sue a third-party debtor of the trust.~

BACKGROUND
Fort Quadra Holdings Ltd. is the registered owner of a commercial building in Victoria. The Appellant, Klompas . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ

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.

COMMUNICATIONS : La Loi sur la presse ne s’applique pas à un article publié sur un site Internet d’information en continu; le mot «journal» dans la Loi sur la presse ainsi que le renvoi aux formalités de la Loi sur les journaux et autres publications constituent un obstacle infranchissable.

Intitulé . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Friday Roundup: Slaw Jobs

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):

. . . [more]
Posted in: Friday Jobs Roundup

Wage Rate Sheet for Fellow Employees’ Personal Information Protected Under Alberta’s PIPA

A recent Alberta privacy case, P2019-ND-006 (in PDF), deals with a breach of salary information about identifiable individuals under the Personal Information Protection Act(PIPA). The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Alberta found that “A reasonable person would consider that the identity and salary information could be used to cause the significant harms of hurt, humiliation and embarrassment, particularly if shared with individuals who have a personal or professional relationship with the affected individuals.”

What happened?

. . . [more]
Posted in: Case Comment, Practice of Law, Practice of Law: Practice Management, Substantive Law, Substantive Law: Judicial Decisions, Substantive Law: Legislation, Technology, Technology: Office Technology

The Right to Be Forgotten – Insights From Germany

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have set the basic framework for the right to be forgotten. Recent case law from Germany offers an insight into its application on the ground.

The right to be forgotten as initially created in the Google Spain case (C-131/12) and now further developed in art. 17 GDPR provides data subjects with the right to have their personal data erased by a data processing controller (most prominently search engines) under specific circumstances. For search engines, though, balancing the diverging rights and interests of publishers and . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information, Legal Technology

Thursday Thinkpiece: When Canadian Courts Cite the Major Philosophers–Who Cites Whom in Canadian Caselaw

Periodically on Thursdays, we present a significant excerpt, usually from a recently published book or journal article. In every case the proper permissions have been obtained. If you are a publisher who would like to participate in this feature, please let us know via the site’s contact form.

When Canadian Courts Cite the Major Philosophers: Who Cites Whom in Canadian Caselaw

Queen’s University Legal Research Paper No. 2017-090; CLLR 42:2

Nancy McCormack is an Associate Professor and Law Librarian at Queen’s University. She has authored and co-authored numerous books including the How to Understand Statutes and Regulations, Annotated Federal . . . [more]

Posted in: Thursday Thinkpiece

When Is Software Regulated as a Medical Device?

Fitness software for phones, watches and other wearable devices is common. So when does software cross a line and need to comply with medical device legislation?  

Medical devices used for health purposes are regulated and must meet certain standards or approvals depending on a risk profile. In Canada medical devices are rated from class 1 through 4, class 4 requiring the most scrutiny. 

Health Canada recently published draft guidelines on when software has a medical purpose that requires it to follow the medical device standards.  

For example: 

Software intended for maintaining or encouraging a healthy lifestyle, such as general wellness . . . [more]

Posted in: Substantive Law: Legislation, Technology

Wednesday: What’s Hot on CanLII

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. R. v. Jarvis, 2019 SCC 10

[5] In my view, circumstances that give rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy for the purposes of s. 162(1) of the Criminal Code are circumstances in which a person would reasonably expect not to be the subject of the type of observation or recording that in fact occurred. To determine whether a person had . . . [more]

Posted in: Wednesday: What's Hot on CanLII

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This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada | Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada