The use of surveillance cameras in the workplace in Canada is quite common. Often, surveillance cameras are installed to deter theft, vandalism, assault, harassment and suspected criminal or improper activity. However, many employees question the right of employers to record them in the workplace and state that it is a breach of their privacy. Do employees’ privacy rights compete with employers’ needs to ensure that his or her employees do their job, come in at the right hours, and don’t behave inappropriately?

This case involves a union’s application to exclude video footage from the admissible evidence in a recent grievance . . . [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.

Torts: A Guide for the Perplexed. By GHL Fridman. Toronto: LexisNexis Canada, 2017. 174 p. Includes bibliographic references and index. 978-0433495543 (hardcover) $85.00.

Reviewed by Lisa Marr
Library Technician
Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall LLP/s.r.l
In CLLR 43:4

As a law library technician, I am ashamed to admit that before reading this . . . [more]

Canada’s Anti-spam law (CASL) is ambiguous and very onerous to comply with. The Parliamentary INDU Committee, that studied the law, has made numerous recommendations in order to provide needed clarity to the law. In December 2017 their report stated “The Act and its regulations require clarifications to reduce the cost of compliance and better focus enforcement.” The Government has responded confirming they intended to act on the recommendations.

While we wait for that certainty the CRTC has issued a further Guidance document, Guidelines on the Commission’s approach to section 9 of Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL), Compliance and Enforcement Information . . . [more]

This post summarizes a full-text article with the same title on the SSRN, and refers to Fasken InHouse.

The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) is to have a bencher[1] election on April 30, 2019. We should vote only for those candidates that present solutions to the access to justice-unaffordable legal services problem (the “A2J problem”). Governments are now reacting without law societies.

Benchers have to be something more than the present part-time amateurs who bring to the job only the expertise of a lawyer to deal with major problems that are not legal problems, e.g., the . . . [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. McGoey (Re), 2019 ONSC 80

[25] Mr. Phinney has definitively identified the typeface used in the Ledge Lodge document, dated January 4, 1995, as set in a font called Cambria. As of January 4, 1995, however, the Cambria typeface had not yet been created. It was designed for Microsoft beginning in 2002 and did not reach the general public until January . . . [more]

The importance of religion in Canada is reflected in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, both in section 2(a)’s guarantee of “freedom of conscience and religion” and in the inclusion of “religion” as a protected ground under section 15’s equality provision. As all guarantees, these are subject to section 1’s justification for limiting rights, which are “subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society”. And as do other rights, those related to religious belief may come into tension with other rights and guarantees.

In January 2018, . . . [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

Further Confusing Pairs
Neil Guthrie

I forget where we are in the series. Part 8? Anyway… Avert/advert: One averts one’s gaze from something unpleasant; one adverts (turns one’s attention) to other matters. The two have been confused since the Middle Ages. …

Practice

Create Your Own Personal Pension Plan
Jackie Porter

2019 is here and rather than lament about funds you already spent in 2018, now . . . [more]

Two student-led organizations recently contacted me with their Call for Submissions announcements. While we don’t wish Slaw to become a hub for press releases, I do generally like to help out student groups. Hopefully Slaw readers will also find these interesting.

The first is McGill’s 2019 Annual Law Graduate Conference, scheduled for May 8-9, 2019 in Montreal. The theme of this year’s conference: “Law: Proactive or Reactive”; and the call for submissions can be found on the event website at: https://www.mcgill.ca/agcl/

Any questions, contact the GLSA committee by email at gradlawconference.law@mcgill.ca.

Secondly, the Western Journal of Legal . . . [more]

The IALL conference is one of my favorite meetings to attend. The International Association of Law Libraries’ 37^th Annual Course on International Law and Legal Information took place in Luxembourg, from Sunday, September 30, to Wednesday, October 3. I’d never been to Luxembourg before, but will make up any excuse to go again! The theme was “Law in Luxembourg – Where Local Tradition Meets European and International Innovation.” The programme for the 2018 IALL meeting was wonderful as usual – educational, enlightening, and entertaining. I met a robot, TORY! I encourage everyone, even though you do not specialize in . . . [more]

On Sept. 14, 2018, the Government of Ontario announced a challenge to the federal government’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, which will have significant economic and environmental implications, irrespective of how it is decided. A statement of particulars was required by this date, and the province specified that the Act creates an unconstitutional tax because it is ultra vires of the federal government, and contravenes s. 53 of the Constitution Act, 1867. The full arguments are available here.

Given the broad public interest, the Court of Appeal ordered that any province or territory may intervene as a . . . [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.

FAMILLE : Le juge de première instance a commis une erreur révisable en refusant de rétracter le jugement ayant prononcé la déchéance de l’autorité parentale du père car, d’une part, le délai de 48 mois établi par la jurisprudence pour conclure à un abandon n’a pas été dépassé et, d’autre . . . [more]