The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) has launched a call for comments on potential governance reforms. Reform is long overdue. The governance of the LSO is archaic and in no way approximates the structure of a modern, effective board. To its credit, the LSO appears to recognize the problem and is attempting to move towards modernizing its governance.

There are currently 90 members of “Convocation” – the archaic name for what is supposed to be a Board of Directors at the LSO. These 90 consist of 45 elected licensees (40 lawyers and five paralegals), 8 lay benchers appointed by the . . . [more]

Yesterday, the Ontario Cannabis Store (the “OCS“), which will initially be the province’s sole retailer (and later will morph into a wholesaler), announced that it has entered into supply agreements with 26 federally licensed producers after having completed its first competitive product call.

Patrick Ford, President and Chief Operating Officer of the OCS, noted that the agreements allow the province to “safely and securely provide a broad variety of cannabis products to adult consumers when online sales begin” on October 17, 2018.

Although the details of particular products and sizes have not yet been released, the OCS stated . . . [more]

Canadian business is navigating through a period of growing uncertainty in terms of both global politics and trade, and faces unprecedented challenges with respect to marketing, production and investment decisions. In the current climate, the Government of Canada’s policy can be summarised in the words of Minister Chrystia Freeland: “Hope for the best, plan for the worst.”

A review of the apparently fixed U.S. position in the NAFTA negotiations is both telling and discouraging for the future of the agreement and North American trade. Canada’s early “charm offensive” led by the Prime Minster, combined with an engagement strategy tied to . . . [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.

Practice

Sometimes You Have to Spend Money to Make Money
Sandra Bekhor

As a lawyer, you identify with being a professional. Strongly and consistently. Perhaps, not as much with being a business person (even if you play a leadership role at your firm)? Most of the time, that’s just fine. Some of the time, it’s not. …

Research & Writing

CAPS
Neil Guthrie

Not hats: capital letters (or, in . . . [more]

Teaching isn’t easy. It can be rewarding, fulfilling, and at times challenging, but is also considerably variable between instructor to instructor.

In the interest of providing high quality education, most post-secondary institutions use a variety of metrics to ensure that the best instructors are attracted and retained to their schools, to help best optimize the educational experience. One of these tools are student evaluations in teaching (SET), where the individuals who are regularly exposed to the instructor are provided the most direct form of input about the pedagogical tools employed.

As any instructor will tell you though, not all educational . . . [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.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : La juge de première instance a commis une erreur de droit en évaluant la crédibilité de l’appelant sur la base de préjugés et de stéréotypes; un nouveau procès est ordonné, cette erreur ayant irrémédiablement compromis l’équité du procès.

Intitulé : Robbins c. R., 2018 QCCA 1181
Juridiction . . . [more]

While it is still early days, it is probably safe to say that if the Trinity Western 2018 decision[1] becomes a long-standing case of note, it will be because of its significance regarding Charter principles and not because of the role it played in the furtherance of administrative law.[2] Most of the ink (or electrons) spilled in the months and years leading up to the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision was not because Canadians – lawyers and lay-people alike – were anticipating the latest pronouncement on standard of review or procedural fairness or jurisdiction. The primary interest . . . [more]

Reversing the trial judge’s decision, on April 19, 2018, the Court of Appeal for Ontario concluded that an employee can still benefit from a former employer’s long-term disability coverage despite discovering the disability while working for a new employer. The exclusionary language did not limit the long-term disability coverage to current employees, and was extended by the Court to apply to undisclosed disability claims that arose during employment.

Was the former employer really accountable to provide LTD coverage even after the employee quit? Here’s what happened: . . . [more]

This is the third of a series of blogs, the first of which was published on February 12^th, 2018, highlighting the various papers, studies, and pilot projects conducted by the Cyberjustice Laboratory throughout the course of its “Towards Cyberjustice” Project. Funded by a Major Collaborative Research Grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, this seven-year project has finally drawn to a close and will be the subject of a detailed report to be released later this year. In anticipation of this upcoming report, this blog post will briefly describe its second chapter, which details 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. R. v. Jordan, 2016 SCC 27

[1] Timely justice is one of the hallmarks of a free and democratic society. In the criminal law context, it takes on special significance. Section 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms attests to this, in that it guarantees the right of accused persons “to be tried within a reasonable time”. . . . [more]

If you are on this site, I can assume with reasonable confidence that you are already a wordsmith. I have always had an affinity for the label “wordsmith”, possibly because I am reminded of “blacksmith” and it conjures skills of which I have none. I do, perhaps, have some skills related to language, although I suppose this is also debatable. Notwithstanding, even from my humble position, I am both angered and ashamed by the comments of Ontario Minister of Social Services Lisa MacLeod and her dim view of the importance of language. In particular, her comments related to the Safe . . . [more]