In a dramatic about-face, the Ontario government announced today that privately owned cannabis retail will be coming to the province.

Under the newly-announced framework, the sale of recreational cannabis will initially be available only online in the province when the Federal Government brings the Cannabis Act into force on October 17, 2018. However, the provincial government will be implementing a privately owned retail framework which will be developed after consultation with a variety of stakeholders. These consultations are set to begin almost immediately.

Municipalities will have a large say over the shape of private retail in the province as the . . . [more]

It all started out with a tweet.

Canada’s Foreign Policy twitter handle expressed concerns with human rights issues in Saudi Arabia, a position that was neither new nor novel. The resulting twitter spat turned into a full-blown diplomatic crisis, with expelling of the Canadian ambassador by the Saudi government, freezing of assets, banning new trade with Canada, and sale of Canadian assets.

The relationship between Canada and Saudi Arabia is certainly complicated, but it hasn’t been this strained since the oil crisis of 1973. For all of the various trade matters between Canada and Saudi Arabia, the most . . . [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 (July 14 – August 10, 2018 inclusive).

Appeals

Criminal Law: Confidential Informer Information
R. v. Brassington, 2018 SCC 37 (37476)

Jurisprudence prevents piercing informer privilege unless the accused can show that his or her innocence . . . [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.

PROTECTION DU CONSOMMATEUR : L’article 260.35 de la Loi sur la protection du consommateur, qui oblige les fournisseurs de services Internet à bloquer l’accès aux sites de jeux d’argent en ligne non autorisés par Loto-Québec, est inconstitutionnel; il intervient dans 2 champs de compétence fédérale exclusive, soit les télécommunications . . . [more]

There is a recent article that suggested that implementing a scent-free or fragrance-free environment policy would help employers know if their employee is high at work from cannabis use, and what actions to take when they catch them high at work.

Most people are familiar with smoking dried cannabis in hand-rolled cigarettes, pipes or water pipes-but people can consume cannabis in many forms, including: “vaping”; eaten in cannabis-infused foods called “edibles” (e.g., cooking oils and drinks); applied as oils, ointments, tinctures, cream and concentrates (e.g., butane hash oil, resins and waxes); and of course, ingested as oral pills and oral . . . [more]

This article is for you if you have a dream about your career that you think may not be possible.

Some dreams are worth pursuing, even if they take a while to achieve. I know this for sure because this summer, after more than a decade of step-by-step progress, I am living mine.

I have a home on Salt Spring Island, and my dream has been to live and work from there full time. This summer I am spending two full months on the island working from my home office,

It all began back in November 2003 when my wife . . . [more]

The recent announcement of EY’s proposed acquisition of one hundred percent of the shares in Riverview Law (closing at the end of August, 2018) has elicited a number of different responses around the globe all speculating on what this transaction means for the future of legal services? Was this a lifeline to Riverview Law? Will clients really want legal and accounting to be done by the same firm? Aren’t the Big Four just marginally less clunky than Biglaw? Will BigLaw be worried? Some of those comments are here.

But like all fast-breaking stories, there is some fog. So it’s . . . [more]

In my defence, I had no idea what I was starting.

When I published a blog post recently about lawyers’ tendency to wear too many hats in law firms, I thought it would be amusing to name the post (and the tendency) after a quote from The Simpsons. Furthermore, when promoting the post on Twitter, I (perhaps rashly) called the quote “the greatest line in the show’s history.”

That assessment did not pass unchallenged. Canadian legal types Alison Crone, Colin Lachance, Ava Chisling, and Julie Sobowale all chimed in with their nominees. “Well,” I said carelessly, . . . [more]

Law societies shouldn’t accredit law schools that have discriminatory admissions policies. In my view, this statement has always been morally true. But we now know that this statement is legally true thanks to the Supreme Court of Canada’s decisions in the two recent TWU cases (see, here and here).

The Court’s analysis in both cases purportedly proceeded under a “reasonableness” standard of review and, thus, professed not to speak directly to the ultimate correctness of the law societies’ refusals to accredit a proposed law school that, to use the Court’s words, “effectively bars many LGBTQ people from attending.” Viewed . . . [more]

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.

Grace and Wisdom: Patrick G. Kerwin, Chief Justice of Canada

ISBN: 9781927032978 (hardcover), 9781927032688 (softcover)
Page count: 340
Publication date: May 2018
Price: $36 (hardcover) or $24 (softcover), + $5 shipping
To purchase: visit www.chiefjusticekerwin.ca or Petra Books
Publisher: Petra Books
© Stephen G. McKenna 2018
Contact: contact@chiefjusticekerwin.ca

Excerpts from various chapters . . . [more]

In Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World, Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott discuss the potential for blockchain in changing our world. Blockchain is a list of records (blocks) that are linked using cryptography. The list of records are permanent, open, and time stamped. The records are linked using algorithms that are almost impossible to break.

Don and Alex Tapscott write that blockchain could be used to transform our judiciary. For example, they cite the concept of CrowdJury. “CrowdJury looks to transform the justice system by putting several judicial processes online, using both . . . [more]