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) : L’article 551.3 (1) d) C.Cr. confère au juge le pouvoir nécessaire de limiter la durée d’un procès; il est ordonné que soit établi un calendrier final et détaillé prévoyant une limite de jours consacrés à la présentation de requêtes.

Intitulé :R. c. Bordo, 2016 QCCS 477 . . . [more]

The 2016 Student Edition of LAWPRO Magazine (“Moving Into Practice”) is now online and will be arriving in Ontario law schools next week. Its the fourth LAWPRO Magazine issue focused on providing students with resources to help them make the transition from student to lawyer. It also serves as an introduction to LAWPRO and our messages of claims prevention and better practice management. . . . [more]

I recently met with a young Norwegian professional who wanted to know how to become a Canadian citizen. After I explained some of paths from temporary status (which he had, as a visitor) to permanent resident status to citizenship, he was visibly frustrated and said, “this is too complicated. I just want the form to become Canadian.” I had to admit that he’s right: the system is complicated. (And wouldn’t it be nice to have such a form?) Our former government made things more complicated by adding even more levels to our robust hierarchy of statuses. The most significant additions . . . [more]

The really interesting and exciting people that one encounters have been everywhere, done everything and remain on the move. Not for them the conservatism of a monochromatic career in a single industry sector or one spent with a small number of employers, as has happily been the case for me to date. Still, it occurs to me that my own cautious path presents an opportunity to offer, for those interested, an entirely subjective, probably biased and personal description of much of the legal and professional information scene in the UK and Ireland and to a minor extent in mainland Europe. . . . [more]

This is a follow-up to the February 1, 2016 post about Background Material on Québec’s New Code of Civil Procedure .

CAIJ, the Centre d’accès à l’information juridique (the network of courthouse law libraries associated with the Québec Bar Association), has created a special section on its website that brings together information about the province’s new Code of Civil Procedure that came into force on January 1, 2016.

The Code underwent a major overhaul that aims to reduce delays in the justice system by giving priority to amicable dispute resolution processes such as mediation, arbitration and conciliation, and by increasing . . . [more]

Each Thursday 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.

International Intellectual Property Law and the Protection of Traditional Knowledge: From Cultural Conservation to Knowledge Codification

Aman K. Gebru, SJD Candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law

This article first appeared in the Asper Review of International Business and Trade Law, Volume XV, page 293 (Winter, 2016).

Excerpt: Introduction . . . [more]

The CSA Group (formerly the Canadian Standards Association) with the assistance of the nationally based law firm Grant Thornton LLP has developed a free guide to help organizations develop and maintain a whistleblowing system with the goal to encourage workers to report ethical and safety issues within an established mechanism. Reported issues include suspected tax fraud, accounting fraud, corporate fraud, insider trading, health and safety issues and other serious offenses. . . . [more]

Early in January my spouse and I went on a winter vacation to the Caribbean. The charming island nation of Barbados was our destination for two weeks followed by a meeting in Quebec and a family visit in Ontario. Almost three weeks in total. Travelling from our home in Yukon made for a long journey that saw us pass through seven airports in six different cities: Whitehorse, Vancouver, Toronto, Quebec City, Windsor and Bridgetown (Barbados). The highlight of our trip was certainly the place where it was light by 6 am with shorts and t-shirt weather right off the bat  . . . [more]

About a week ago, I posted my most popular tweet ever:

“As is typical of unicorns, Juliette was stealthy and elusive in avoiding capture, for at least a few hours.”https://t.co/alVzvYUCyH

— Karen Dyck (@karendyck) February 26, 2016

This perfect sentence, authored by Alyssa Pereira, amused and delighted me when I read it. Little did I realize how this story of Juliette, the escaped pony “dressed” as a unicorn would garner so much attention. I suspect this may reflect the season we’re in. At the end of a winter, still in the early stages of a seemingly endless U.S. . . . [more]

Businesses and organizations rely on internal and external policies and procedures to document the way they do certain things. But if not written carefully, they can actually add risk.

Many of these are compliance based. In other words, they set out how in practice the business will deal with various legal obligations. Depending on the nature and size of the business, they could deal with things like privacy, anti-spam, workplace safety, money laundering, and the list goes on.

Having these policies can help reduce legal risk, and help ensure that employees do the right thing.

Sometimes businesses create policies and . . . [more]

Is Hollywood racist? You’re damn right it’s racist but it’s sorority racist.

“We like you Rhonda but you’re not a Kappa.” That’s how Hollywood is but things are changing.

– Chris Rock, the Oscars

Some law firms hide behind the label of “fit” to mask racism. This racism may be conscious or unconscious. Either way, “fit” is used to justify discrimination. The way sorority girls use “fit” to sort out potential sisters during rush. I should know. I used to be in a sorority.

The statistics on race reveal that racism or a covert form of racism, like “sorority . . . [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. Keenan v. Canac Kitchens Ltd., 2016 ONCA 79

[24] The trial judge observed that, in the jurisprudence leading to a recognition of the intermediate category of dependent contractors, a finding that the worker was economically dependent on the company due to complete exclusivity or a high level of exclusivity weighed heavily in favour of the conclusion that the worker was a . . . [more]