The news, from a distance, that the assets of Canada’s Irwin Law publishing business have been sold is nevertheless interesting and, one might hope, a positive step that will allow its portfolio to be developed in concert with that of the asset acquirer, the renowned University of Toronto Press. It is also hoped that the vendors have the same sense of satisfaction as my fellow owners and I had, at Dunedin Academic Press, having recently passed its assets to Liverpool University Press, and that the customer bases of and suppliers to both Irwin and UTP are the beneficiaries of . . . [more]

Quit the AI theatrics and get on with the business of legal service.

I’ve had it. Had it with the legal industry’s incessant blither blather, adjective-laden hyperbole, and histrionic pearl-clutching – hello, law firms – pertaining to the perils and rarely the pluses of artificial intelligence.

The continuous and roiling notions around AI, its impact on the legal market, and how services will need to be offered, provided, and priced strikes me as a crazy collision of Marx Brothers movies, “A Day at the Races” and “A Night at the Opera.” Wacky, zany, and clear over the top.

AI will . . . [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) : Les 3 accusés, qui ont agressé sexuellement une jeune femme de 22 ans dans une baignoire à remous et lui ont causé des lésions corporelles, sont condamnés chacun à une peine de 3 ans d’emprisonnement.

Intitulé : R. c. Thibault, 2024 QCCQ 3234
Juridiction : Cour du . . . [more]

As an immigration lawyer, I regularly get offers from shady agents and unscrupulous consultants. “We are an agency based in Dubai with connections with millionaires and BILLIONAIRES. We propose a partnership with your esteemed firm and we will give you access to our wealthy clientele.” (For some reason, these agents love caps.) I was reminded of these scams when I read that arrested Telegram CEO Durov is a citizen of no less than four (4) jurisdictions: France, Russia, UAE and Saint Kitts and Nevis. I had to wonder if he was a client of one of those shady agents.

Saint . . . [more]

If you want to be a full-time member of a federal tribunal, one of the conditions of employment for many of those tribunals is that you must live within commuting distance of the National Capital Region (NCR), otherwise known as Ottawa-Gatineau. There was a time when this requirement made some sense – in the days before reliable telecommunications, especially video technology. However, today it acts as a significant barrier to a geographic diversity of appointments to tribunals. It also significantly limits the pool of available candidates for specialized tribunals.

Not all federal tribunals have this residency requirement. Some tribunals have . . . [more]

I recently listened to an audio book called The Art of Communicating by Thich Nhat Hanh.

I have read various books by this world renowned speaker and teacher of mindfulness, and I highly recommend reading or listening to some of his work.

I consider myself well versed in the art of communication. I have read many books and articles on how to improve communication in various settings. However as I listened to this audio book, I realized that my view of communication was very one sided.

It seems that most of us think that communication is the way we verbally . . . [more]

Earlier this summer, I attended Pride Toronto, an annual festival celebrating the queer community that attracts three million people to its events. Pride Toronto kicks off a wave of pride festivals across Canada throughout the summer.

While I’m not a member of the 2SLGBTQI+ community, it feels very important to show support for those who are, especially given sharply increasing rates of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation in our country. But like many Canadians, I didn’t always understand this, or know how to be an ally.

Twenty years ago, I was a student at the University of Toronto when . . . [more]

This was mentioned this in a SLAW Tip back in 2013, but I thought it worth revisiting.

AccessCLE is a free resource that allows you to search and retrieve Law Society of Ontario CPD program materials from 2004 onwards. Articles are available as PDFs and can be downloaded free of charge.

You can either search materials for keyword or browse by topic. There is also an advanced search option that allows you to restrict your search by author, title, or full text. 

— Susannah Tredwell . . . [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) : Un juge de la Cour supérieure siégeant sans jury n’est pas apte, selon l’article 473 (1.1) C.Cr., à juger une personne qui n’est accusée d’aucune infraction mentionnée à l’article 469 C.Cr., mais dont le coaccusé est, lui, accusé d’un crime prévu à cette disposition.

Intitulé : Al-Sherifi . . . [more]

Migrant caregivers are the backbone of Canada’s care economy yet they remain one of the most vulnerable groups in the labour market.^[1] The roughly 25,000, predominantly racialized women migrant caregivers in Canada provide essential care for children, the elderly, people with disabilities, and people in need of ongoing medical care. For decades, Canada has sought to fill critical workforce shortages in the caregiver industry by providing temporary immigration pathways tailored to foreign workers.^[2] Foreign workers arriving mainly from the Global South have temporarily made Canada their home through federal immigration programs like the Live-In Caregiver Program (1992-2014), the . . . [more]