The Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled in a monumental employment law claim which included intentional infliction of mental suffering, affirming an unprecedented award in Boucher v. Wal-Mart Canada Corp. 

The case dealt with a workplace conflict where the plaintiff claimed to be constructively dismissed. The jury found for the plaintiff and awarded 20 weeks salary in damages, the amount specified in her employment contract, $200,000 in aggravated damages against the employer for the manner of dismissal, and $1,000,000 in punitive damages. The jury also awarded an additional $100,000 for intentional infliction of mental suffering against the manager with . . . [more]

Chaque semaine, nous vous présentons un résumé d’une décision d’un tribunal québécois qui nous est fourni par la Société québécoise d’information juridique (SOQUIJ) et ayant un intérêt pancanadien. SOQUIJ relève du ministre de la Justice du Québec, et elle analyse, organise, enrichit et diffuse le droit au Québec.

Every week we present a summary of a decision by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and selected 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 : . . . [more]

Summaries of selected recent cases are provided each week to Slaw by Maritime Law Book. Every Sunday we present a precis of the latest summaries, a fuller version of which can be found on MLB-Slaw Selected Case Summaries at cases.slaw.ca.

This week’s summaries concern:
Telecommunications / Minerals and Mines / Administrative Law / Railways / Carriers

Telus Communications Co. v. Canada (Attorney General) 2014 FC 1
Administrative Law – Telecommunications – Courts – Limitation of Actions

Industry Canada (Minister) decided to auction off spectrum in the 700 MHz band for commercial mobile systems. After consultation with interested parties, . . . [more]

Though we covered it in our Tips Tuesday roundup post a few days ago, I’d like to call your attention to an exceptional piece by Garry Wise on his upcoming Law Office Backyard Retreat.

What struck me as I was reading was the engrained conceptions many of us have about what a retreat is, and where it must be located. Depending on your own personal experience, you might believe that a firm retreat:

• must always be ‘a road trip’;
• is only applicable for larger firms;
• requires an expensive keynote speaker; or generally,
• is far too expensive an undertaking for 

. . . [more]

It was recently convocation time around here, with convocation comes the slate of honorary degrees that are awarded during the ceremonies. As someone who resides in the Faculty of Law I’ve noticed that most (though not all) honorary degree recipients receive a Doctor of Laws. This occurs even though the recipients may be getting their honorary degree during an Arts, Engineering or other ceremony, which leads to the obvious question, why? As it turns out the history and evolution of honorary degrees does not seem to be a well researched area and consensus is difficult to build. I was able . . . [more]

The Quebec National Assembly has adopted a historic “right-to-die” legislation (94-22 margin/0 Abstention), the first in Canada. All 22 votes against Bill 52 were from Liberal members, including 10 cabinet ministers. The Bill gives terminally ill adult patients in the province of Quebec, who are of sound mind, the right to palliative care and medical assistance to die in exceptional circumstances and safeguards.

To be an effective networker, you need to find good contacts and then develop relationships with those contacts. Many lawyers have extensive contacts lists, but they don’t manage their contacts or use their lists to their full advantage.

One tool to help you find and manage your contacts and build relationships is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business networking site that has made a number of major changes in the past year or so, including changes to LinkedIn Groups, the introduction of Showcase Pages as sub-pages for LinkedIn Company Pages, and changes to LinkedIn Profiles. But Contacts are . . . [more]

Odd that downs are ups.

Apparently in their full regalia they’re “downlands,” which are open chalk hills: exposed layers of chalk wear away into rounded hills, which then are covered by a thin layer of surface soil and grass. Of course, downs are “dunes” in another context, that being sand. (Not sure how “downs” got associated with racecourses, as in Kentucky’s Churchill Downs; it might have to do with the treeless grassy nature of some English downlands, making them suitable for horse racing.)

We dig holes and make mounds: it’s what human beings do when given a spade and a . . . [more]

Readers have until June 30 to vote online for the winner of the 2014 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. The prize, which is sponsored by ABA Journal and the University of Alabama School of Law, is intended to recognize a work of fiction that best exemplifies the role of lawyers in society. The three finalists this year are:

• Ronald H. Balson for Once We Were Brothers
• John Grisham for Sycamore Row
• Elizabeth Strout for The Burgess Boys

The prize was first handed out in 2011. The winner that year was John Grisham for The Confession.

Michael Connelly  . . . [more]

On May 2, 2014, the Federal Court of Appeal released its long-awaited decisions in Canada (Attorney General) v. Johnstone, 2014 FCA 110 (CanLII) and Canadian National Railway Company v. Seeley, 2014 FCA 111 (CanLII). The rulings confirm that child care obligations fall under the scope of family status under the Canadian Human Rights Act, and clarify the test for meeting a prima facie case of discrimination on the prohibited ground of family status. Let's examine what is involved in the accommodation of family status.

When it comes to protecting species at risk, and fulfilling mandatory obligations under the Species at Risk Act (SARA), it seems the Federal Government must be goaded into action by litigation brought by conservation groups. Two recent cases highlight government foot-dragging in developing plans to protect species that are at urgent risk, due in part to a lack of “organizational capacity” (i.e. staff cuts). The government will rarely disclose whether a protection plan is even in the works.

The Federal Government did, however, find the time and resources to swiftly downgrade the status of the North Pacific Humpback Whale from . . . [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.

Civil Justice, Privatization, and Democracy
Trevor C.W. Farrow
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014

Excerpt pp. 5-6, 9-10

Privatization is occurring at a rapid rate in all levels of the public justice system. First, in the civil justice system, there is an increasing and overwhelming tendency to resolve disputes through mechanisms other than . . . [more]