Five and a half years ago, I wrote a comment on Slaw questioning why the Canada Elections Act precluded most non-resident Canadians from voting. The prohibition bothered me on a very personal level: I had many Canadian friends and acquaintances living abroad long-term, who almost without exception felt closely connected to Canada and invested in its future. Moreover, the ban was plainly inconsistent with the Charter, it lacked any clearly articulated justification, and it had been widely criticized. Yet no one seemed particularly moved to do much about it.

Well, I’m happy to admit I was mistaken. Someone did . . . [more]

The Law Society has catapulted itself into the 21^st Century with a slick and well-designed online annual report that’s also readable on mobile devices.

Most of you are shocked that I wrote something complimentary about the Law Society of Upper Canada and must think I’m having an off day…

But credit should be given where credit is due.

LSUC is finally starting to look like the open and transparent organization that it was always supposed to be!

It even has a Google+ page with video of the TWU debate!

Is this a harbinger of things to come?

Light at . . . [more]

The May 2014 issue of the AALL Spectrum, the monthly publication of the American Association of Law Libraries, is devoted to law library architecture south of the border.

Lots of very pretty pictures.

The issue includes articles on:

• the new library at Irell & Manella in Century City, Los Angeles
• the new space for the Charlotte School of Law Library
• the renovated University of California, Irvine School of Law Library
• the brand new University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law Library
• the Thomas M. Cooley Law School’s new law library near Tampa Bay, Florida
• the renovated Los

. . . [more]

Pregnant casual or temporary workers in Quebec have the right to withdraw from unsafe work environments just as permanent workers do, according to the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in Dionne v. Commission scolaire des Patriotes, 2014 SCC 33 (CanLII).

In the past, traditional diplomatic protections and customary international law seemed to provide inadequate and uncertain protection for foreign investments. In the middle of the twentieth century, countries in need of investment by citizens of other countries, and countries whose citizens had resources to invest and a willingness to invest in foreign enterprises, devised bilateral investment treaties (BITs) or traités bilatéraux d’investissement (TBIs) to protect the rights of foreign investors on terms the enterprises in need of investment could accept. By promoting investment by citizens of one country in enterprises in a different country, BITs solidify diplomatic ties between the . . . [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.

THE “ILLUSION OF COMPENSATION”:
CY PRÈS DISTRIBUTIONS IN CANADIAN CLASS ACTIONS
Jasminka Kalajdzic
(2014) 92:1 Can. Bar Review [forthcoming]

Excerpt: pp. 16 – 19. Footnotes renumbered.

 

It is the third argument that is most apposite in the Canadian context. Redish and his colleagues posit that the use of cy près illegitimately transforms . . . [more]

I was at a conference on CASL (anti-spam) last week chaired by Barry Sookman. His summary of conference highlights is worth reading. Below are some of my observations based on both that conference and my CASL dealings with clients so far.

Large companies are spending millions of dollars to comply with CASL. Small business is struggling to comply and to make sense of how to comply and why it is even needed. But you can bet that the true spammers will just continue to try to hide from the regulators.

Opt-in rates for attempts to get express consents so far . . . [more]

Manitoba’s legislators have been busy drafting and introducing bills into the House over the course of the past two months. Since the session resumed in March, more than 20 new bills have been introduced, including 4 private members bills. Most remain at first reading stage as of the writing of this post.

A number of these bills may be of particular note across the country, including:

• Bill 48, The Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Governance Act: The explanatory note sets out that the bill recognizes and confirms the legal effect of governance agreements entered into by Canada, Manitoba and

. . . [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. Trinity Western University v. British Columbia College of Teachers, 2001 SCC 31

[1] Iacobucci and Bastarache JJ.— Trinity Western University (“TWU”) is a private institution located in Langley, British Columbia and incorporated under the laws of British Columbia. It succeeded Trinity Western College in 1985; that junior college was itself the successor of a private society founded in 1962. TWU is . . . [more]

Ten years ago the Canadian government launched a public inquiry to look into whether the actions of Canadian officials had contributed to the torture and other grave human rights violations that a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, had experienced while he was illegally imprisoned in Syria for a year in 2002 and 2003. How deeply disappointing, therefore, that ten years on we seem to be losing ground in addressing one of the most distressing revelations coming out of that inquiry: the insidious connection between shoddy, even unlawful, intelligence-sharing practices and torture.

Maher Arar had been arrested in September 2002 by US . . . [more]

Spring has sprung here in Vancouver with its bounty of networking events and opportunities to reconnect with colleagues.

In between fun appointments in my social calendar, I sat down to read “Give and Take” by Wharton business professor Adam Grant. If you’ve ever felt anxious about networking, skeptical about selling your services or burned out from fielding non-stop requests for help, this book is for you.

Most of us have been taught to view networking as a zero-sum game where people act in their own self-interest; I’ll do a favour for you with the expectation that you’ll . . . [more]

In Alberta, it is Education Week. Education Week was established to call attention to the importance of education and to show the public some of the good things that happen in Alberta schools. Using the confluence of Education Week and the start date of our law firm’s summer students, I am choosing to write about some upcoming training sessions for law students and those who ensure law students are office ready vis-a-vis legal research.

• May 13 – Research in the Real World – summer students – University of Calgary Law School (Slaw post)
• June 19-20 – Head Start

. . . [more]