Balancing work and life is a challenge. We all wish we could take time off from work for every personal and family activity that takes place during work hours and in most provinces, human rights laws have created protection against what is referred to as “family status” discrimination. There has been much confusion over the interpretion of this language. Employees want time off and flexible schedules to spend time with their families. Employers need employees to be working at certain times and, for operational needs, often cannot accommodate every request – even if they wanted to. Conflicting decisions from different . . . [more]

Adam Dodek’s excellent post on these pages a week ago stirred up some lively comments.

The topic deserves more attention.

Everyone seems to be in agreement that there is no political appetite for more public funding for civil justice.

The solution proposed by Adam Dodek is: setting time limits for cases, limiting expert testimony and, by default, motions in writing.

Some commentators call on the judiciary as the stakeholder with the power to impose a solution. Some warn of the tendency for rationing to increase prices. Others point to the liability issues arising from leaving out marginally relevant evidence, and . . . [more]

This week I am at the SLA (Special Libraries Association) conference being held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This morning at the Bloomberg BNA SLA Legal Division Breakfast & Business Meeting, the following awards were given:

•  The Bloomberg BNA Outstanding New Member Contribution award is presented to Christine DeLuca of Bennett Jones LLP in Toronto, ON, CA.
• The Wolters Kluwer Law & Business Innovations in Law Librarianship award is presented to Zena Applebaum of Bennett Jones LLP in Toronto, ON, CA.
• The Thomson Reuters Westlaw Award for Career Achievement award is presented to Tracy Maleeff of Duane Morris LLP in

From the start, I’ve wondered how we will navigate in a linked data environment. How will we explore an information space where every data element is linked to every other data element? How will we keep track of where we are and where we’ve been? We won’t have physical cues anymore and the navigation systems we are familiar with grew out of our interaction with those physical cues (e.g. think card catalogue to online catalogue).

I happened on a rather obscurely named blog this week called, “The SemVis Blog.” The subtitle, or catch phrase, is much more telling: . . . [more]

You’ve tried clarification, reminders, warnings, patience and tolerance, maybe even retraining. But it isn’t working, and you both know it. Firing employees is not likely a task you took into consideration when you thought about becoming a lawyer; but here you are, an employer, in the position of having to fire an employee.

It will never be pleasant; but there’s a right way and a wrong way. The wrong way can lead to lawsuits, reputational damage, maybe even stolen clients or breaches of confidentiality. The right way can lead to the same things, of course; but the odds are . . . [more]

Mary starts each day by choosing her top three priorities. Inevitably, by noon at least one of those priorities has been swept aside in favour of something more urgent coming in.

This is just a small example of what our lives are like these days. Change is upon us continuously. Changes in technology, in the marketplace, in our clients’ businesses, and at our firms, call for us to develop our ability to respond creatively to our environment.

Improvisation is about performing in the moment. It is about being fully responsive to the world around us. We see the opportunities and . . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from sixty recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Michael Geist 2. Canadian Securities Law 3. Precedent 4. The Treasurer’s Blog 5. ABlawg

Michael Geist
Rogers’ Shocking Admission: It Does Not Track Disclosures of Subscriber Information to Authorities

Rogers surprised many yesterday by becoming the first major Canadian telecom provider to release a transparency report (TekSavvy, a leading . . . [more]

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 

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]