It started as soon as I began my law career as an articling student. A lawyer gave me a task on Friday due Monday, meaning I would lose my weekend. I felt a little bit of pride – who, little old me, tasked with something so important? But I soon learned what is urgent is rarely important, and important rarely urgent. Having “uncovered every rock” and discovered nothing further, I watched my research memo fall into the abyss of make-work legal projects, more for show and profit, productivity measured more in money than in legal progress. I think I gained . . . [more]

Written by Daniel Standing, LL.B., Content Editor, First Reference Inc.

The interim decision of Caroline Sand, Member of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario in 2024 HRTO 233 (CanLII) shows what can happen when a party is invited to participate but decides not to. As it turns out, the technique of putting one’s head in the sand works for ostriches but not for employers who seek to avoid liability for human rights complaints. . . . [more]

Periodically on Thursdays, 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.

Suing for Silence : Sexual Violence and Defamation Law

Author: Mandi Gray
Publisher: UBC Press
Publication Date: March 1, 2024
ISBN: 9780774869171
Page count: 180 pages; 6 x 9

Excerpt: Introduction

In summer 2017, I received a Facebook message from Lynn, a Canadian tattoo artist in her late twenties. Women from all . . . [more]

At the beginning of each month, we tell you which three English-language cases and French-language cases have been the most viewed* on CanLII in the previous month and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this past month, the three most-consulted English-language decisions were:

1. R. v. Kruk, 2024 SCC 7 (également disponible en français ici)

[81] Assessments of credibility and reliability can be the most important judicial determinations in a criminal trial. They are certainly among the most difficult. This is especially so in sexual assault cases, which often involve acts that . . . [more]

At the beginning of this year, in January 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) based in San José, Costa Rica launched its first ever AI-powered case law database.This free legal source aims to provide an easy to use access to the regional court’s jurisprudence and important information regarding its procedure and composition. Recently, I had the tremendous opportunity to interview the Court’s Head Librarian, Ana Rita Ramírez and get more information regarding the process of producing this database and its future growth.

What was the journey to carry out this project?

This project represented an ongoing commitment by . . . [more]

In July 2023, IRCC Minister Marc Miller was put in charge of our immigration system and he has been focused on fixing problems while addressing the growing anti-immigration sentiment within Canada. On one side, he inherited many years of Liberal promises to welcome and support international students and to meet lofty goals. To that end, he remains committed to the goal of 485k new permanent residents in 2024, 500k in 2025 and 500k in 2026. On the other side, Minister Miller has overseen a series of decisions to cut programs, increase restrictions and add roadblocks to previous pathways. Applicants most . . . [more]

Since 2013, the NSRLP has gathered data from self-represented litigants (SRLs) across Canada through our SRL Intake Form. After the publication of Julie Macfarlane’s original study on self-representation in 2013, SRLs wished to continue sharing their stories and experiences with the legal system, so the Intake Form was developed as a means to continue collecting this data, as it was clear there was a significant gap in existing organizations and systems and that SRLs’ contributions and experiences were going unheard. Every 1-2 years the NSRLP analyzes the Intake Form data for the previous period, and writes an updated report . . . [more]

On March 27, 2024, Windsor Law Professor Pascale Chapdelaine released her latest article on the very interesting topic of algorithmic personalized pricing.

Pascale Chapdelaine, “Algorithmic Personalized Pricing: A Personal Data Protection and Consumer Law Perspective” (2024) 102 Can Bar Rev (forthcoming, online via SSRN).

Here’s more information about the article:

“Price is often the single most important term in consumer transactions. As the personalization of e-commerce continues to intensify, the law and policy implications of algorithmic personalized pricing i.e., to set prices based on consumers’ personal data with the objective of getting as closely as possible to their maximum willingness . . . [more]

One Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted from February 9 – March 20, 2024 inclusive.

Appeals

Aboriginal Law/Constitutional Law: Division of Powers
Reference re An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, 2022 QCCA 185; 2024 SCC 5 (40061)

In an order in council made on December 18, 2019, . . . [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.

FISCALITÉ : La portion des incitatifs qu’un contribuable a reçus d’un courtier afin de souscrire une police d’assurance-vie universelle et qui se rapportent purement à la couverture d’assurance-vie ne sont pas visés par l’article 87 w) de la Loi sur les impôts; toutefois, la partie des incitatifs reçus au . . . [more]

It’s easy to blame lawyers for the failure to provide people with accessible and reliable legal solutions. But truthfully, I’d place only about a third of the responsibility for the A2J at the feet of the legal profession.

Lawyers’ contribution to the access failure in Canada falls into two broad categories:

Regulatory: Lawyers elected by other lawyers constitute the great majority of law society Benchers who have consistently blocked expanding the supply of legal services providers beyond the legal profession.

Commercial: Lawyers in private practice charge fees that are beyond most people’s financial capabilities, both in terms of amount and . . . [more]