The federal government’s Bill C-13 has come in for a good deal of well-deserved criticism — principally for being in fact an omnibus bill and for increasing the power of authorities to invade our privacy. A recent critique of the bill by Peter Nowak in Canadian Business caught my attention because it reminded me that it’s still illegal to publish a crime comic. The prohibition occurs in s.613 of the Criminal Code:
. . . [more]163. (1) Every one commits an offence who . . .
(b) makes, prints, publishes, distributes, sells or has in his possession for the purpose
We recently had the pleasure of serving on a Fairfax Bar Association CLE faculty which included Circuit Court Chief Judge Dennis Smith, and Circuit Court Judges John Tran and Jane Roush. Their panel offering their insights on e-discovery in state courts was warmly received.
Judge Smith got the ball rolling by talking about the difference between digital immigrants and digital natives, terms coined more than a decade ago by author, educator and lecturer Marc Prensky.
Digital immigrants didn’t grow up with technology and digital natives did. Many judges are digital immigrants. Some will “learn a new language” and immerse themselves . . . [more]
Mumbling covers a lot of sins. When you’re abashed or ill-prepared or simply your usual fifteen minutes away from l’esprit d’escalier, mumbling could be the way to go. Broca’s area has lost contact with ground control, yet utterance is obligatory: dive! dive! dive! And from somewhere deep in the reptilian part of your think gel come noises that sound so close to speech that some of the people some of the time can be fooled.
Lawyers don’t get to mumble much, though. For one thing, it doesn’t work very well in print (which is not to say it’s impossible) . . . [more]
Each year on December 1st we open up Clawbies.ca for “nomination season”, a month long process where online participants can highlight some of their favourite voices within the Canadian legal blogosphere.
This past Sunday we were pleased to carry forward that tradition once again – unbelievably for the 8th time! The website theme and award badges got their annual facelift, and the announcement post went live at 9:00 am eastern/6:00 pacific.
A handful of days later, and I’m happy to share our annual “good will project” is off to a great start (and not just Erik Magraken, who now famously . . . [more]
I don’t know if Gmail and Google Calendar are much used within practice — I can think of a bunch of reasons why they shouldn’t be — but I’m certain that many of us who work in the legal industry use these applications in our private lives. In either case, it’s important to have control over your data. If you don’t access your Gmail via IMAP, you don’t have a local copy on your own machines. Now Google plans to let you simply download your mail data as they roll this ability out over the next month. Calendar data can . . . [more]
Environmental regulators and tribunals bear substantial responsibilities and make important decisions regarding development in Canada. If they won’t listen to opponents of a project, will they breach the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
The issue has been raised before the courts recently regarding both a pipeline approval before the National Energy Board and regulation of ongoing fracking activities before the Alberta Energy Regulator. The AER replaced the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), and provides “full-lifecycle regulatory oversight of energy resource development in Alberta – from application and construction to abandonment and reclamation, and everything in between.”
The mandate . . . [more]
The November 2013 issue of Connected is now available online.
The bulletin covers news about the impact of social media on courts. Most of the items are about the United States, but there is occasional coverage of other jurisdictions.
The bulletin is published by the Virginia-based National Center for State Courts and the Conference of Court Public Information Officers.
In this issue:
. . . [more]
They laughed at me when I suggested that law firms should move to open concept offices for all lawyers with fun amenities like rooftop terraces.
Not possible! they yelled.
We could never get any work done! they sneered.
We need our offices! they pompously carolled.
We’re not techies working for Google! they laughed.
Now Australian law firm, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, with offices across Australia employing over 500 lawyers has proven them all wrong.
Walking into Corrs’ new Sydney office at state-of-the-art new office tower, 8 Chifley Place was like walking into a dream.
No private offices. None. . . . [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.
Competition and Antitrust Laws in Canada: Mergers, Joint Ventures and Competitor Collaborations
Brian A Facey, Cassandra Brown
Toronto: LexisNexis Canada, 2013
Excerpt from Chapter 1
Looking back at Canada’s experience with competition law provides only limited insights into its current application. Indeed, the history of Canadian competition law is littered with unsuccessful attempts . . . [more]
Last year on Slaw, Steve Matthews wrote ten tips for building a law firm publishing culture. One of his tips included using an editorial calendar as a useful tool to keep track of who was writing what in the firm and when, but also to include guidelines, set reminders, and help identify opportunities, and in my last post on using Evernote as a marketing tool, I mentioned that lawyers may want to keep their editorial calendar within Evernote.
Editorial calendars help you plan content and ensure that you are posting consistently. They are also handy tools to help . . . [more]
This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada | Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada
