On November 13, 2013, Quebec’s Minister of Justice, Bertrand St-Arnaud, tabled Bill 61, An Act mainly to recover amounts paid unjustly by public bodies in relation to certain contracts in the construction industry in the national assembly. If enacted, Bill 61 would allow the minister of justice to seek compensation from businesses that defrauded public bodies or used fraudulent tactics or practices in the course of the tendering, awarding or management of public construction contracts, on behalf of all public bodies or government agencies.

In a stunning development, the Inquiry Committee charged with investigating the conduct of the Hon. Lori Douglas has resigned en masse (reasons here).

Associate Chief Justice Douglas was investigated by the Canadian Judicial Council in relation both to her conduct prior to her judicial appointment and to her disclosures during the appointment process. The Inquiry Committee was additionally charged with considering her conduct during the Canadian Judicial Council’s investigation, and in particular allegations that she interfered with the investigation.
The Inquiry Committee’s hearing has been fraught with problems. ACJ Douglas alleged that the Committee was biased, and after . . . [more]

You probably know that pro bono publico translates as “for the public good”. But you may not know that some justice system stakeholders view doing the public good as not much good at all. Generally lauded by judges and leaders of the profession, the long-term systemic value of pro bono legal service is a matter of limited but uneasy debate in the community of reformers, progressives and do-gooders dedicated to the concept of equal access to justice for everyone. Within that virtuous circle, not everyone is convinced of pro bono’s net benefit to the mission.

The typical knock against . . . [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 Existential Function of Interpretation in International Law
Duncan B. Hollis
SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2330642

(Footnotes omitted. They are available in the online version via the link above.)

Introduction

International law does not exist without interpretation. Consider the legality of using force to prevent further atrocities in Syria. Traditionally, international law precludes States from doing . . . [more]

Some exciting news today for fellow Hansard geeks:

https://twitter.com/LoPInformation/status/403177276843757568

The full digitized historical federal Hansard, Senate and House of Commons, is now available online, browsable and searchable. Canadiana.org’s Historical Debates of the Parliament of Canada portal was launched today: http://parl.canadiana.ca/

The project has been in development for some time. It complements the content that has been available on parl.gc.ca (House: 1994 onward; Senate: 1996 onward), to create a full collection of digital federal Hansard.

https://twitter.com/LoPInformation/status/402900381400719360

Full details about the portal and the search functions are here: http://parl.canadiana.ca/support/about. . . . [more]

The Canadian Mentorship Challenge is on this week as part of Global Entrepreneurship week. The challenge is for local organizations to mentor 10,000 entrepreneurs this week.

Here in London I spent some time yesterday at Hacker Studios talking to some people with budding business ideas. In addition to legal mentoring, advice is available on topics including accounting, sales, business planning, marketing, and human resources.

There are several groups in London that support an entrepreneur culture. What do other communities do?

A portion of my practice deals with startups and small business in the tech sector. To be frank, some . . . [more]

Legal Futures this week posted on the results of the third annual survey of what clients want from their legal service provider, conducted by legal technology service provider Peppermint Technology in the United Kingdom.

The post included two points that caught my eye. First, the survey found that clients are concerned about whether their legal advisor is able to provide online accessibility:

“There is now a significant body of businesspeople for whom online access has become a necessity of their working life,” the report said. “If their legal advisers are not perceived to be up to speed with this development,

. . . [more]

Yesterday Google Scholar Blog announced the launch of Google Scholar Library, a feature that allows a user to:

. . . save articles right from the search page, organize them by topic, and use the power of Scholar’s full-text search to quickly find just the one you want – at any time and from anywhere . . .

You’re able to use “labels” to organize the material you’ve saved to your library.

A user must log in to Google and via this link activate the Library feature.

This is clearly of potential benefit to the profession, because Scholar’s database includes . . . [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. Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board 2013 HRTO 440
   

   [2] In a prior decision, 2012 HRTO 350 (CanLII), 2012 HRTO 350 (“decision on liability”), I found that the respondent discriminated against the applicant because of disability contrary to ss. 5 and 9 of the Code, by failing to accommodate the applicant’s disability-related needs from April 2003 and then by terminating her employment on July 9,

. . . [more]

 [I]l est l’heure de s’enivrer! Pour n’être pas les esclaves martyrisés du temps, enivrez-vous sans cesse! – Charles Baudelaire

[T]his is a case about beer and a case of beer is a serious matter. – San Miguel Brewing International Limited v. Molson Canada 2005, 2013 FC 156, Phelan J, February 14, 2013.

People are really serious about their beer. In ancient days, you were flogged in the public square if you sold bad-tasting beer. Bad beer was considered to be “a fraud and a hazard to health”. In Germany in the 15^th & 16^th centuries, those . . . [more]

Legal citation to the courts for the past few years has, in some jurisdictions, been different than legal citation in academic works. Here in Alberta, on November 12, 2013 there was a Notice to the Profession from the Court of Queen’s Bench adopting the 7th edition of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (Toronto: Carswell, 2010). There is a lovely example of a law library’s description of the Guide (aka the McGill Guide) from the Lederman Law Library (Queen’s U).

Bob’s column this month references the incongruity of law students being responsible for editorial oversight of law reviews, I . . . [more]

This past summer, the Federal Court considered whether Imperial Tobacco could register as a trademark “the colour orange” on its packaging, under the Trade-marks Act. Imperial Tobacco’s application was contested by JTI MacDonald on the grounds that, inter alia, the colour claimed was not sufficiently specific and that the design claimed was not distinctive. The Imperial Tobacco case is just one of many recent instances in which companies have sought to protect a colour within an unclear legislative framework with regard to protecting colour as a distinctive mark. The Court dismissed JTI’s appeal and sided with Imperial Tobacco, . . . [more]