By any measure one of the most entrenched and distressing human rights tragedies in the Americas has been the decades of conflict and abuse in Colombia. The statistics are staggering. Highest number of internally displaced people in the world. Most dangerous country on the planet to be a trade unionist. Amidst an enduring crisis that has impacted virtually every part of Colombian society, the plight of the country’s Indigenous peoples is particularly harrowing. Their fate has become so alarming in fact that UN experts and the country’s own Constitutional Court are starting to talk about extermination and possible genocide.

By . . . [more]

When someone says that they will do something, I expect them to do it. Call me naïve, call me impatient, both are likely true. Back on August 20, The Canadian Press/Global News shared that Prime Minister Harper was intending to prorogue Parliament.

The official prorogation proclamation will be published in Canada Gazette Part II. Usually when prorogation is decided outside the publication schedule of the Gazette (which is every second Wednesday for Part II), it is done with an EXTRA issue. There were EXTRAs published with prorogation in September of 2007, September of 2002, and September of 1999. A search . . . [more]

Messiah. That is the name that last month, a Tennessee judge deemed was inappropriate for a seven-month old baby, holding that « it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that person is Jesus Christ ». The judge entered an order changing the boy’s name to Martin. Most legal commentators have since argued that this decision is more than likely to be reversed on appeal, primarily in light of the religious underpinnings of the judge’s decision, which raise First Amendment concerns (according to the New York Times, the American Civil Liberties Union has offered to appeal . . . [more]

I don’t think we’ve yet talked about the Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) here on Slaw. A structure of the University of Bielefeld in Germany, BASE boasts that it indexes the metadata of 50,072,862 documents from 2,699 content sources (and keeps adding data at a great rate). Of course, the database ranges across all fields of academic endeavour — but that includes law and law-related material, which might be of use in certain situations. Much of the material referenced in BASE is open access and identified as such by the search engine.

You can either browse the database or use . . . [more]

It is challenging for law firm libraries to measure the performance of their libraries. Traditional library metrics are less helpful for law firm libraries compared to public or academic libraries; for example, circulation statistics are often used as an indicator of library usage and what parts of the library collection are in highest demand. In law firm libraries, many of the materials are used primarily in the library or are signed out to a single lawyer for months (in some cases for years) at a time. The circulation statistics for a given book will therefore suggest that it was never . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on technology, research and practice.

Technology

Use PC Decrapifier to Remove Unwanted Software From a New or Old PC
Dan Pinnington

Unfortunately, most new computers come preloaded with a tons of junk software you don’t really want or need. These can be trial versions of various programs, including widely used programs, toolbars, utilities, games and other programs you have never heard of (and will probably never use).
And if you have an older computer, odds . . . [more]

I stumbled across this post by Marc Luber yesterday that I thought I would share.

Marc identifies five different things that are not taught in law school:

1. How to be a Lawyer
2. Career Planning
3. Legal Career Paths
4. Alternative Careers for Lawyers
5. How to Sell your Legal Skills to Employers

It was 10 years ago that I entered my first year of law school. All five of the items mentioned by Marc were as true in 2003 as they are in 2013. With law school enrolment numbers up, and articling placements becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, it still boggles my mind . . . [more]

Is it still news when an organization relaunches its website? The Ontario Bar Association has just relaunched its website with a more social, interactive focus:

When we set out on this journey, we wanted to provide real, tangible value to our members. We’ve boosted opportunity for engagement with the OBA through social media integration, member directories, practice section landing pages, private forums, and the volunteer portal. Check out all the new features available to you through the new OBA.ORG.

They have put together a short video to introduce the changes:

The new oba.org from Ontario Bar Association on Vimeo. . . . [more]

Clients don’t always appreciate how lawyers can help on other legal issues they may encounter as they go through life.

Just as booking an appointment with a doctor or financial advisor offers an opportunity to identify issues and gauge your health (physical and financial), checking in with their lawyer can ensure your client’s legal health is also in good shape.

To help lawyers remind their clients to check up their “legal health”, LAWPRO has created the Annual Legal Health Check-up (in Word format and PDF format). It is a non-exhaustive list of common legal issues that arise in a . . . [more]

“I’m bad, and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no one I’d rather be than me.” – Wreck-It Ralph

The Ontario Bar Association’s marketing campaign, Why I went to Law School, has attracted media attention (National Post July 31 2013, Globe and Mail February 6 2013) as well as being cogently criticized by Jordan Furlong on SLAW back in February (Why Lawyer Image Campaigns are Pointless).

In this month’s column I want to add my two cents to that conversation. What I say is informed by . . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada's award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from forty-one 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. Avoid a Claim   2. Finding Legal Information   3. Michael Geist    4. Canadian Legal History Blog    5. All About Information

In the wake of the 150 illnesses at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) recently, you’d think the Cronut is a name that vendors would avoid like the staphylococcus aureus toxin plague.

From the outset the Cronut name has been closely protected by its inventors in Soho, New York. Dominique Ansel Bakery, which created the Cronut in May 2013, has provided legal notices to American bakeries selling products with the same name, and they were not pleased when Toronto’s Le Dolci Bakery and Epic Burger announced they would be selling their dish at the CNE.

But Dominique Ansel may have other . . . [more]