For generations, Canada provided refuge and opportunities for individuals seeking a home where they could build a good life. Our strong legal system remains the foundation on which that home was built, offering protections to those who faced persecution for reasons such as the colour of their skin or their political or religious beliefs. On April 17, 1982, Canada enshrined those protections in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, declaring that equality under the law is fundamental to the quality of life of its citizens.

Since then, Canada’s commitment to equality and justice – a real source of pride . . . [more]

Law Day is being celebrated across the country this week to mark the 31^st anniversary of the signing of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms on April 17, 1982. The Canadian Bar Association introduced Law Day one year later and has since been promoting events to mark it across the country.

In Winnipeg, Law Day celebrations took place this past Sunday with an Open House and tours at the Law Courts Complex, a special sitting of the Citizenship Court, student mock trials, legal information sessions and displays.

I’ve been a Law Day volunteer a number of times, greeting members . . . [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 the week of April 9 – 16:

1. R. v. Duncan 2013 ONCJ 160
   

   5. At heart, Mr. Duncan’s case was unremarkable. A minor alleged Highway Traffic Act offence led to a police-citizen interaction in the parking lot of Mr. Duncan’s apartment building in the wee hours of the morning. A request that Mr. Duncan produce his licence led to an alleged refusal, which led to an

This month marks the 42nd anniversary of the publication of Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book. For Slaw readers younger than I, Abbie Hoffman was a political and social activist, a leader of the 1960s counterculture and youth revolution movements. With Jerry Rubin and others, he was a founding member of the Yippies (Youth International Party) and one of the defendants in the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial for incitement to riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. (Hubert Humphrey and Edmund Muskie were the Democratic nominees for that year’s presidential race; Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew won the election.) 

Steal . . . [more]

I had to visit the Provincial Archives of Alberta today. I was looking for an Order of the Planning Board from 1981. Why? Because there was a reference to the document on the title for some land.

This is not the first trip I have made to the Archives. I have visted the archives to find information for clients a number of times. Water records, repair costs for infrastructure, lists of names, my great grandfather’s homestead record (wait, that was for me, not my law firm), copies of Alberta Orders in Council (with the appendices), copies of Ministerial Orders, and . . . [more]

These are notes from a panel discussion by Ron Deibert, Professor of Politcal Science and Director of the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies and the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, David Lashway, Partner, Baker & McKenzie, Washington, DC, John Woods, Partner, Baker & McKenzie, Washington, DC and moderator Theo Ling, Partner, Baker & McKenzie, Toronto on April 15, 2013 at the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association National Spring Conference 2013 in Toronto. Note: these are my selected notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my own and . . . [more]

Since our new design was implemented in December of last year, I’ve received lots of compliments — and a few expressions of particular concern from columnists. Their difficulty is that it was hard to see a list of all of the recent columns (as opposed to the daily blog posts) when the left sidebar was removed to increase the size of the main content area.

I’ve taken these concerns to heart and have come up with what I hope is a solution that works for those who were disappointed and yet keeps Slaw readable, with its larger type and comfortable . . . [more]

These are notes from a keynote address by Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto on April 15, 2013 at the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association National Spring Conference 2013 in Toronto. Note: these are my selected notes from this session; any inaccuracies or omissions are my own and not the speakers’.

Playing to Win
Roger Martin
Dean, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and author of 8 books

Martin has previously done strategy work for law firms. It is important for law, IT and HR departments to understand strategy and add to it in . . . [more]

The Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales has been doing some serious research into legal needs across Australia and how those needs are in fact met. The resulting

Legal Australia-Wide Survey (LAW Survey), provides the first comprehensive quantitative assessment across Australia of an extensive range of legal needs on a representative sample of the population. It examines the nature of legal problems, the pathways to their resolution and the demographic groups that struggle with the weight of their legal problems.

If the 350+ pages of the full report daunt you, you might be interested in the Foundation’s “Updating . . . [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

How to Quickly Tell if a Site Is Down for Everyone or Just You
Dan Pinnington

On many occasions, the frequent surfers among us will have struggled to view a website that refuses to load. This raises a simple but profound question: “Is this website down for everyone or just for me?”
Now, you could call someone or send out an email asking if others are having the same . . . [more]

The arrival of a group of Cree youth from Whapmagoostui, the northernmost Cree village on Hudson Bay at the end of a 1,500 km walk (and the many friends they picked up along the way) after a two month trek through the northern bush should remind us that the spirit of Idle No More (INM) has not died. It has simply gone off the grid. The young people left Whapmagoostui (aka Great Whale) on January 16 and were expected in Ottawa on March 25. The first long leg of their journey – from Whapmagoostui to Chisassibi was on snowshoes and . . . [more]

Today and tomorrow I am at the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA) 2013 National Spring Conference in Toronto. This morning the CCCA announced they are partnering with the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto to launch a new certification program for Canadian in-house counsel, Business Leadership Program for In-house Counsel. The announcement was made by CCCA Chair Grant Borbridge, Q.C., of Calgary, and Roger Martin, Dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

The focus of the program is not substantive law, but rather helping lawyers make the leap from firm-focussed practice of law . . . [more]