After nearly two years of vigorous anti-wind litigation in Ontario, anti-wind activists have failed to satisfy any court or tribunal that wind energy development in accordance with government standards will cause serious harm. Many wind projects have been approved, and wind-based electrical generation is growing fast. However, the same concerns keep being raised, and we know of no Ontario wind farm that has obtained its approval without the cost and delay of litigation.

Renewable energy approvals in Ontario

Ontario was the first Canadian jurisdiction to set up a special approvals regime for renewable energy, through the Green Energy Act. To . . . [more]

I am not a great fan of relegating a specific month to honour persons of other cultures or races. I believe it would be better to integrate broad teaching about cultures within the education system as a regular feature of the curriculum throughout elementary and high school. I also do not appreciate that blacks were given the coldest month of the year to celebrate their achievements around the world. Nonetheless, as last year, I have decided to dedicate one blog post in February to a black person in the legal realm whose achievements should be acknowledged. This year, that person is Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré...

Last week I missed my appointed blog date – but for a good reason. I was honoured to speak at the Law Society of Alberta Plenary Session as part of the CBA winter conference in Edmonton. While few would suggest Edmonton as a preferred January destination, for me it was a hotspot of discussion around change in the legal services industry.

I continually find that west of the Upper Canadian border, law societies become progressively more forward-thinking and open to changing things in the public interest. It seems to me that law societies east of the Rockies and west of . . . [more]

One of the hottest ‘new’ tools for marketing and business development is infographics. Infographics are visually appealing, highly shareable and, when done right, can convey a lot of information quickly and easily, or make a mountain of data easy to understand. By combining text and visuals into one, infographics make the most of both to reinforce a message.

For lawyers, infographics are another tool that can be used to help differentiate a firm from others in the same practice area and a way to help clients and potential clients understand the legal process.

Lawyers are generally a text-heavy bunch. For . . . [more]

Each Thursday we present a significant excerpt 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.

SENTENCING, 8th Edition
by Clayton C. Ruby, C.M., Gerald Chan & Nader R. Hasan
Toronto: LexisNexis, 2012

Excerpt: Chapter 13, Imprisonment, sections 13.1 -13.8

[Footnotes omitted. They are available in a PDF version of the excerpt.]

Imprisonment

§13.1. Imprisonment should be the penal sanction of last resort. Prison is to be used only . . . [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 January 30 – February 5:

1. Quebec (Attorney General) v. A 2013 SCC 5
   

   [1] The issue raised by the parties in these appeals is whether it is valid to exclude de facto spouses from the patrimonial and support rights granted to married and civil union spouses. Does this exclusion violate the right to equality guaranteed by s. 15 of the Canadian Charter of

. . . [more]

As you are no doubt aware, RIM Blackberry finally brought its new operating system and a new phone to market this week. The first phone, the Z10 does not have a keyboard – a first for Blackberry. 

So will this save Blackberry? My take on early reviews is that Blackberry fans will like the new phones, and they will probably result in fewer people trading for iPhones, Android phones or Windows phones when their Blackberry terms expire. But it probably won’t result in a mass of people giving up their iPhones, Android phones or Windows phones for a Blackberry.

The . . . [more]

I recently heard The Honourable Mr. Justice Marshall Rothstein give a few remarks as he received the Manitoba Bar Association’s Distinguished Service Award. In acknowledging the award, Justice Rothstein wisely noted that our career accomplishments don’t reflect only our own achievements but also the many contributions of our mentors and teachers.

Justice Rothstein’s comments reminded me of the importance of good mentoring, particularly in the early years of a legal career but also through periods of career transition, and turned my mind to the role of mentors in my own career.

The awards presentation also included the 2013 Isabel Ross . . . [more]

CanLII users will have noticed a couple of interesting recent developments over at our free legal information institute.

In January Simon Fodden pointed us to CanLII’s announcement of a new partnership with a translation agency “to ensure selected leading Canadian judgments are available in both of Canada’s official languages.” As Simon noted, challenges of access to decisions in one language or the other have been discussed…more…than…once at Slaw, and this is welcome news.

And a post last week hints at exciting developments yet to come. CanLII is advertising an opportunity for the right person . . . [more]

The 2013 AALS Annual Meeting featured a panel discussion on Understanding Search Engine Algorithms: Can We Effectively Teach Research Without Them? From what I gathered from the tweets, the panel—which featured, among others, Ian Koenig (Chief Architect for Lexisnexis) and Ed Walters (CEO of Fastcase)—gave a peak into their “black box” search functionality, something that has been a subject of vigorous debate among researchers since WestlawNext + WestSearch was introduced three years ago. I think Sarah Glassmeyer (Director of Content Development for CALI.org) summarized many researchers’ feelings best when she tweeted:

Google (and google type search interfaces) infantilize people

. . . [more]

Here’s a question raised on a US legal technology list that seems relevant to Canadian law too.

What’s the duty of care of mobile devices as pertains to patches/updates provided by the vendor and/or provider?

Example:

I bought an Android phone in June 2012, which received an over-the-air OS upgrade in late July to Android 4.0.4. This release was provided to me well after the version was released to the public. Also, since that time, 2 other versions of Android (4.1 and 4.2) have been made available. There are known security vulnerabilities in the 4.0.4 release.

Yet I’ve certainly not

. . . [more]

There is a fantastic article in the Attorney at Work Blog by Daniel Gold today titled Save Random Sparks of Genius. Part of the article discusses the art of capture:

Finding a way to capture information anytime and anywhere—and then do something with that information—is critical to our success. It allows us to snare random sparks of genius like a hunter gets his prey.

Slaw has featured posts on capture using technology tools like Evernote, and Storify. There are low tech methods for remembering those fantastic ideas; I have a friend who swears by the notepad on the bedside . . . [more]