I was intrigued by the Ontario Court of Appeal’s “Supplementary Reasons” in Working Families Coalition (Canada) Inc.v. Ontario (Attorney General) (“Supplementary Reasons”), recently reported in the December 15, 2023 Ontario Reports.

On March 6, 2023, the Court of Appeal released its decision in the Working Families Coalition’s (“The Coalition”) challenge to the third party spending limits added to the Elections Finances Act (“EFA”). (I wrote a six post series on section 3 and other issues under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, using the Superior Court of Justice decisions (here and here) and the . . . [more]

The Canadian justice system experienced an unprecedented transformation during the Covid pandemic, when court and administrative proceedings across the country moved from in-person to remote hearings. Much discussion ensued on the implications of this transformation for the judiciary, the legal profession and their clients, as well as access to justice more broadly. However, self-represented litigants were not directly engaged in most of these discussions and as such, their perspectives and experiences respecting remote proceedings did not form part of the access to justice assessment. Early on in this process shift the NSRLP started hearing from SRLs anecdotally about their experiences . . . [more]

Hello my dear readers.

I have not as yet had the privilege of writing about wellness on this amazing platform, however, I am not new to the topic.

As lawyers and legal professions, we are not very good at taking time to care for ourselves. We are in the business of helping and caring for others and at the end of the day, there is usually very little time left for us.

My goal is to welcome you all into this space and invite you to give yourselves permission to take a few moments to recharge, breathe and find some . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Le juge de première instance n’a pas erré en rejetant la défense de croyance sincère mais erronée au consentement; le témoignage de l’appelant, qui démontrait qu’il avait «tâté le terrain» alors que la victime était passive et qu’il avait ensuite procédé à une pénétration anale sans même . . . [more]

Mark your calendars, the third iteration of the National Family Law Arbitration Course begins in January 2024.

Courses in arbitration practice are available from organizations across Canada. While these courses are of a generally high quality, their primary focus tends to be the arbitration of employment, construction and corporate/commercial disputes. Family law disputes, however, have important differences that set them apart and demand a special approach to their management and resolution. Family law cases cannot be handled with the same off-the-shelf approach that might be used to resolve other civil cases.

The National Family Law Arbitration Course provides a complete . . . [more]

Teaching a class on Foreign, Comparative and International Legal (FCIL) research makes complete sense in Tucson, Arizona. The city of Tucson is located an hour away from a major international border which is constantly featured in local, national and international news. The proximity to the US-Mexico Border makes the University of Arizona College of Law, the ideal place from where to study and analyze other national legal systems, how to compare them and the impact of international law and transnational emergencies. These are some of the themes students engage with in my class, among many others. However, I also strive . . . [more]

Written by Christina Catenacci, BA, LLB, LLM, PhD, Content Editor, First Reference Inc.

In September, 2023, the Chair of the Prince Edward Island Human Rights Commission decided that a female employee was indeed sexually harassed while she was employed with the employer. Therefore, she was awarded $15,000 in general damages for mental anguish, humiliation, affront to dignity and/or emotional injury. Additionally, the Panel ordered the employer to create an anti-harassment policy (accepting direction from the Panel), and to pay for sexual harassment training for all staff members in a form that was satisfactory to the Human Rights Commission. . . . [more]

My mother instilled within me the mentality of not going along with what everyone else is doing. It is a fairly common parental lesson, really. Typically presented in the context of all of one’s friends jumping off of a cliff with the question posed of if you would, too. While I wonder why everyone is jumping – there might be good reason and that information is needed to determine the best course of action – Wikipedia explains the lesson as “a rhetorical question used to discourage the interlocutor from blind obedience”.

There are no less than 20 articles already on . . . [more]

Systemic racism is a reality in Canada. At many junctures in life, a person’s access to opportunities and fair treatment will be affected by their race, skin colour, or indigineity. The legal profession, in order to do its essential work in our society, must recognize and confront systemic racism.

So far, most formal efforts to do so have focused on racism’s effect on lawyers, law students, and others who work in the law. (See for example the action plans from the law societies of BC and Ontario, as well as Alberta’s “My Experience” project). These are worthy . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

DROITS ET LIBERTÉS : Un homme âgé dont le fils a retiré plus de 100 000 $ de ses comptes bancaires n’a pas été victime d’exploitation financière puisque ces retraits, qui étaient conformes à la volonté qu’il avait exprimée avant d’avoir des troubles cognitifs, ne l’ont pas placé dans une . . . [more]