The Olympics are coming this summer. Imagine the marathoners winding their way through the city of London. As the camera zooms in on the winner crossing the finish line what do you expect to see? Will he be taking a swig of water and saying “I have to run my second marathon now, where’s the starting line for the next event?” Absurd – right? And yet, when it comes to the gruelling demands of intellectual work it is so easy to forget our physical needs and limitations and expect the equivalent of an endless marathon.

Tony Schwartz has founded a . . . [more]

A 41-page internal Department of Justice report obtained by the Canadian Press through a Access to Information Act request shows that the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (SSAGs) appear to be working well in jurisdictions where they have been adopted.

The SSAGs are not legislation and do not have the force of law. However, courts have strongly endorsed their use, and Prowse J.A. of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia described them in Yemchuk v. Yemchuk as a “useful tool,” but emphasized they were only intended to reflect the current state of the law, and did not consider entitlement.

Larlee . . . [more]

We write. And become attached to what we write. We put something of ourselves into it, even if it’s a routine patch of prose for work. How discouraging, then, to have our words thrown back into our faces as unworthy.

One of the steps to becoming a lawyer, I’d say, is learning that professional writing, at least, is a collaborative venture. You give your draft to colleagues who feel free to wield the red pencil, or its slightly nicer Word “comment” version; and with varying degrees of irritation you suck it up and hit “accept changes.” Nothing personal. Still. . . . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

Initially I was going to write about the latest publishing developments and products post the easter break. But as most of you will know a bombshell hit the legal world earlier in the month: the collapse of Dewey in the US will, I suggest, have long term ramifications for both major publishers in the US market, particularly if partners and employees are owed large sums by the firm. We imagine there are more than a few unpaid bills that will remain unpaid or will be paid back on Greek terms over a very long period of time to publishers, content . . . [more]

On May 3, 2012, Ontario’s Bill 13, the Accepting Schools Act, 2011 (which I discussed in a previous Slaw blog post), passed second reading and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Policy. During committee hearings, the government heard loud and clear that it is important that students who want to establish student-led, single-issue groups, like gay-straight alliances in their schools should be supported and allowed to do so. The government also heard that students should be allowed to call these groups specifically “Gay-Straight Alliances” or other similar names. Hence, the committee made several amendments to Bill 13 . . . [more]

Here are the three most-consulted English-language cases on CanLII for the week of May 22 – 30.

♨ 1. R. v. Pelech 2012 ABCA 134

[1] This appeal addresses the proposal that a trial judge needs to have in contemplation the rule in Hodge’s case, when considering evidence of impaired driving.

♨ 2. Cinar Corp. v. Robinson 2012 SCC 25

[1] The respondents, Claude Robinson and Les Productions Nilem Inc., are asking this Court to order the applicants to provide security in the amount of $3,250,000 for the amounts they would have to pay should their appeals to this Court

As we all give a moment of silence for the sad, preventable destruction of Dewey LeBoeuf it may be time for firms to recall the words of Sylvester Bowen of Bowen, Fong & Chandri:

 When we hire lawyers, we hire those who believe in what we believe.

 We don’t hire lawyers who are technically good and need a job.

 We don’t hire lawyers who are driven by money.

 We hire lawyers who are motivated by our principles of change and innovation.

 We don’t want lawyers who are seduced by the reliability of hours and profits per partner because that . . . [more]

Although it is now customary for outsourcing agreements to include extensive change management provisions, not all of them include “Mandatory Change” or “Directive” provisions. These are provisions that entitle a Customer to require its Service Provider to start work on a particular change on a priority basis and without compliance with the often extensive provisions that have been inserted into the outsourcing agreement specifically to ensure that the Service Provider does not start work on a change until there is a written agreement around all of the terms and conditions. The need for Mandatory Change provisions can arise, for example, . . . [more]

It is no secret that the hottest item in the news these days in the province of Quebec has been the student protests over tuition hikes and Bill 78. Among the plethora of articles and opinions, one recently caught my eye: provincial politicians have not been utilizing Twitter to its fullest extent and to their advantage during time.

It is clear that Twitter has played a huge role these last few weeks, as public protests have been organized more spontaneously, with the Montreal police and public transportation system keeping the population abreast of developments as affected by the protests. Twitter . . . [more]

Earlier this month I posted a bit on that week’s news of funding cuts to the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and the National Archival Development Program (NADP). This week brings further developments on that issue.

On Monday this week, Canadian archivists led the Archivists’ On to Ottawa Trek Day of Action:

On April 30, 2012, the National Archival Development Program (NADP) was eliminated. Surplus notices were sent to Library and Archives Canada (LAC) to ultimately reduce its staff by 20%. Libraries and archives in the Transport, Immigration, and Public Works departments were unilaterally shut down.
…
On May 28,

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, appeared yesterday before the House of Commons access to information, privacy and ethics committee. 

The Commissioner would like PIPEDA to include stronger penalties for privacy violations as an incentive to comply. PIPEDA currently has no financial sanctions. If a violator does not conform to a decision of the Commissioner, the recourse is for the Commissioner to take it to the Federal court, which has powers to order compliance and grant damages.

In part this seems to be driven by “…the apparent disregard that some of these social media companies have shown for Canadian privacy laws.”  . . . [more]