Ethics are the core of the legal profession, guiding lawyers, young and old in their interactions with clients, the public, and the bar. Each jurisdiction maintains a Code of Professional Conduct as a set of rules for lawyers to follow as members of the profession to maintain the profession’s honour and dignity. Much of each Code is open to interpretation and therefore can only form part of a lawyer’s approach to ethical conduct. Every lawyer also relies on their personal ethics, character, and the advice of their mentors, colleagues, and peers.

This short paper will address the challenges of ethical . . . [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 comportement abusif des policiers lors de l’arrestation de l’accusé constitue une atteinte à l’intégrité du système de justice qui sera révélée, perpétuée et aggravée par le déroulement du procès ou son issue, et il n’y a aucune autre réparation susceptible de corriger cette atteinte que l’arrêt . . . [more]

In Moffitt v. TD Canada Trust, 2023 ONCA 349, the Ontario Court of Appeal addresses the test for summary judgment motions. Justice Brown, writing for the Court, confirms that a summary judgment motion brought under Rule 20 of the Rules of Civil Procedure has the same test regardless of whether a party has elected for a judge alone trial or a jury trial.

In Ontario, the test for whether granting a summary judgment is appropriate is not concerned with who would act as the trier of fact if a trial is required. The focus is on whether a trial . . . [more]

Written by Lewis Waring, LL.B., Editor, First Reference Inc.

In a recent Alberta ruling, an employer was found to have failed to accommodate an employee’s rare disability when it refused to accept a lesser known medical test. Instead of maintaining a flexible attitude, the employer arbitrarily decided to reject the employee’s medical evidence merely because the test violated its policy. As a result, the employer was found liable for disability discrimination under the Alberta Human Rights Act.

Background

The employer was a public sector health services organization. The employee worked for the employer from 1992 in different positions until . . . [more]

In a recent episode of HBO’s Succession, billionaire daughter Shiv Roy learns that she can’t hire her preferred divorce lawyer because the lawyer is “conflicted out”. Surprised that her husband, Tom Wambsgans, would have chosen the same lawyer she wished to retain, Shiv inquires after a few other top New York divorce lawyers, only to discover they too were conflicted out. Shiv realizes Tom “met with or retained every useable lawyer in New York” to prevent them from representing her against him—a move her shrewd father pulled on her mother many years before. (“I got mommed,” Shiv later tells . . . [more]

A number of years ago, my boss told me he wanted to have a one on one meeting. He was leaving the organization shortly, and he had never done a one on one meeting with me except on my request, so I knew something was going down.

We sat in his office guest chairs, across from one another, as was his habit. He said he wanted to touch base before he left the organization, and then the meeting began. It turned out to be largely a recitation of my flaws and missteps as an employee over the years we worked . . . [more]

Preamble

This post is the second of a series considering three major issues under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: the impact of how the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has defined rights; the relationship between rights; and the relationship between guarantees of rights and freedoms and section 1 of the Charter.

I focus the discussion of these issues through the lens of section 3, which guarantees the right to vote and to be eligible to sit in the legislature. Following the exploration of the SCC jurisprudence relating to each of the three issues in relation to . . . [more]

Canada’s Federal Court is the go-to forum for intellectual property litigation in Canada. While provincial superior courts have concurrent jurisdiction over infringement proceedings, for several reasons, rights owners often look to the Federal Court to start their proceedings and some recent announcements have reinforced this dominance of the Federal Court for intellectual property matters.

Legislative Background

The Patent Act, Trademarks Act and Copyright Act all include provisions granting concurrent jurisdiction to the Federal Court alongside the provincial superior courts. For example, section 54(1) of the Patent Act states that infringement may be brought in superior courts which is concurrent . . . [more]

Ever accidentally wrote over a template or deleted a document out of a folder that you didn’t want to delete? Ever wanted to check what documents were in a folder on a previous date? Allow me to introduce you to the “Previous Versions” function in Windows Explorer.

The Scenario

You’re working in a folder with a bunch of disclosure documents in it. You’re working on reviewing them and deleting documents that you don’t need at the same time. In doing so, you delete a very important document that you didn’t intend to delete. This document was a PDF that was . . . [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) : Dans une décision inédite, le tribunal impose une peine globale d’emprisonnement de 8 ans à un accusé ayant notamment produit plus de 86 000 fichiers de pornographie juvénile en utilisant la technologie de l’hypertrucage.

Intitulé : R. c. Larouche, 2023 QCCQ 1853
Juridiction : Cour du Québec, . . . [more]

By Daniel Standing LL.B., Editor, First Reference Inc.

Silence during the accommodation process, strange facts and self-serving evidence in support of a human rights complaint prove to be an unsatisfactory combination of factors for establishing a reasonable prospect of success in proving a complaint at a hearing. Exercising its gatekeeping function in 2023 BCHRT 1, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal dismissed a complaint that is equally odd (factually) and instructive (legally). . . . [more]