On December 8, 2011, the federal Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service (formerly Bill C-22) came into force. The new legislation aims to protect children from online sexual exploitation, by requiring suppliers of Internet services to the public to:

A few months ago we had a minor flood in the library. It wasn’t catastrophic, in large part due to the observant eyes of a lawyer browsing our tax section. Nonetheless it was a reminder of how important it is for libraries, regardless of size, to have a disaster recovery plan. In addition to our firm-wide business recovery plan, we now have a specialized library disaster plan.

Key tips for the disaster plan include:

• Keep the plan simple. Guy Robertson, a specialist in disaster planning, recommends that the plan be small and portable; wallet-sized is ideal.
• Clearly delineate responsibilities of

. . . [more]

Colleague and fellow law librarian Sarah Sutherland let me know of her article “On Hiring Library Staff in Rural Areas” in Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research.

The article of course is good and worth mentioning for that reason alone but Sarah’s email made me realize I had forgotten about this online journal, which was mentioned a number of years ago on SLAW. As such, I thought I would also remind SLAW readers since many of the articles would be relevant to most of you. In the current edition, for . . . [more]

The retention of women in private practice continues to be a challenge. Although women now form the majority of graduates from law school, they leave the profession at much higher rates than men. The BC Law Society reports that 36 per cent of women leave the profession in their first five years in practice compared to 22 per cent of men.

Over the years, many women lawyers have tried to convince law firms to adopt broader alternate work arrangements or entry requirements into partnership but have found law firms very difficult to change. When change has not happened as quickly . . . [more]

Language debates fascinate me. My local hockey team gets me going, whether winning or losing. Now both interests are combined.

You may not have heard, but the appointment of new Habs coach Randy Cunneyworth is creating quite the stir in Quebec. So much so that it has become a question of politics. In his editorial, Henry Aubin, journalist for the Montreal Gazette, writes strong words to this effect:

The club’s federalist ownership is inadvertently blowing fresh oxygen on the cooling embers of sovereignist fervour. Defence of the language is what powered sovereignty in the 1970s, and Molson’s Canadiens could be

. . . [more]

You’ll know from our announcement a couple of weeks ago that Slaw is in the running for best legal blog (legal technology category) in the ABA Journal Blawg 100 event. Seems we’re doing well in the voting but could use a last minute flurry to get us to the top. So if you’re minded to vote for Slaw but haven’t got around to it yet, this would be a good time to nip on over to the ABA site, register to vote, and cast your ballot for us in the Legal Technology category. It only takes a few seconds, and . . . [more]

Here are the three most-consulted English-language cases on CanLII for the week of December 13 – 19.

♨ 1. Ontario Korean Businessmen’s Assoc. v. Seung Jin Oh 2011 ONSC 6991 —for the third week in a row.

♨ 2. Combined Air Mechanical Services Inc. v. Flesch 2011 ONCA 764—for the second week in a row.

♨ 3. Morabito v. DiLorenzo 2011 ONSC 7379—700 views since release on December 12.

[1] The defendants move for an order to compel the plaintiff Jeffery Morabito to produce the contents of his Facebook and MySpace pages.

The rest

Significant SCC decisions came . . . [more]

I just attended the 30th annual Christmas Bureau Breakfast. This local charity has been providing festive meals to Edmonton families in need since 1940. The breakfast, hosted by Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, and sponsored by The Westin Edmonton, Sobeys and IGA was a wonderful event this year.

Field Law has been supporting the Christmas Bureau since the war years and we have participated in the Breakfast since its beginning. I am proud that our firm supports this worthy organization with an annual Craft auction as well as cash donations from lawyers and staff.

Many lawyers and law firms . . . [more]

Here’s the scenario: you’re retained to argue an appeal in the tough U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit; there’s a precedent from that very court that appears clearly to stand in your way; you’re about to prepare your brief for filing. What do you do about the obstinate precedential obstacle?

I’d be willing to be that if you took a poll of appellate advocates, something on the order of 99.4 percent of them would say that, whatever you do, you don’t just ignore it. But that’s exactly what counsel did in Gonzalez-Servin, et al. v. Ford Motor Company, . . . [more]

There was a time, not too long ago, when some in legal and professional publishing would refer to their sector as offering “a license to print money”. The highest quality publishers were renowned for the wonderful reputations of their products and services, their market knowledge and intimacy, their relationships and engagement with their customers and, even though prices were high, compared to other forms of information publishing, they were trusted and supported by their markets. Obviously, customer service was always pretty terrible but that was a quaint characteristic which was recognised and accommodated, partly on grounds that true value . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada announced today that judgment in the National Securities Regulator Reference will be delivered at 9:45 a.m. EDT on Thursday, December 22, 2011. That’s In the Matter of Section 53 of the Supreme Court Act, R.S.C. 1985, C. S-26 and in the Matter of a Reference by the Governor General in Council concerning the proposed Canadian Securities Act, as set out in Order in Council P.C. 2010-667, dated May 26, 2010 (33718)

We’ll link to it and commentary when it comes down.

Perhaps the word “Judgment” implies that it will be the decision of the Court, . . . [more]

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