Access to Justice
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July 25, 2024
Court of Appeal decision underscores significance of obeying police instruction
On March 23, 2017, the Canadian Press reported that Angel McCool, then a 30-year-old Stratford woman, was charged with obstruction of police after her GMC utility vehicle was stopped on Highway 401 in Thames Centre, Ont.
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July 25, 2024
Legal status of Tibetans migrants in Canadian refugee law
Tibetans living in exile in India, Nepal and Bhutan often call themselves stateless refugees since they lost their country following China’s invasion of Tibet in the 1950s, and they still cannot return to their Tibetan homeland due to the lack of freedom and human rights and the ongoing persecution and cultural genocide by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Tibetan plateau of the Himalayas. Their lack of freedom and risk of harm, including persecution in the form of detention, torture and even death or disappearance, is reported yearly by Freedom House, Amnesty International, the U.S. International Committee on Religious Freedom and other non-Tibetan organizations. Many of these Tibetans have come to Canada seeking refugee protection.
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July 24, 2024
Duty of tech competence, AI adoption by lawyers | Connie L. Braun and Juliana Saxberg
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has dominated legal tech conversations for several years, and for good reason. Widespread consumer adoption of ChatGPT and other generative AI products has delivered a host of unprecedented legal and tech risks to Canadian entities. Governments and regulators in Canada and abroad continue to scramble to regulate the responsible use of AI tools, even though their use is already thoroughly embedded in Canadian and global business, government and legal system operations. As a result, the typical Canadian entity’s AI compliance dossier is an unfinished patchwork of aspirational codes and aging regulatory instruments that were designed when Y2K was considered a big enterprise tech risk.
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July 19, 2024
Saskatchewan giving money for female offender reintegration
Saskatchewan is spending money in a bid to improve the chances of female offenders reintegrating into society after leaving custody.
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July 18, 2024
Pros and cons to Saskatchewan’s mandatory mediation, says family lawyer
A Saskatchewan family lawyer is praising the province’s mandatory dispute resolution program — but is critical of the fact that parting spouses have to pay to use it. Anna Singer, of Scharfstein LLP, said Saskatchewan’s Mandatory Family Dispute Resolution program “has been very positive” in its requirement that divorcing couples attempt mediation before going through the lengthy and expensive process of hashing out their differences in court.
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July 17, 2024
Have Criminal Code changes made prostitution safer?
During a visit to a penitentiary in the Netherlands, the warden of the institution advised it was the only prison in the country holding sex offenders. “How many are there?” I asked. The answer I received was 13. Of course, Amsterdam has the famous “red-light district.”
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July 16, 2024
Compassion for pets and owners due in Ontario divorce law following B.C. changes | Barry Nussbaum
Summer is here, and down at Harbourfront, Torontonians can be seen walking their dogs — or, for the more pampered poodles, being pushed around in strollers.
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July 16, 2024
Pasteurized judges | Norman Douglas
I am guilty as charged. I have no excuses. I throw myself on the mercy of this readership.
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July 16, 2024
Successful appeal focuses on trial judge’s charge to jury
Justice David Aston convicted A.B. of one count of sexual assault on Sept. 24, 2021. He was acquitted of four other charges of sexual assault and choking. A.B. appealed his conviction to the Ontario Court of Appeal mainly on the grounds that Justice Aston erred in his charge to the jury. A.B. claimed the errors were so significant that a new trial ought to be ordered (R. v. A.B., 2024 ONCA 446).
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July 15, 2024
New regulations to be enforced for dogs crossing Canada-U.S. border starting Aug. 1
Canadian tourists crossing the U.S. border with their dogs later this summer will be facing new regulations.