Constitutional
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July 17, 2023
Flexibility needed with new N.S. in-custody death committee: lawyer
Nova Scotia’s new committee to review the deaths of people in custody must be flexible enough to customize its makeup with those best able to speak to individual cases, says a lawyer acting for the family of an Indigenous woman who died of pneumonia while in jail. Last month, Nova Scotia’s government announced the formation of the Deaths-in-Custody Review Committee — the first of its kind in the province, put in place to investigate the deaths of people held in provincial institutions.
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July 13, 2023
Nova Scotia reminds eligible groups, businesses of applications for accessibility programs
Nova Scotia’s government is reminding eligible communities, non-profits and businesses of applications for next year’s ACCESS-ability programs. This year, there are 96 projects receiving a combined $1.5 million through Nova Scotia’s Business ACCESS-ability and Community ACCESS-ability grant programs, according to a July 12 news release.
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July 13, 2023
Chief justice says disclosure directive aims at generative AI-aided legal research, submissions
As Canada’s courts and tribunals consider what oversight they might give to the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in legal proceedings, the country’s smallest superior trial court has forged ahead with a broad practice directive requiring lawyers and litigants to inform Yukon’s Supreme Court of any reliance on AI in their preparation of legal research or court submissions.
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July 12, 2023
Manitoba law society to launch mandatory Indigenous training
This fall, lawyers in Manitoba will have to start taking a new course on Indigenous culture as part of their law society’s competency mandate — something the regulator’s departing president hopes will start a “voyage of understanding and empathy.”
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July 11, 2023
Judicial council to issue ‘guidelines’ for judges on use of ChatGPT, other AI tools in litigation
The Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) is developing “guidelines” over the next few months to help judges deal with the ramifications of lawyers and litigants’ use of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) tools in court cases, Law360 Canada has learned.
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July 10, 2023
Canada joins dozens of other countries in new ‘Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats’
Canada and more than six dozen other countries have established the “Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats,” with the aim of accelerating and co-ordinating an effective global response to the public health and safety challenges posed by synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, oxycodone and other opiates.
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July 07, 2023
Lawsuit filed against feds for alleged exclusion of non-status First Nations from education benefits
The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) has announced that it has filed a “landmark federal lawsuit” against the Minister of Indigenous Services and the Attorney General of Canada to stop the alleged discriminatory exclusion of non-status First Nations from post-secondary education benefits administered by Indigenous Services Canada.
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July 07, 2023
SCC considers possible practice direction on use of AI in top court as more trial courts weigh in
The Supreme Court of Canada is among the courts mulling whether and what practice direction to issue to counsel and litigants about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the preparation of Supreme Court materials, after two superior trial courts recently required disclosure to the bench of AI used in court submissions.
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July 06, 2023
Asper Centre names constitutional litigator in residence for fall 2023
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights announced that Ewa Krajewska has been selected as the Asper Centre’s constitutional litigator in residence for fall 2023.
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June 30, 2023
Groups raise human rights, constitutional concerns about B.C. homeless encampment evictions
Legal and civil liberties groups in B.C. are raising alarm bells about the treatment of unhoused people living in homeless encampments in the province, saying removal of such encampments by the authorities are an infringement of basic human rights and violate the Charter.