Access to Justice
-
July 16, 2025
View from inside prison: Opening the box
I’m not a person who is hugely attached to things. I have no trouble throwing out or giving away old clothes or furniture or even books. But I do tend to hang on to reminders of my past life, such as letters and pictures.
-
July 16, 2025
Prepare for change: The plain language legal writing standard is coming
What lawyer has not heard that legal writing should be clear and concise? Everyone wants legal documents to be straightforward, client-oriented and “crisp.” Yet, cryptic memoranda, wordy submissions, legalese-filled judgments and insurmountable walls of text in contracts and policies remain common. Even with clarity in mind, writing clearly is hard without knowing the rules to guide the process.
-
July 15, 2025
N.S. requires hurt workers, employers to ‘work together’ in return to job
Nova Scotia now requires that injured workers and their employers cooperate in planning a return to work. According to a July 15 news release, new “return-to-work” legislation is now in effect, requiring “workers injured on the job and their employers to work together for a timely and safe return to work.”
-
July 15, 2025
To marry or not?
Because family law in Canada is regulated at both the federal and provincial/territorial levels, some inconsistencies exist from one part of the country to another. For example, not all provinces and territories have made changes to their statutes to align them with the 2021 changes made to the federal Divorce Act provisions dealing with child-related issues, meaning families have access to different legal regimes depending on where they live.
-
July 14, 2025
Federal Court judge strikes SRL’s submission in employment dispute over AI hallucination citation
In another sign of AI’s growing impact on the law, the Federal Court has ordered that a self-represented respondent’s motion record be removed from a court file because it relied in part on a non-existent court decision hallucinated by an artificial intelligence (AI) research tool.
-
July 14, 2025
Alberta giving $1.25 million to groups in bid to end gender-based violence
Alberta is launching a new grant program through which more than $1 million will be available to community organizations as part of the province’s ongoing bid to tackle gender-based violence.
-
July 11, 2025
Court finds conflict of interest for corporate class in COVID-19 business losses class action
In a class action related to losses that businesses suffered due to COVID-19 health orders, the Alberta Court of King’s Bench has adjourned an application to certify an additional corporate class, finding conflict of interest relating to the plaintiffs’ pleadings and within the proposed class itself.
-
July 10, 2025
What’s in a name? Including femicide in the Criminal Code
Recently, federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser indicated he would be “open” to including the term “femicide” in the Criminal Code, possibly as part of a number of reforms he expects to present to Parliament in the fall.
-
July 10, 2025
‘External monitor’ sees progress & challenges in military’s handling of its sexual misconduct crisis
Ottawa has renewed its pledge to abolish, for the most part, the military justice system’s jurisdiction over sexual offence investigations and prosecutions involving military members. Meanwhile, the military has not delivered on the government’s aim to transfer most existing military sexual offence cases to Canada’s civilian courts — explaining that complainants and provincial authorities have not agreed to the transfers, according to a new report released by the Department of National Defence (DND).
-
July 07, 2025
Investigation of Robert Pickton’s death: Are some people of lesser value?
In the early 1990s, Canadians were rightfully shocked by the disappearance of about 20 female sex workers from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. By 1991, relatives and social activists were speculating that a serial killer was at work. Police initially dismissed this idea, suggesting that the women’s transient lifestyle meant they could be anywhere. The number of missing women grew without any clear explanation. Most of them were involved in prostitution.