Access to Justice
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February 12, 2025
Ontario joins settlement requiring GS Partners to provide refunds to digital asset investors
Ontario’s securities regulator has joined a multi-jurisdictional settlement requiring GS Partners and its affiliates to refund all money and cryptocurrency deposited by investors after allegedly offering illegal digital asset investments tied to blockchain technology, gold, and metaverse projects.
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February 12, 2025
Feds release report on stakeholder concerns regarding copyright and generative AI policies
A federal government report on how copyright should be protected from potential threats posed by generative AI (artificial intelligence) reveals sharply divided views among industry stakeholders.
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February 11, 2025
Claims process to begin for First Nations Child and Family Services, Jordan’s Principle Settlement
The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) has announced that the Federal Court has approved a launch date for the first claims period for those affected by the First Nations Child and Family Services Program and the narrow application of Jordan’s Principle class action settlement.
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February 11, 2025
Yukon’s Teslin Tlingit Council moves further towards establishing justice system
A First Nation in Yukon has taken another step towards having its own justice system after signing an agreement furthering the use of community-based “restorative measures.”
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February 11, 2025
Landmark U.S. copyright decision and its implications for AI and canadian copyright law
The legal profession has entered a new frontier in the intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law. On Feb. 11, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware issued a landmark decision in Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH v Ross Intelligence Inc, No 1:20-cv-613-SB, ruling in favour of Thomson Reuters in the first major fair use copyright case involving AI. The decision, which found that ROSS Intelligence unlawfully used Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw headnotes to train its legal AI research tool, raises profound questions about the future of AI training, data access, and copyright law.
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February 10, 2025
Another day another Charter violation
A June 9, 2022, Toronto Star investigation by Rachel Mendleson and Steve Buist with the help of Western University’s Law School examined more than 600 cases and found that police are not often told when judges find they violated the Charter. Further, the reporting found that officers rarely face consequences. Yet Charter violations continue to occupy Appeal Courts’ dockets.
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February 11, 2025
Deportable offenders | Michael Crowley
Following a lengthy hearing at a minimum security prison, I turned to my colleague and asked “Do you believe this is an individual who has to die in a Canadian prison?”
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February 10, 2025
C.J. Wagner says top court ‘exploring’ provision of mediation in cases where leave to appeal denied
Lawyers say they want to know specifics about the out-of-the-blue disclosure from Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner that he has asked his staff to “explore the possibility” of the top court providing “mediation” for litigants in cases where the apex court denies leave to appeal, and his suggestion that family law cases might lend themselves to a potential mediation initiative.
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February 10, 2025
B.C. law society priorities for 2025 ‘haven’t changed that much’ from last year: president
The Law Society of British Columbia (LSBC) has held its first meeting of 2025, welcoming not only a new president but also a new CEO.
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February 10, 2025
Beyond ethics and governance: When AI should (and shouldn’t) be used in law | Daniel J. Escott
Artificial intelligence has entrenched itself in the legal profession, with firms and courts adopting AI-driven tools for legal research, document automation, and even decision-making support. In response, the legal industry has rushed to develop ethical frameworks and governance models to ensure responsible AI use. Yet, for all the effort put into these guidelines, they leave an essential question unanswered: When should lawyers actually use AI? And, just as importantly, when shouldn’t they?
Access to justice: The language of the litigant counts | Ruphine Djuissi
Access to justice in French is a critical issue for Francophones across Canada, particularly with respect to the availability of legal services in French, the quality of interpretation and translation, and equal language rights. It also includes access to French-speaking lawyers and court documents written in French. It is important to ensure that Francophones have access to legal services in their mother tongue or first official language.
Ontario committed to expanding Unified Family Courts but Toronto still lacking
Ontario’s government is vowing to continue working towards the expansion of Unified Family Courts across the province. But a local lawyer says that until a UFC is placed in the Toronto area, millions are being left to navigate a confusing, “two-tiered” family court system.