Access to Justice

  • March 16, 2026

    Nova Scotia appoints 3 new human rights commissioners

    Three Nova Scotians, including two lawyers, have been appointed to two-year terms with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, the province has announced.

  • March 16, 2026

    Expert panel discusses AI’s impact on legal industry, access to justice

    In honour of International Women’s Day, tech incubator the Legal Innovation Zone brought together industry experts to discuss the impact of AI in reshaping the legal landscape, improving access to justice and allowing startups to streamline their services.

  • March 13, 2026

    Human Rights Tribunal orders sweeping deaf inmate accommodation reforms in federal prisons

    The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) has ordered sweeping reforms to how federal prisons accommodate deaf inmates, ruling that Correctional Service Canada (CSC) must provide ASL interpretation for key meetings and meaningful daily communication.

  • March 13, 2026

    Eight grounds for appeal dismissed in Ontario murder of appellant’s partner, child

    After a four-month trial, Glenn Bauman was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his common law partner, Linda Daniel, and her young daughter, Cheyenne. The trial took place five years after their disappearance.

  • March 13, 2026

    The modern bill of attainder: Why women still pay a ‘proxy tax’

    On International Women’s Day, you likely saw the pink-themed infographics and corporate “empowerment” lunches. But past the glossy surface, the actual gears of our society reveal something much older and darker: a modern version of collective punishment that falls almost exclusively on women.

  • March 12, 2026

    Ontario Superior Court of Justice abolishes Zoom hearings for Toronto family law cases

    In a sweeping policy shift poised to dramatically increase the cost of separation and divorce for thousands of Toronto families, the Family Branch of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has announced that, effective April 2, 2026, all family law motions at the Toronto courthouse will presumptively proceed in person — and no longer by Zoom.

  • March 12, 2026

    Lowering the rate of Indigenous over-incarceration in Saskatchewan

    Canada’s criminal law is written in Ottawa, but the provinces enforce it. That constitutional division helps explain why incarceration rates vary so dramatically across the country. Nowhere is the contrast more striking than in Saskatchewan, which has at times recorded the highest incarceration rate in Canada and one of the highest among sub-national jurisdictions in the western world.

  • March 12, 2026

    Student paper snapshots in animal law: Animals vs. plastics

    As part of my ongoing Student Paper Snapshots in Animal Law series in these pages, I am not only featuring my own animal law students from the Peter A. Allard School of Law at UBC, but I have also invited students from other universities to showcase their thought-provoking research papers.

  • March 11, 2026

    The billable hour is running out of time

    Early in my career, I noticed a pattern I could not ignore. I would build rapport with clients, earn their trust and then watch everything fall apart the moment the invoice was sent. They were not upset with me personally, even though sometimes it felt that way. They were blindsided by a system that charged them in a way they found unfair. Even worse, I would get penalized if I found strategies to be fast and efficient to make it more fair.

  • March 10, 2026

    Sex assault appeal: Judge entitled to consider totality of evidence when assessing credibility

    Daniel Shee Chong was convicted of sexual offences based on the accounts of two former piano students, AR and MJ, and two others, DP and MR.