Access to Justice

  • September 02, 2026

    Alberta opens $15M grants to expand family violence aid

    Alberta has announced that applications are now open for service providers to access $15 million in grant funding to expand services and supports for those experiencing family violence.

  • September 02, 2026

    B.C. Court of Appeal adopts open-access legal citation guide

    The B.C. Court of Appeal has issued a practice directive adopting the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide (COAL), a free, publicly accessible legal citation guide, as its preferred method for civil and criminal filings in an effort to advance access to justice.

  • September 02, 2026

    Yukon releases ‘What We Heard’ report on ‘sexualized cyber crimes’

    Yukon residents say victims who had intimate images that were shared illegally face barriers in accessing justice due to the expense of legal services, a lack of privacy and a rigid reporting system.

  • September 02, 2026

    Solitary crosses constitutional line in prisons. Why not in hospitals?

    There is something profoundly unsettling about a society that regards prolonged solitary confinement as unconstitutional in prison yet appears prepared to tolerate the same isolation when the person behind the locked door is a psychiatric patient.

  • September 02, 2026

    ‘Alle Menschen werden Brüder’ and access to justice

    “Alle Menschen werden Brüder” translates to “all people become brothers” and is one of the most recognizable lines from Friedrich Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy, immortalized in the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. In modern, inclusive language, its meaning might be expressed as “all people become kin.”

  • September 01, 2026

    The hard truth about private equity’s entry into the law firm market

    Private equity is beginning to enter the legal industry with transactions such as Uplift’s acquisition of Dudley DeBosier Personal Injury, Trive Capital’s acquiring Massumi + Consoli, and Morgan & Morgan’s hiring of JPMorgan to explore a private equity sale.

  • September 01, 2026

    Legal groups welcome injunction in Ontario cash bail constitutional challenge

    An Ontario Superior Court judge has put the brakes on the province’s new requirements on cash bail, granting an injunction to keep them from being enforced while a constitutional challenge of the rules plays out.

  • September 01, 2026

    Coyote vs. Acme: Litigation parable proves most compelling story not necessarily strongest case

    After years spent in litigation for my clients and, in retirement, assisting a prominent litigation lawyer in writing his autobiography, it is good to take a break. Last Friday I attended a showing of the newly released feature Coyote vs. Acme.

  • August 31, 2026

    N.L. task force seeking ‘diverse perspectives’ in fighting gender-based violence

    A task force combatting gender-based violence in Newfoundland and Labrador is developing an engagement plan involving the “diverse perspectives” of various stakeholders, including survivors, newcomers, youth, 2SLGBTQIA+ people and those with “lived experience.”

  • August 31, 2026

    What keeps me up at night and keeps me in family law

    This past July, the Ontario Bar Association’s family law section executive held its annual planning and insights meeting to help prepare for the year ahead. One of the questions we were asked was: What issues keep you up at night? As someone who has struggled with insomnia for basically my entire adult life, this wasn’t a straightforward question. But it did get me thinking about some of the serious challenges facing family lawyers today. This is not my typical research-heavy article. Instead, I wanted to share some of my reflections on my top three issues.