Access to Justice

  • September 04, 2026

    Manitoba expands rent control throughout province, but raises landlords’ increase limit

    Manitoba’s government will be enacting what it is calling a “historic” expansion of residential rent control coverage in the province — but it will also be raising the annual limit at which landlords can increase rent.

  • September 03, 2026

    No need to turn disagreement into a political indictment of judge

    Criticizing judges is not wrong. Indeed, criticism of judicial decisions is an important part of a free society. Judges are not infallible, and their reasons are properly subject to scrutiny by lawyers, academics, journalists and the public.

  • September 03, 2026

    Upcoming legal conferences to tackle AI, estate disputes

    Upcoming conferences listed by Saskatchewan’s law society will include a look into the emotional challenges in estate disputes, French terminology in family law contracts, and the current state of AI in the legal profession.

  • September 03, 2026

    Ottawa murder appeal: Appellate review of a jury charge is not a word-search exercise

    A Jan. 13 issue of the Ottawa Citizen reported on the sentencing of Alam Buoc, who had been found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder. Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger described the crimes in exceptionally harsh terms, calling Buoc a “homicidal maniac” and “a monster.” He characterized the July 2017 killings as “cold-blooded and ruthless” and said the motive appeared to be trivial. It involved an alleged dispute over a bullet that Buoc believed one of his friends had taken. The sentence imposed was the same as if the crime had been first-degree murder: life imprisonment without parole eligibility for 25 years. Buoc appealed, and the Ontario Court of Appeal delivered its reasons on July 6, 2026 (R. v. Buoc, 2026 ONCA 492).

  • 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.