Pulse
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December 19, 2025
Lawyering lessons learned at Santa’s knee
I did not know until a recent experience at my local Tim Hortons that there are striking similarities between judges and Santa Clauses. I was sipping my medium double double when I overhead a group of young children sitting at an adjacent table having a chat. They sounded a lot like lawyers at the pub sizing up judges. I listened keenly.
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December 19, 2025
The Friendly Bar Series, No. 14: Remembering the ‘why’ — A Friendly Bar reflection
As the year comes to a close, it is natural to reflect on our work, our choices and the reasons we entered this profession. Lawyers often get caught chasing success, recognition, or the next case milestone and, in doing so, lose sight of the deeper purpose that first drew them to law.
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December 19, 2025
Buffone’s parole: A step toward exoneration?
In what may seem like Part II of a never-ending saga, the Parole Board of Canada granted Vito Buffone day parole to a community residential facility yet to be named.
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December 19, 2025
A season for sharing: The legal and moral case for ensuring everyone has enough food at Christmas
Every Christmas, families across Canada gather around warm meals that symbolize dignity, community and care. Yet for many households in Alberta and across the country, rising costs and winter pressures make it difficult to afford even the most basic groceries. Food insecurity turns what should be a season of comfort into a time of anxiety.
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December 19, 2025
Manitoba Court of Appeal tasked with determining psychological detention
Psychological detention occurs when a person submits to a police officer’s authority or is deprived of liberty, reasonably believing the choice to do otherwise does not exist (R. v. Tessier, 2022 SCC 35). One would expect that raising psychological detention on appeal from conviction would be a simple, fact-driven analysis. Yet the Manitoba Court of Appeal took 256 paragraphs to rule out psychological detention as a basis for Charter relief. The court’s reasons are in R. v. Francois, 2025 MBCA 93.
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December 18, 2025
Darwish A. Chahbar joins McCague Borlack as associate
McCague Borlack LLP has added Darwish A. Chahbar as an associate in its London, Ont., office.
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December 18, 2025
Torys announces new partners and counsel for 2026
Torys LLP has promoted seven lawyers to partner and four lawyers to counsel, the firm has announced.
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December 17, 2025
SCC rejects latest bid to get intervener counsel into court; AGs & other interveners limited to Zoom
The Supreme Court of Canada is poised to hear argument from dozens of interveners in a groundbreaking case about the Charter’s “notwithstanding” clause and the “architecture” and “unwritten principles” of the Constitution, however, intervener counsel won’t be allowed to set foot in the top court’s iconic Ottawa courtroom.
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December 17, 2025
Feds appoint 2 judges to Nova Scotia Supreme Court
The federal government has announced two judicial appointments to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, according to the Department of Justice.
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December 17, 2025
New Indigenous sentencing court opens in Chilliwack, B.C.
The Provincial Court of British Columbia opened the province’s tenth Indigenous sentencing court on Dec. 11 in Chilliwack. Indigenous courts currently operate in nine other B.C. communities.