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From selling sex to Osgoode Hall
Daniel Dale writes for the Toronto Star:
Even at diverse York University, the woman in the front row is a curious sight. She takes notes on an unlined piece of white paper. Her arms are tattooed. Her brown hair is streaked pink. And her bespectacled gaze is firm.
Do CRU emails show FOIA wrong-doing?
There’s been a lot of hype in the past few days about a batch of emails that were either hacked or leaked from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU). In the view of some opponents to climate change legislation, these emails depict collusion and conspiracy among leading climate change scientists. Other contrarians accuse at least one scientist of outright illegal conduct: violations of UK’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Hundreds of emails spanning well over a decade were released, but the ones important for allegations of illegal conduct are those where some of the scientists discuss the implications of the newly (in the UK) enacted FOIA, those that discuss how to deal with FOIA requests, and one that directs the deletion of certain emails.
I’ve learned a little bit about the US’s version of FOIA, so I thought that it would be interesting to examine this accusation of illegal conduct – at least, to the extent that a Canadian studying law at an American law school can explore British information and privacy law. Read more
Street Racing Laws Ruled Unconstitutional… Again!
For the second time, Ontario’s new anti-street racing laws have been deemed unconstitutional. This time Justice Peter Wright, has thrown out charges by indicating the unconstitutionality of the new law.
Justice Peter West, a provincial court judge in Newmarket, found that an accused driver’s Charter rights are “clearly infringed” by the potential jail time because the law doesn’t permit the person to put forward a defence.
“There is no air of reality to the Crown’s submissions that a defendant charged with stunt driving under section 172 of the Highway Traffic Act … has an available defence of due diligence,” West stated in a written ruling.
“The possibility of the imposition of up to six months imprisonment thereby renders this section unconstitutional.”
I can see this going up the judicial ladder. We shall keep our pedal off the metal, until this is decided. It is however, reported that police agencies still plan on enforcing the law.
Announcing the Launch of ObiterTweet by Steven Pulver
It’s a law student’s dream – or maybe a nightmare. Law firm recruiters scouring social media networks to find an appropriate candidate for their firm.
The current recruitment process does little to reveal the personality, collegiality, drive and habits of applicants. It does nothing to demonstrate their business connections, an important quality for “finders,” or political involvement, for firms that engage in lobbying and government relations.
The majority of law students do spend hours on social media platforms, usually behind walled gardens that they think are impermeable, so why wouldn’t law firms go where they are? We’ve already seen Edward Prutschi discuss how his firm used Twitter during articling recruitment, which helped them find Joel Welch.
Earlier today Michael Fitzgibbons of Borden, Ladner, Gervais LLP in Toronto pointed to this Globe article, showing an increasing trend by employers to use social media for recruitment. But is this just commentary about management-side employment practices, or could law firms be using it too? What about BLG, the largest law firm in Canada? (Hi Halla!)
The firm does have a Facebook group for employees, and another one for law students and lawyers to connect.
But the telling sign is a tweet from last Friday by the firm,
The Toronto office of BLG is looking for a Financial Services Associate with 3 to 4 years experience http://bit.ly/2RJO9I #law #job #career
It appears as if Bay St. firms are not only using Twitter for recruiting, but they’re using shortened urls and hash tags properly too! Kudos.
For our part, law students are trying to meet the law firms half way.
Enter the brainchild of Steven Pulver – a 1L at UWO – the first-ever Chief Technology Officer for our Student Legal Society. Pulver is working on ObiterTweet, an upcoming platform to help law students and law firms interact.
Or as he says,
Twitter, Meet Law School.
Law firms, meet Twitter at Law School too. Send him an email if you’re interested in participating.
The torture scandal
Colvin a protected `whistleblower,’ Cannon says
The Canadian Press:
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon says diplomat Richard Colvin had a right to make his explosive allegations about Afghan prisoners.
He says Colvin exercised his prerogative as a whistleblower by saying Ottawa ignored his warnings that Canadian soldiers were turning Afghan detainees over to torture.
Labour Dispute May Still Affect Olympics
Even though B.C. passed back-to-work legislation for paramedics and dispatches in Nov., the ongoing dispute with the labour could still affect the Vancouver Olympics.
The Canadian Press reports:
Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. president John Strohmaier said the union is encouraging colleagues across North America not to volunteer at the Games until the dispute is over.
He said the issue could have been resolved if the province had appointed an independent, third-party commissioner to review the union’s concerns.
Instead, the provincial government has appointed an industrial inquiry commissioner who is a former deputy finance minister.
Q: What’s Prettier Than Torture?
A: Well, pretty much everything.
But in this case, it’s lacrosse.
A Legal Obligation to Assist Iran
Earlier today Iran began large-scale war games to simulate a response to attacks on its nuclear sites. But these games are hardly for fun, as the country intends to showcase its capability of defending against a strike from Israel.
Although in Canada we normally think of countries like Iran as the aggressor, the country is not without fear of Israel initiating military action against them. Israeli officials have not ruled out the possibility, and there is a history of attacking Iraq in 1981 and more recently, Syria in 2007.
In response to the strikes against Iraq, the United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 487, stating,
Considering that, under the terms of Article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter of the United Nations: “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations”,
1. Strongly condemns the military attack by Israel in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms of international conduct;
2. Calls upon Israel to refrain in the future from any such acts or threats thereof;
3. Further considers that the said attack constitutes a serious threat to the entire IAEA safeguards regime which is the foundation of the non-proliferation Treaty;
4. Fully recognises the inalienable sovereign right of Iraq, and all other States, especially the developing countries, to establish programmes of technological and nuclear development to develop their economy and industry for peaceful purposes in accordance with their present and future needs and consistent with the internationally accepted objectives of preventing nuclear-weapons proliferation;
5. Calls upon Israel urgently to place its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards;
6. Considers that Iraq is entitled to appropriate redress for the destruction it has suffered, responsibility for which has been acknowledged by Israel;
7. Requests the Secretary-General to keep the Security Council regularly informed of the implementation of this resolution.
Iraq’s new government is seeking reparations from the 1981 attack. Sadr MP, Nasser al-Rubaie, recently stated,
According to the international law Iraq has the right to receive compensation from Israel. We have called for a legislation to be passed in the parliament to oblige the Iraqi government to follow up the issue.
But it’s the attack against Syria that really raised the interest of the international law community. The reason is that both attacks were justified by Israel as necessary measures of self-defence, which although questionable by international law, were given limited credence by the Bush doctrine.
The 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States of America (NSS) states,
A. Summary of National Security Strategy 2002
… the first duty of the United States Government remains
what it always has been: to protect the American people and American interests … this duty obligates the government to anticipate and counter threats, using all elements of national power, before the threats can do grave damage. The greater the threat, the greater is the risk of inaction – and the more compelling the case for taking anticipatory action to defend ourselves, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy’s attack. There are few greater threats than a terrorist attack with WMD.To forestall or prevent such hostile acts by our adversaries, the United States will, if necessary, act preemptively in exercising our inherent right of self-defense. The United States will not resort to force in all cases to preempt emerging threats. Our preference is that nonmilitary actions succeed. And no country should ever use preemption as a pretext for aggression.
The 2006 revision retains the ability to act preemptively. But there is one important distinction between the U.S. and Israel that differentiates these policies. The NSS is based on Article 51 of the U.N. Charter,
Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.
The obvious distinction is that while the U.S. is a permanent member of the Security Council, Israel is not. Israel cannot legitimately claim to be acting in self-defence when attacking pre-emptively, especially in light of Article 2(4),
All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
Additionally, the effectiveness of either of these strikes are highly disputed by analysts, who are still frustrated by refusals by Israelis to provide information about them. After the Iraq invasion on the premise of WMDs, skepticism about pre-emptive strikes, especially after claims by Israeli military intelligence officer Shlomo Brom and Israeli MPs that Israel deliberately exaggerated reports about Iraqi capabilities in order to encourage an invasion.
The Nuremberg International Military Tribunal addressed the issue of pre-emptive strikes in United States v. Goering, 6 F.R.D. 69, 100-01 (1946). The court rejected the Nazi claim that they had to invade Norway to avoid an Allied invasion, because there was no such threat imminent.
Mark A. Drumbl of the Washington and Lee University – School of Law points out in Self-Defense, Preemption, Fear: Iraq, and Beyond that the military response by Austria-Hungary to the assassination by the Serbian terrorist organization Black Hand of the Crown Prince Ferdinand and his wife was uniformly condemned by the international community. It is also largely acknowledged as the primary cause of WWI.
Nicole Deller and John Burroughs explain in Jus ad Bellum: Law Regulating Resort to Force,
The right to anticipatory self-defense under customary law has never been unlimited. One generally recognized formulation dating from the mid-nineteenth century is that set forth in a letter from U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster to British Minister Lord Ashburton, that the necessity for action must be “instant, overwhelming, and leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation.” Since then, and especially since World War II, capabilities to launch devastating attacks with little advance warning have improved dramatically. Nonetheless, scholars have continued to affirm Webster’s restraints on legitimate self-defense, recognizing their value in inhibiting resort to war. A recent edition of a leading treatise states that self-defense may justify use of force under the following conditions: an attack is immediately threatened; there is an urgent necessity for defensive action; there is no practicable alternative, particularly when another state or authority that legally could stop or prevent the infringement does not or cannot do so; and the use of force is limited to what is needed to prevent the infringement. Oppenheim’s International Law, 9th ed., 412.
But it’s a paper by Amin Ghanbari Amirhandeh, an LLM student at the University of Tehran, that gives the greatest pause. He claims in Preemptive Attacks on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities?, that the Security Council would actually be required to assist Iran if attacked by Israel.
As Iran is a non-nuclear state, a military strike on a nuclear facility could still be considered a nuclear attack, given the resulting environmental damage. He states,
In resolution 984, the Security Council “takes note with appreciation of the statements made by each of the nuclear-weapon States (S119951261, S119951262, S119951263, S119951264, S/19951265), in which they give security assurances against the use of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear-weapon States that are Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons”, and further “[w]elcomes the intention expressed by certain States that they will provide or support immediate assistance, in accordance with the Charter, to any nonnuclear- weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that is a victim of an act of, or an object of a threat of, aggression in which nuclear weapons are used”.
As the ICJ stressed in its historic opinion on legality of nuclear weapons
(1996), the Security Council, in unanimously adopting resolution 984 (1995) of 11 April 1995, cited above, took note of those statements with appreciation. It also recognized “that the nuclear-weapon State permanent members of the Security Council will bring the matter immediately to the attention of the Council and seek Council action to provide, in accordance with the Charter, the necessary assistance to the State victim”; and welcomed the fact that “The intention expressed by certain States that they will provide or support immediate assistance, in accordance with the Charter, to any non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that is a victim of an act of, or an object of a threat of, aggression in which nuclear weapons are used”.Gesturing the concept of threat is enough for the Security Council in the present case, even if it is obvious that the five nuclear weapon states are
individually responsible for taking appropriate measures in order to assist Iran, to condemn any direct threat from Israel against Iranian nuclear installations.
Now that’s a consequence that would make Sarkozy’s description of an Israeli strike on Iran as an “absolute catastrophe” the understatement of the year.
Don’t Smile when Depressed and Dancing with Strippers
Nathalie Blanchard of Bromont, Quebec, has been on sick leave for a year and a half for long-term chronic depression.
The 29-year-old woman had her benefits cut by IBM after she posted pictures on Facebook at a male stripper show, her own birthday party and on holidays. Her Manulife representative told her that,
I’m available to work, because of Facebook.
Ironically, most of these events were recommended by her physician as part of her treatment.
Depression is not like other disabilities where Facebook has been used to demonstrate lack of impairment. The complex parameters of a psychosocial condition like depression is entirely distinct from factors such as range-of-motion, flexibility, and strength that are more commonly assessed in physical disabilities.
Thomas Lavin, Blanchard’s counsel, expressed similar reservations,
I don’t think for judging a mental state that Facebook is a very good tool. It’s not as if somebody had a broken back and there was a picture of them carrying …a load of bricks. My client was diagnosed with a major depression. And there were pictures of her on Facebook, in a party or having a good time. It could be that she was just trying to escape.
We don’t know if Blanchard was bipolar, or has a chronic pain condition that may affect the presentation of her depression disorder. Although the inability to smile can lead to depression, those that do smile and possibly appear happy are not necessarily without depression.
And if we think about it for a second, Blanchard is not likely to select the photos of her sulking in the corner onto her profile. Facebook photos go through a screening process, essentially attempting to put the “best face forward.” What each person considers best, whether it’s attractiveness, professionalism, interesting, provocative, or wacky, does vary from person to person. In Blanchard’s case, where family and friends likely know about her prolonged bout with the blues, it is not unreasonable to expect her to at least try to look happy.
Here are some more established methods of evaluating depression, that long precede the use of Facebook photos:
- Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD or HAM-D)
- Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS)
- Beck Depression Inventory (BDI or BDI-II)
- Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale
- And more.
As persuasive as Facebook photos might be to a jury, it lacks scientific reliability and validity. Insurance adjusters know this, and without corresponding clinical data to confirm any impressions, they should be reluctant to reject or terminate claims on the basis of photos alone without any context.
Sexual assault sentencing
Quebec woman avoids jail for sex assault on son
A 55-year-old woman has been given a conditional sentence, to be served in the community, for sexually assaulting her teenage son.
Cop Tasers 10 Year Old…
In a story that seems even more far fetched than an episode of “COPS” an Arkansas police officer has been suspended in part for applying his taser to a 10 year old girl.
However, the oddest part to this story is not that the officer Dustin Bradshaw was suspended for using the taser, it was for not following police procedure in activating the video camera during the use of the taser.
In another twist, the girls mother gave the officer permission to use the taser.
When I read stories like this, I simply shudder. This use of the taser on a CHILD is a grossly negligent use of this weapon. Yes weapon, this is what a taser is. It is a tool that should be used when you are step away from shooting somebody. Had this officer not had the taser, would have he shot her? Pepper sprayed her? No probably not, I assume he would have taken physical control of her or called for another officer to help him take control of the girl.
I often wonder after reading stories like this or seeing episodes of COPS or other police reality shows that feature real-life footage if officers are straying away from their training and are using what they see on TV as a pseudo-authority for the use of the weapon.
This is not what the taser was intended for, and thankfully, in my experience, not how it is being applied in Canada, with the exception of the Robert Dziekanski incident in Vancouver.
I believe there is a culture of comfort surrounding the taser, whereas some officers are relying on it instead of using good old fashion communication.
Stripping of citizenship
Accused war criminal wins chance to keep citizenship
An appeal court has ordered the federal cabinet to revisit its decision to strip accused Nazi war criminal Helmut Oberlander of his Canadian citizenship.
