RSS FeedAre You Considering Law School? Here are Some Helpful Online Resources
Thinking about becoming a lawyer? Then did you know it’s illegal in Victoria, British Columbia for street musicians to give balloon animals to children? Did you know that Canada’s criminal code states that anyone “offending a public place with a bad smell” is liable to two years in jail? Standing up for malodorous individuals has inspired a vast number of law students. Well, perhaps not.
What inspires you to go to law school? Are you sure it’s the right move for you? If you’re considering law school, take a look at some of these helpful online resources. There are also useful links for those who already have made the decision to attend law school.
Law School Admission Council’s (LSAC) Guide to Canadian Law Schools
This is hands down one of the best online resources for prospective law students. It’s official Guide to Canadian Law Schools offers a plethora of useful information. It’s a highly recommended resource for anyone pondering whether or not law school is right for them.
Law School Details
Canadian-universities.net offers links to every law school admissions department. The website also has a page about law school scholarships and awards, in case you would like some help in paying for law school. Chances are you would!
The Council of Canadian Law Deans provides links to every law school or law department in the country.
Jurist Canada is another great resource offering a comprehensive list of Canadian Law Schools. Besides links to law school homepages, it also provides links to the following useful sections of each school’s site:
- Faculty
- Law Journals
- Library
- Admissions
- Curriculum
- News & Events
Legal Specializations
Some people attend law school simply because they don’t know what else to do after obtaining an undergraduate degree.
You’re not the boss of me
Audrey Macklin and Lorne Waldman explain the concept of judicial independence to Jason Kenney:
“In a speech to the University of Western Ontario’s law faculty last week, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney launched an attack on Federal Court judges for rendering decisions he didn’t agree with. He suggested the judges were preventing him from properly administering the immigration program. [...]
The judges do not work, and should not be seen to work, for Prime Minister Stephen Harper or his immigration minister. And because of their special role in society, they aren’t expected to participate openly in the political process. Indeed, you haven’t heard the Federal Court respond to Mr. Kenney, despite his misrepresentation of cases, jurisprudence and statistical evidence. Judges don’t reply because they understand the importance of not becoming politicized.
When Mr. Kenney publicly criticizes judges for interpreting the law in a manner that diverges from his own preferred outcome, he shows contempt for judicial independence. That’s not to say the minister can’t take action when he disagrees with a court’s decision. As a member of cabinet, he has the power to introduce into Parliament amendments to any federal law. The cabinet may also pass regulations implementing existing law. The government possesses the unique jurisdiction to change the law to conform to his views. But using an address to a law school – of all places – to take potshots at judicial decisions the government doesn’t like is an inappropriate exploitation of political office.”
Intervenors for Insite
IHRA joins International Coalition Intervening to save Vancouver Safe-Injection Site:
An international coalition of harm reduction experts — comprised of the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA), the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, and CACTUS Montréal — has today been granted intervener status to appear before the Supreme Court of Canada to support Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection site, against the Canadian government’s attempts to shutter it. [...]
Adding insult to injury, a 2009 provincially funded report acknowledging the benefits of safe-injection sites and calling for their implementation was recently revealed to have been suppressed for a full year by Quebec’s Minister of Health. Despite this climate of resistance, CACTUS has announced its intention to open a supervised injection site in Montréal later this year.
SCC on Funding Orders
Funding orders must be exceptional, says the Supreme Court:
‘For the first time the Supreme Court has ruled that superior courts are empowered to order governments to fund public interest litigation before statutory courts and tribunals. [...]
Brodsky suggested that “if governments don’t want the courts to attempt to deal with the problems that have been created by cuts to access-to-justice programs, then governments need to address the gaps themselves.”
She told The Lawyers Weekly “the possibility of obtaining an interim cost award can never replace the Court Challenges Program, or civil legal aid programs, that have been decimated in places like B.C. The limitations of the case-by-case cost-seeking approach are underscored by the decision in Caron in that the court confirmed that interim cost awards must be ‘highly exceptional.’ However, in reality, the circumstances in which the absence of public funding works a serious injustice are not highly exceptional. Such circumstances have become very ordinary in Canada.”’
Green Lantern?
This is a link to the latest post at my website. Here is the London Free Press story
I think this is very important for people to know… especially in Ontario. Read this, and you can save a life.
If you do not want to read the post, just know this.
In Ontario, please pull over and yield for vehicle with a flashing green light. They are voluntary first responders, usually in rural areas where the community operates with a volunteer fire department. By not yielding to them, you could be costing precious seconds or minutes to somebody in a life threatening situation.
This was the case tonight when I encountered after I yielded to a vehicle with a flashing green light and the vehicle in front of me did not. This was what he was going to:
Although there were little to no injuries, it is needless to say the result could have been a VERY different story. So PLEASE pull over for vehicle with green lights.
Clients Don’t Care Where you Went to Law School
Via Matt Homann at the [non] billable hour:
Madinat al-Autocrat the Ultimate Destination for Dicatators
Via the Pan-Arabian Enquirer:
JEDDAH: Saudi officials yesterday unveiled plans for a dedicated residential resort set to house deposed dictators, and rolled out the carpet for more of the world’s despots who might be forced to consider unexpected retirement…
Speaking at the announcement, project manager Sidney Hammour laid out some of the features that former dictators can enjoy within Madinat al-Autocrat. “Each private villa will come with a spacious garden, large enough for our ex tyrants to erect statues several statues of themselves, which we can provide for an additional fee,” he told reporters.
Hammour also said that there would be regular military parades held within the ground, plus a specially produced daily newspaper that would be filled with stories about each former despot’s magnificence. “It’s with the little things like this that we hope to attract deposed oppressors seeking refuge,” he said…
“Just remember to bring your stolen riches with you,” he scoffed. “Because we’re not cheap!”
Access Copyright: Outrageous and Unnecessary
As a UWO student (and at many other Canadian universities,) you automatically pay an annual fee to an organization called Access Copyright. An item is included in your student activity fee, and it used to be $3.38 per student per year, plus an amount based on the number of photocopies made at library photocopy machines. However, when the licence agreement expired last year, Access Copyright did not seek to renegotiate with UWO. Instead, it applied to the Copyright Board for a massive restructuring of the agreement. If the Board approves the request, Access Copyright would receive $45 per student per year. With 30,000 full-time students, this amounts to $1.35 million annually. But that’s not all. Access Copyright would also have the right to surveillance: Section 14 (4) of the proposed licence agreement states that:
The Educational Institution shall give Access Copyright, on reasonable notice, right of access through-out the Educational Institution’s premises in order to organize and carry out an audit, including full access to the Secure Network and all Course Collections.
This would include access to university email accounts.
There are a number of problems with the Access Copyright regime. First of all, every university student is presumed to be infringing copyright and this seems very unlikely given the Fair Dealing rights in the Canadian Copyright Act that expressly permit the copying of non-substantial portions of a work for the purpose of private study. As well, the university is presumed to be responsible for the presumed copyright infringement by students. This is contrary to the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in CCH Canadian Limited v. Law Society of Upper Canada, [2004] 1 S.C.R. 339.CCD, which held that a library is NOT responsible for copyright infringement merely by providing access to photocopiers.
What is more troubling, though, is that by paying Access Copyright, our fair dealing rights become meaningless.
Pill Turns Man Into Gay Gambler
In perhaps one of the most bizzare products liaiblity cases we’ll see in some time, Didier Jambart of France is suing GlaxoSmithKline over the company’s Parkinson’s drug, Requip (ropinirole),
The 51-year-old’s lawyers say their client’s behaviour changed radically after he was first administered the drug in 2003 for the illness, which causes tremors, slows movement and disrupts speech.
Didier Jambart, a married father-of-two who says he has attempted suicide three times, claims he became addicted to Internet gambling, losing the family’s savings and stealing to feed his habit.
He also became a compulsive gay sex addict and began exposing himself on the Internet and cross-dressing. His risky sexual encounters led to him being raped, his lawyers said.
The behaviour stopped when he stopped taking the drugs in 2005 but by then he had been demoted in his defence ministry job and was suffering from psychological trauma resulting from his addictions, his lawyers said
FOX News points out that National Institutes of Health warnings for this drug include:
• Tell your doctor if you have ever had an urge to gamble that was difficult to control and if you have or have ever had unexpected daytime sleepiness or a sleep disorder other than restless legs syndrome; high or low blood pressure; a psychotic disorder (mental illness that causes abnormal thinking or perceptions); or heart, liver, or kidney disease
• You should know that some people who took medications such as ropinirole developed gambling problems or other intense urges or behaviors that were compulsive or unusual for them, such as increased sexual urges or behaviors. There is not enough information to tell whether the people developed these problems because they took the medication or for other reasons. Call your doctor if you have an urge to gamble that is difficult to control, you have intense urges, or you are unable to control your behavior.
Legal Blog Watch points to the company’s product insert,
Some patients taking REQUIP get urges to behave in a way unusual for them. Examples of this are an unusual urge to gamble or increased sexual urges and behaviors. If you notice or your family notices that you are developing any unusual behaviors, talk to your healthcare provider
