Law is Cool

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We’ve all been waiting for this since forever.
The understandably busy articling students from Osgoode Hall make time to debate Mark Steyn on TVO.
A point of note: the poster of the videos introduces them as “sock puppets.” However, they are 3 of the 5 law students that produced the original research leading to the […]

Creating a Legal Storm
US Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia, made his first major television appearance this week on 60 Minutes.
Previously he has severely restricted media access, especially in his court, citing his,
First Amendment right not to speak on the radio or television when I do not wish to do so.
In 2004, he even had […]

Don’t believe the hype
Twenty years ago the classic Hip Hop group, Public Enemy, said in their hit song,
Some media is the whack
You believe it’s true, it blows me through the roof
Suckers, liars get me a shovel
Some writers I know are damn devils
For them I say don’t believe the hype
Yo Chuck, they must be on a […]

Fry That What?
The case of Mumia Abu Jamal, on death row in Pennsylvania for killing a white police officer in 1981, is raising some interesting issues surrounding jury selection.
The court found that the prosecution used two-thirds of its vetoes to deliberately remove persons of colour in a county that consisted primarily of minorities. The […]

The Ahenakew affair: a bad law, an opportunity missed

By Marjaleena Repo
The David Ahenakew Affair, after five years in the courts, has sprung back with full force after the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) voted to reinstate him as one its senators. The media have reacted with vehement disapproval as have Jewish organizations. The provincial […]

That’s what a cemetary in Copenhagen is proposing.
They’ve set aside a specific area of the cemetary for gay people, based on requests of a gay advocacy group called Regnbuen (Rainbow).
Matt Guerrin disagrees.
Read the rest here.

Although the OHRC decided not to hear the complaint against Maclean’s, they have issues a strong condemnation of Islamophobia in the media.
The Human Rights Code in Ontario covers:
(1) goods, services and facilities
(2) housing accommodation
(3) employment
(4) contracts
(5) membership in unions, trade and vocational associations
But the statement issued by the OHRC also said,
The different approaches in […]

Rabbi Elior Chen fled Israel to hide in Canada.
Not because he was being persecuted in his country of origin, as so many others do, nor was he claiming to flee a war-torn area.
Chen came to Canada to avoid criminal prosecution.
Israel issued an arrest warrant for him in connection to charges of beating children as young […]

We previously commented on Canadian use of Depleted Uranium (DU) and legal issues related to it.
But DU is making the news again, this time in California.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has received a permit to detonate test weapons that include the use of DU by the Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD).
Local citizens have […]

Steve Sailer, a Conservative American journalist, found out the hard way that we don’t.
He completed the Citizenship and Immigration Canada Self-Assessment Worksheet in 2001 and scored 61 points. The passing mark for consideration of an interview is 60.
(The current passing mark is 67) >>> […]

The largest Canadian Constitutional class-action suit in currently under scrutiny.
Background
Following M. v. H (1999), the Canada Pension Plan (1985) (CPP) was amended in 2000 to include survivor benefits for same-sex couples to comply with equality provisions under s. 15 of the Charter,
Section 15.

Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right […]

Justin Morris, a member of the Ryerson University Conservative Club, sent an e-mail to Heather Kere, the vice-president of education at Ryerson.
But Kere is also a member of the United Black Students of Ryerson. And the e-mail had little to do with her role as VP Education.
Morris’ e-mail accused Kere of being a […]

CLC Report
Tomorrow is International Women’s Day, and in commemoration the Canadian Labour Congress released a report on gender equity in the workforce with some surprising findings,
Strikingly, the pay gap has grown rather than narrowed even as women have become more highly educated than men, and even as most women have decided to have fewer children, […]

Ontario Court Justice James Blacklock ruled today that laws mandating helmets do not discriminate against turban-wearing Sikhs.
Baljinder Badesha fought a fine to pay $110 for not wearing a helmet, and the Ontarion Human Rights Commissions even intervened on his behalf.
But to no avail. The court ruled that the province would face undue hardships […]