Prisoner’s copyright
Inmate rights are a lost cause for an average politician. If anything, legislators are more likely to push for harsher sentences, more hurdles to parole, and less money for rehabilitation. Of course, history knows prisoners…
Pulat Yunusov
The Canadian census debate—a background
On June 26, 2010, Canada Gazette published an Order in Council dated June 17, 2010. The order contained questions for the 2011 Canadian census. The short document that would normally be of interest only to…
Humans only
If you read Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey or saw the film, you must know who Hal is. Good. Keep that in mind while reading this. So… South Korea “deploys robots to detect…
Supremacy of God and the Canadian Charter
Did you know that the “supremacy of God†is Canada’s founding principle? Read the Canadian constitution, if you don’t believe me. This is the preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “Whereas Canada…
Ottawa shoots itself in the foot in the Khadr case
There is a dramatic development in the Khadr story. A Federal Court judge ordered the government to do something about Omar Khadr, and the government has seven days to comply. Justice Zinn handed down his…
The law of street protest in Canada
The events of the G20 weekend in Toronto raised important legal issues and exposed gaps in our law. Are street protests legal and when can the police break them up? Can the police have special…
The legality of G20 police cordons in Toronto
Toronto is a changed city this weekend. Various police forces have cordoned off a big part of downtown searching and checking IDs of those wishing to enter. We in Canada are not used to ID…
What can the mayor of Toronto really do?
Toronto will go to the polls to elect its mayor on October 25 this year. There is a lot of media interest in mayoral candidates and scandals surrounding some of them. The incumbent mayor, David…
The stakes of copyright reform
Not many government bills cause so much debate as C-32—the legislation to amend Canada’s Copyright Act—introduced on June 2, 2010. One of C-32’s most contentious innovations is a complete ban on bypassing digital locks on…
The problem with electronic books
I love my Kindle. I love this thin, light tablet that I can read both at the desk and in bed. I love the ease of getting new books, and I love when the fresh…
Against assisted suicide
A few days ago the Canadian House of Commons rejected an assisted suicide bill. The proposed legislation would allow doctors to help terminally ill patients or people in unrelenting pain to end their lives. Currently,…
Cloud computing tips for lawyers
Cloud computing is one of the best technologies we’ve had in the last decade. It gives us mobility, versatility, security, and powerful ways to manipulate our data. It’s also cheap. Because it’s rooted in the…