LawNow articles from April 1999

LawNow archives from April 1999

Editor's notebook (Canada changing through history).
April 1, 1999... This issue's theme is The Changing Face of Canada, and I find myself rather overwhelmed by the array and the immensity of issues that could be dealt with. The articles on the Charter, Nunavut, Quebec, and Aboriginal law all strike an...

Calling 911 (right to trace 911 calls).
April 1, 1999... The Supreme Court of Canada has made it clear that our right to privacy within our homes must be secondary to the need for police to be able to respond in an emergency. The case before the court involved a Toronto couple. The wife phoned 911...

Paternity not statute barred.
April 1, 1999... An Alberta mother brought an application for a declaration of paternity for her nine-year old son. The alleged father asked the court to dismiss the action because it had not been brought to court within the proper time limits. The child in...

Calling all Bre-X investors.
April 1, 1999... Bre-X investors across the country can join in an Ontario action being brought against the bankrupt company under Ontario's Class Proceedings Act. The Act requires that the plaintiff show an identifiable class of two or more persons. The...

War over wills (widow argues her husband's charitable bequest was to deny her and her sons).
April 1, 1999... The Canadian Cancer Society found itself in an awkward situation last year, when it was forced to go to court to argue about a bequest it received under the terms of the will of a BC testator, over the wishes of his ninety year old widow. The...

Discrimination, human rights and you -- teacher's guide.
April 1, 1999... The Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre has released a new publication, Discrimination, Human Rights and You -- Teacher's Guide. Prepared by Suzanne Vickers, this guide provides background information for teachers, and activities on...

Middle of the road immigration directions (proposed reforms to the Immigration Act).
April 1, 1999... The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Lucienne Robillard has presented a number of proposals for reform of the Immigration Act. "We want to strengthen and support family reunification; new legislation must modernize the selections...

Welfare-to-work participants get poorer.
April 1, 1999... "People on welfare should not end up being poorer than before as a result of participating in welfare-to-work programs," says Susan Carter, Associate Director of The Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD). The CCSD has just...

Crime prevention funded.
April 1, 1999... One of the ongoing initiatives of Justice Minister Anne McLellan is the promotion of crime prevention programs across the country. Crime, along with the costs of policing, the court and correctional systems, is a huge cost, well over $10...

She said no (Ewanchuk sexual assault case).
April 1, 1999... At the risk of sounding facetious about a very serious matter, a whole forest of trees has sacrificed its life to cover the Ewanchuk case and the terror among the timber is not over yet! At the time of writing this column, the Supreme Court...

Charter: changing Canadian law for the new century.
April 1, 1999... If you ever wonder about the progress of Canadian law and justice in the last century, consider the following hypothetical examples: * A federal criminal law which requires people to remain in their homes between the hours of 6:00 p.m....

Nunavut: land of the people.
April 1, 1999... Aboriginal self-government has been identified in the literature and in the debates over the constitutional reforms proposed in the 1982 Charlottetown Accord as one of the most important goals for indigenous peoples in Canada. On April 1,...

Last tango in Ottawa: the Quebec secession reference offers lessons for English Canada.
April 1, 1999... The Supreme Court of Canada Reference Re: Secession of Quebec, decided August 20, 1998, was a momentous judgment which will play its part in helping Canadians to conceive of their country in a rather different way in the next century. One...

Aboriginal law: changing the way Canada is governed.
April 1, 1999... As the history of aboriginal law continues to change, it is now time to gaze into the old crystal ball.. The economist John Kenneth Galbraith once observed that accurate predictions of the future are so intrinsically valuable that we ought to...

Youth's call to action: Craig (Kielburger)'s pen mightier than a sword.
April 1, 1999... Craig Kielburger, the young boy who surprised Canadians, and then the world, with his effective campaign to end exploitative child labour has issued a provocative call to action in his recently published book, Free the Children. Teachers...

Civil liability in sports.
April 1, 1999... The very nature of sport entices participants with the lure of competition, physical and mental challenge, and the pursuit of excellence, but success goes hand in hand with training and the potential for injury. While most injuries result...

For the thrill of one's life: legal liability for shattered adventures --.
April 1, 1999... Growth Of The Recreational Adventure Industry "People engage in dangerous sports every day. They scale sheer cliffs and slide down the sides of mountains. They jump from airplanes and float down white water rivers in rubber rafts. Risk...

Speak out! Abuse and harassment can be stopped! A parents' & guardians' guide to understanding abuse & harassment.
April 1, 1999... Canadian Hockey Association This guide helps parents and guardians to understand and recognize abuse and harassment, as well as how to talk to children about the issues. It provides information on how to avoid potentially vulnerable...

Duncan Campbell Scott: poetry of assimilation or homage?
April 1, 1999... Duncan Campbell Scott was, until this past decade, best known as a poet who lamented and at times celebrated Indians in many of his best poems. One of the "Confederation poets," he died in 1947. He was sufficiently noteworthy to warrant this...

Understanding the partnership structure pt1: the general partnership.
April 1, 1999... Partnership refers to the legal arrangement whereby two or more persons -- meaning either individuals or corporations -- carry on business in common with a view to profit. In Canada, most partnership arrangements take the form of either a...

Not even by Solomon (divorced parents and children).
April 1, 1999... I couldn't resist picking up a book called The Divorce From Hell - How the justice system failed a family. I was curious to see what an Ontario journalist had to say about the legal system I work in every day. A couple of years ago I read...

Broad social and public policy forces behind proposed Health Professions Act (HPA).
April 1, 1999... When he introduced the Health Professions Act (HPA) in the house for first and second reading last spring, Rob Renner, MLA for Medicine Hat suggested it was rooted in five principles: * public protection (from incompetent and unethical...

Nunavut on the Net.
April 1, 1999... While Nunavut is becoming a reality on the Canadian map, the internet has been providing information on the formation of the territory. The following sites are useful in finding out about Nunavut. Most of them are available in French,...

Students and the Charter (of Rights and Freedoms).
April 1, 1999... The strip-search of 20 teenage boys at a high school in Kingsville Ontario in December 1998 attracted a lot of attention. Apparently, $90 was reported missing by a student after a phys-ed class. The students in the gym class were confronted...

Did you ever say: "let's start a plain language program here?".
April 1, 1999... It takes more than a wish and a policy Implementing plain language in an institutional setting requires more than rewriting documents and giving staff-training sessions. A plain language policy is often adopted before an implementation...

Maturing face of criminal law.
April 1, 1999... Criminal law seeks to avoid humans mistreating each other. Like other inventions of humankind, it is sometimes necessary that the criminal law be renewed because another plague has been recognized. Canadian criminal law has moved to address...

Vancouver Society of Immigrant & Visible Minority Women.
April 1, 1999... On January 28, 1999 -- nearly a year after it heard the case -- the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in Vancouver Society of Immigrant & Visible Minority Women. It is a judgment which confirms the old adage: you can lose the...