Articles 2021

On June 25, 2020, the OBA welcomed Rebecca Durcan of Steinecke Maciura LeBlanc and Srikanth Mangalam of the PRISM Institute for a videoconference entitled The Changing Face of Regulation: Understanding the Impact of the Crisis on Regulatory Law. Moderated by Margaret Drent, Strategic Policy Counsel at the Law Society of Ontario, the program provided a useful moment of reflection as the regulatory community begins to absorb the lessons learned from COVID-19.

In this new reality, videoconferencing has suddenly become top of everyone's mind. However, the practical and legal implications for lawyers can be complex. Fortunately, there is some guidance. 

On March 25, 2020, the Ontario Bar Association hosted a timely and informative webinar on “Emergency Powers and their limitations and protections against their arbitrary use” in the context of COVID-19. Program speakers Leah West and Michael Bryant provided an overview of the statutory tools available to governments to protect the public during the pandemic and explored some of the civil rights impacts of statutory measures.

On November 19, 2019, the Public Sector Lawyers Section of the Ontario Bar Association held a program on regulating disruptive technologies and policy and lawyering responses. The program panel speakers were Michael Rusek, senior counsel with the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council, Michael Rothe, president and CEO of the Canadian Finance & Leasing Association, and Craig Stewart, director of industry innovation with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. 

In this article, Rachel Weiner summarizes the revised framework in Vavilov, identifies changes and uncertainties regarding the standard of review, and argues that the reasonableness standard is not significantly altered.

On October 2, 2019, the Public Sector Lawyers Section of the Ontario Bar Association held their annual welcome reception for articling students and LPP candidates. Students and lawyers in the public sector gathered to hear the Honourable Justice Lorne Sossin share a few words on the good, the bad and ugly of the legal public sector.

On October 3, 2019, the Constitutional, Civil Liberties and Human Rights Law Section of the Ontario Bar Association hosted the 18th Annual Charter Conference. Leading practitioners and experts of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) law provided updates on recent Charter decisions and upcoming cases, developments in Charter jurisprudence and strategies for effective Charter advocacy.

Beginning May 1, 2019, the Ontario Ombudsman’s Children and Youth Unit started receiving complaints about services to children and youth under the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017. This expanded mandate was a result of legislative changes adopted in December 2018 that transferred the investigative functions of the former Ontario Child Advocate to the Ontario Ombudsman.

Get to know the members of the Public Sector Lawyers section executive in this series of articles.