Articles 2020

This article explains the role of the Ontario Ombudsman with respect to service providers who operate under the CYFSA.

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.

The Ontario Ombudsman investigation of the Near North District School Board found that the Board's decision to close a secondary school was procedurally unfair. The subsequent report, "Lessons Not Learned", outlines 14 recommendations of particular importance to governance matters.

In a competitive legal market, many bright minds gravitate to large and multi-national firms, often taking a cut in their social lives for larger salaries and swanky corporate benefits packages. Even for lawyers who desire a more balanced approach to their career and personal life, the sacrifice of a high wage can’t come without gaining well-positioned benefits packages.

Criminal defence and immigration lawyer Harpreet Saini provides practice tips for ethical lawyering: how to professionally and courteously handle a call when a potential client already has counsel.

While blockchain originated to serve as the public transaction ledger of cryptocurrency, the technology is now being explored for other purposes. It is only a matter of time before the construction industry engages in earnest with blockchain and benefits from the technology.

On September 20, 2019, the Supreme Court released its long-awaited decision in Pioneer Corp v Godfrey. Godfrey is the Supreme Court’s latest decision involving price-fixing class actions, and expands on and clarifies the basic approach to these cases that the Court laid out six years ago in Pro-Sys Consultants Limited v Microsoft Corporation.

Topics this week included family law, costs in the wills and estates context, contractual interpretation, assessment of accounts in the condominium law context, and stay pending leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In Canmar Foods Ltd v TA Foods Ltd, the Federal Court interpreted the new file wrapper estoppel provision, s 53.1 of the Patent Act, for the first time. The court held that foreign prosecution history is admissible in extraordinary circumstances under this provision.

With every interaction you are establishing your “brand”. Whether you are dealing with a client, service provider, administration staff, colleagues or superiors, how you react in each situation tells those whom you are dealing with what kind of lawyer you are.