ABLawg - - Page 265

By: Jennifer Koshan

PDF Version: A Vital Judgment: Upholding Transgendered Rights in Alberta

Case commented on: C.F. v Alberta, 2014 ABQB 237 (CanLII)

Alberta’s Director of Vital Statistics interpreted her home statute, the Vital Statistics Act (RSA 2000, c V-4 (Old VSA), later repealed and replaced by SA 2007, c V-4.1 (New VSA)) in a way that required transgendered people to have genital reconstructive surgery in order to be eligible to have the sex on their birth certificate changed. C.F., a trans female, challenged this interpretation as contrary to her rights under sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter). In a ground breaking decision released on April 22, 2014, Justice B.R. Burrows of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench found in favour of C.F. and ordered the Director to issue her a new birth certificate. The Alberta government has included amendments to the Vital Statistics Act in section 9 of Bill 12, the Statutes Amendment Act, 2014, which was introduced in the legislature on May 5, 2014.

“The Feather and the Fiddle”: The Meaning of ‘Indian’ in s 91(24)

By Geoff S. Costeloe

On May 6, 2014

In Aboriginal, Constitutional

By: Geoff S. Costeloe

PDF Version: “The Feather and the Fiddle”: The Meaning of ‘Indian’ in s 91(24)

Cases commented on: Daniels v Canada, 2013 FC 6; Canada v Daniels, 2014 FCA 101.

A decision by the Federal Court of Appeal has largely upheld a trial judge’s finding on just who exactly is encompassed by the word ‘Indian’ in s 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867. The section gives the federal government the power to regulate

24. Indians, and Lands reserved for Indians.

The argument brought by the plaintiffs is that the word ‘Indian’ is broad enough to include both Métis individuals and non-status Indians. The trial judge found that both of these groups were ‘Indians’ under s 91(24) while the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the inclusion of Métis, but it rejected the inclusion of non-status Indians. Both of these decisions will be discussed below. The trial decision was the subject of the Alberta Court of Appeal moot this year, in which I participated as co-counsel for the plaintiffs (with Dex Zucchi, who dealt with issues on fiduciary duty that will not be addressed here).

The Statutory Exclusion of Farm Workers from the Alberta Labour Relations Code

By Admin

On May 2, 2014

In Constitutional, Labour/Employment

By: Brynna Takasugi, Delna Contractor, and Paul Kennett

PDF Version: The Statutory Exclusion of Farm Workers from the Alberta Labour Relations Code

Legislation Commented On: Labour Relations Code, RSA 2000, c L-1

Editor’s Note

This is the second in the series of four posts written by students in Law 696: Constitutional Clinical in the winter term of 2014 (for the first post in this series see here). This post focuses on the exclusion of farm workers from Alberta’s Labour Relations Code, RSA 2000, c L-1, (LRC), and is being published to coincide with May Day and International Workers’ Day (May 1), as it concerns the inability of farm workers to unionize and collectively protect their interests. The following is a summary of the students’ primary arguments regarding the unconstitutionality of the LRC’s exclusion of farm workers.

Defining the “Client” (or not) in Former Client Conflicts

By Alice Woolley

On May 1, 2014

In Ethics and the Legal Profession

By: Alice Woolley

Case commented on: Orr v. Alook, 2014 ABQB 141

PDF version: Defining the “Client” (or not) in Former Client Conflicts

When teaching the law on conflicts of interest to students, I suggest they start by determining the relationships between the parties, lawyer-client, lawyer-lawyer and client-client, and between the matters. This starting point helps the students because knowing whether a client is a former or a current client, whether the matters are the same, related or unrelated, and whether the clients are represented by the same lawyer or lawyers at the same firm, will direct them to the norms and rules that appropriately govern the situation.

North American Environmental Commission Investigating Tailings Ponds Leakage Not Deterred by Private Prosecution

By Martin Olszynski

On April 30, 2014

In Environmental, Fisheries Regulation

By: Martin Olszynski

Decision commented on: Notification to the Submitters and to Council regarding a proceeding notified by Canada (SEM-10-002) (Alberta Tailings Ponds)

PDF version: North American Environmental Commission Investigating Tailings Ponds Leakage Not Deterred by Private Prosecution

Much has been written recently about the Fisheries Act, RSC 1985 c F-14, that often (and perhaps excessively) venerated piece of federal environmental legislation so maligned by industry and other private interests that the Conservative government, in its 2012 omnibus budget legislation, decided to tamper with its provisions in what has been described as a “gutting” (see here, here, here, here, and here) but that upon closer examination appears more like cosmetic surgery (which is to say, still unnecessary and unhelpful but mostly superficial; see e.g. the new policy from Fisheries and Oceans Canada). Still more ink has been spilled in the wake of the recently enacted Regulations Establishing Conditions for Making Regulations under Subsection 36(5.2) of the Fisheries Act, which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) initially stated would have no impact on regulatees or the public at large while the private bar and environmental groups described them as marking a “significant shift in the regulatory regime for managing water quality in Canada” and as “another tangible and integral step in the overall de-regulation agenda.” Following the April 14 release of a decision of the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) in relation to the alleged non-enforcement of section 36 of the Fisheries Act to Alberta’s oil sands (CEC Decision), I decided that it was time to spill some ink of my own.