The Supreme Court (sort of) Thinks About Lawyers as Advisors

By Alice Woolley

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Case commented on: Wood v Schaeffer, 2013 SCC 71

When police officers in Ontario kill or injure someone in the course of their duties, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) investigates their conduct.  The government created the civilian SIU to avoid the problems – both real and perceived – in the investigation of police officers by police officers.  The creation of the SIU does not, however, eliminate the complexity of investigating alleged crimes by police.  The Supreme Court of Canada addressed one of these complexities in its recent decision in Wood v Schaeffer, 2013 SCC 71: how does a police officer’s regular duty to make notes during an investigation operate when the officer may him or herself become a subject of, or direct witness to, the matters investigated?  In particular, what opportunity ought a police officer have to consult counsel when preparing notes in those circumstances?

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The Top Ten Canadian Legal Ethics Stories – 2013

By Alice Woolley

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Once again John Steele at Legal Ethics Forum has compiled his list of the top ten ethics stories of 2013 (here).  As was the case last year, his list has inspired me to think about the top ten ethics stories in Canada (2012 is here).  On reviewing last year’s list it is clear that a number of the stories of significance in 2012 remained important this year.  As well, legal ethics in Canada continues to develop as a matter of practical and intellectual significance, with practitioners, judges, regulators and academics paying attention to the conduct and regulation of lawyers and judges. 

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Protecting Alberta’s Environment Act: A Keystone Kops Response to Environmental Monitoring and Reporting in Alberta

By Shaun Fluker

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Legislation commented on: Protecting Alberta’s Environment Act, SA 2013, c P-26.8

The Protecting Alberta’s Environment Act received royal assent on December 11, 2013, and the statute will come into force on proclamation at a later date. The title of this new legislation suggests it is a reworking of environmental protection laws, along the lines of the Alberta Land Stewardship Act, SA 2009, c A-26.8, which enacted a new framework for land use planning in 2009, or the Responsible Energy Development Act, SA 2012, c R-17.3,which reconfigured energy project regulation this year in Alberta. Anyone with these kinds of expectations will be disappointed though. The sweepingly broad title is misleading as the Act really just targets environmental monitoring and reporting, and is the Alberta legislature’s response to the 2012 Report issued by the Alberta Working Group on Environmental Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (see here). What follows are my comments on the Protecting Alberta’s Environment Act. My overall synopsis is that the Act accomplishes very little, reads as if it was put together in a hurry, and unfortunately allows politics to override science and transparency when it comes to environmental monitoring and reporting. 

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ABlawg Wins 2013 Clawbie for Best Law School/Law Professor Blog

ABlawg is thrilled and honoured to have won the Canadian Law Blogs Award (Clawbie) for Best Law School/Law Professor Blog for the second year in a row. Here is what the Clawbie judges had to say:

13) Best Law School/Law Professor Blog

ABlawg, the University of Calgary Faculty of Law Blog. No other Canadian law blog received as many nominations as this one, many of them from practicing lawyers who find ABlawg’s updates and insights highly valuable. This is not just the best academic law blog in Canada, a category that is very difficult to win; it’s one of the best law blogs around, period.

ABlawg is very much a collective effort, and so we collectively express our thanks to the Clawbie judges, all of those who nominated us, and most importantly, our dedicated readers.

Happy New Year to all.

Teaching Bedford: Reflections on the Supreme Court’s Most Recent Charter Decision

By: Jennifer Koshan

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Case Commented On: Canada (Attorney General) v Bedford, 2013 SCC 72

Much commentary has already been written on the Supreme Court’s decision in Bedford and the implications the case has for the regulation of prostitution in Canada. My interest in this post is to reflect on how to approach Bedford when teaching constitutional law next term. I think Bedford brings some clarity to the case law on section 7 of the Charter, and as Sonia Lawrence has noted here, the decision helps dispel some of the problematic thinking around “choice” and causation in constitutional cases, though I would have liked to see the Court go further here. The Court also could have done more by way of taking a contextual approach in its consideration of the prostitution laws. The evidence presented in the case clearly provided a compelling enough picture of the harms of these laws for the Court to find a violation of section 7, but it is disappointing to see no explicit references to the gendered and racialized nature of prostitution nor to the rich and diverse literature in this area, some of which was cited in the submissions of interveners (see e.g. here, here and here). Finally, the case can also be seen as an example of the relative success that section 7 claims have had of late at the Supreme Court, especially in comparison to the lack of success of section 15 claims.

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