PDF version: Hop(p)s and Water: A Nice Little Water Rights Decision Out of British Columbia
Decision commented on: Carolyn Hopp v Assistant Regional Manager Water, 2012-WAT-033(a) (EAB).
The Environmental Appeal Board (EAB) of British Columbia is starting to build up a body of jurisprudence on water rights and especially water licensing decisions in the context of fully allocated or fully recorded streams.
PDF version: New Developments in Long Running Alberta Privacy Case
Decision considered: Alberta Teachers’ Association v Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2013 ABQB 106.
This case, which has a long judicial history, has been followed closely by those interested in information and privacy procedures. The issues raised by the decision were discussed in my previous ABlawg post “Supreme Court of Canada Saves Timing for the Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner” here. Also see Alice Woolley’s ABlawg post on this decision ‘True Questions of Jurisdiction: Administrative Law’s Unicorns” here. The current case is interesting because the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) now seeks to amend its Originating Application to the Court of Queen’s Bench to include a request for declarations that selected provisions of the Personal Information Protection Act SA 2003, c P-6.5 (PIPA) and the PIPA Regulation, Alta Reg 366/2003 are unconstitutional, or that the adjudicator’s order is unconstitutional.
PDF version: Language Protection in the Human Rights Sphere
Cases considered: Caron v Alberta (Chief Commissioner, Human Rights Commission), 2013 ABQB 13, and Chieriro v Michetti, 2013 AHRC 3.
The Caron language rights saga discussed in previous posts on ABlawg (see here) continues, as the next development in his continuing litigation was recently released by the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta. This post will discuss that decision, as well as a recent decision of the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal, Chieriro v Michetti, 2013 AHRC 3, which also raises issues about the protection of language-related rights.
PDF version: Update in the Area of Family Status Discrimination
Case considered: Canadian National Railway v Denise Seeley and Canadian Human Rights Commission, 2013 FC 117.
In 2010, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal released three cases involving Alberta women who alleged they were being discriminated against on the basis of family status. In a previous post I wrote on the outcome (see “Accommodation for Family Status Required by Federal Human Rights Tribunal for Three Alberta Women” December 22, 2010 here) in which CNR was required to accommodate parental responsibilities of all three women. Canadian National Railway (CNR) applied for judicial review on the case of Denise Seeley. The decision of Justice Mandamin of the Federal Court presents an attempt to reconcile two lines of decisions that addressed what “family status” discrimination entails. On a larger scale, this case is one of several in which gender and family status discrimination are argued to be result of social construct or personal choice rather than the operation of law or the result of discrimination in an activity that is covered by human rights legislation (e.g., employment, tenancy, services, accommodation and publications).
PDF version: Intersection Between Different Legal Areas
Case commented on: Basha v Lofca, 2013 ABQB 159.
Introduction
It is quite common for certain legal areas to intersect with others in cases that come before the courts. In the recent Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench case of Basha v Lofca, this intersection arose within the areas of immigration and family law.
