ABLawg

No one wins when relatives fight over an estate, lawyers behave with incivility, and judges are asked but refuse to recuse themselves

On March 31, 2009

In Ethics and the Legal Profession, Wills and Estates

Cases Considered: Nazarewycz v. Dool, 2009 ABCA 70.

PDF Version: No one wins when relatives fight over an estate, lawyers behave with incivility, and judges are asked but refuse to recuse themselves

There is little in this case that shows estate work in a good light. It involves relatives accused of a multitude of sins in their fight over a deceased aunt’s property, lawyers accused of being uncivil, and judges accused of bias. All were vindicated in one way or another by the judgment of the Court of Appeal, but no one won. There was too much strife among relatives; too much manoeuvring for a piece of someone else’s pie. And when counsel and the presiding judge became embroiled in the dispute and appeared to take it personally, the legal system was also diminished.

Assisted Human Reproduction in Canada: It’s a Gnarly World Out There

By Brian Seaman

On March 29, 2009

In Constitutional, Health Law

Considered: Assisted Human Reproduction Act, S.C. 2004, c.2.

PDF Version: Assisted human reproduction in Canada: it’s a gnarly world out there

When 60-year-old Ranjit Hayer of Calgary gave birth via caesarean section to twin boys at Calgary’s Foothills Hospital in early February of 2009, the news spread quickly around the world. She became one of a small but growing number of women who, subsequent to having undergone assisted human reproductive treatments, successfully give birth at ages late in the menopausal cycle, or in a handful of even more extreme examples, after menopause has ended. Indeed, in what is probably the most extreme example of a successful post-menopausal pregnancy to date, a 70-year-old woman in India is reported to have given birth in July of 2008 to twins (see here).

TransCanada’s Alberta Pipeline System now under federal regulatory authority

By Nigel Bankes

On March 23, 2009

In Constitutional, Energy, Natural Resources, Oil & Gas

Cases Considered: National Energy Board, Reasons for Decision, TransCanada PipeLines Limited, GH-5-2008, Jurisdiction and Facilities, February 2008 (posted to the NEB website February 26, 2009)

PDF Version: TransCanada’s Alberta Pipeline System now under federal regulatory authority

It’s official. The intra-provincial natural gas transmission system (the Alberta System), originally built by Alberta Gas Trunk Line Limited, latterly known as NOVA, and part of the TransCanada PipeLines (TCPL) empire since 1998, will henceforward be regulated by the National Energy Board rather than the provincial regulators, the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) (for pipeline construction etc) and the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) (for tolls and tariffs etc).

Privacy in Schools: Dogs, Lockers, Bodies and Backpacks

By Linda McKay-Panos

On March 19, 2009

In Constitutional, Criminal, Privacy

Cases Considered: R. v. Kang-Brown, 2008 SCC 18,
R. v. A.M., 2008 SCC 19.

PDF Version: Privacy in Schools: Dogs, Lockers, Bodies and Backpacks

I would like to believe that teenagers are protected from all of the evils of the world when they are at school. At the same time, teenagers are growing into adults and do have rights, such as a reasonable expectation of privacy. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“Charter“) s. 8 provides that:

8. Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.

The Women’s Court of Canada comes to Alberta

By Jennifer Koshan

On March 18, 2009

In Constitutional

As reported on Slaw, the Women’s Court of Canada embarked on a western Canadian tour last week, including stops in Edmonton on March 12 and Calgary on March 13. According to Michael Lines’ post on Slaw, “As a rock group they are pretty unplugged, but as an educational experience, they … rock!”So who is the Women’s Court of Canada (WCC)? Taking our inspiration from Oscar Wilde, who said “the only duty we owe to history is to rewrite it”, we are a group of academics, litigators and activists who are re-writing equality rights law. The first six judgments of the WCC (in Symes v. Canada, [1993] 4 S.C.R. 695; Native Women’s Association of Canada v. Canada, [1994] 3 S.C.R. 627; Eaton v. Brant County Board of Education, [1997] 1 S.C.R. 241; Law v. Canada, [1999] 1 S.C.R. 497; Gosselin v. Quebec, [2002] 4 S.C.R. 429; and Newfoundland v. NAPE, [2004] 3 S.C.R. 381) are published in volume 18(1) of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law and are available electronically on Hein On-Line. Three of the judgments are available on The Court as well. The WCC has plans for a website, including a blog, and students who attended last year’s launch of the WCC in Toronto have created a Facebook group.