The Honourable Madam Justice Marie Deschamps of the Supreme Court of Canada spoke to law students at the University of Western Ontario on “Jumping at the Chance,” exploring her career path that took her to Canada’s highest court.
She spent some time with law students discussing these issues in further depth at a subsequent session.
The Honourable Madam Justice Marie Deschamps of the Supreme Court of Canada
William M. Kaplan, a lawyer and arbitrator in Toronto, spoke at UWO Law about his new book, Canadian Maverick: The Life and Times of Ivan C. Rand.
Justice Rand served on the Supreme Court of Canada until his retirement at age 75, after which he moved to London, Ont. and founded the law school at Western.
Check it out in this issue of Amicus Curiae on the UWO Law website or hyperlinked on Law is Cool:
Canadian Constitution Foundation held its Third Annual Law Conference on Race, Religion, Equality and Freedom: Current Canadian Legal Controversies.
The first panel was titled, Is there a human right to be free from offence?
Debating the restrictions on free speech in human rights legislation
Grant Huscroft, University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law
Richard Moon, University of Windsor, Faculty of Law
Philippe Dufresne, Canadian Human Rights Commission, Ottawa
The second panel on Intellectual property law featured Howard Knopf of Macera & Jarzyna, and Richard Owens of Stikeman Elliot LLP.
The third panel addressed, The legal status of polygamy
Debating whether polygamy should be a Criminal Code offense
Martha Bailey, Queens University, Faculty of Law
Nicholas Bala, Queens University, Faculty of Law
Lorraine Weinrib, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law
Bradley Miller, University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law
Keynote speaker over the lunch was Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louis LeBel.
Justice Louis LeBel of the Supreme Court of Canada
An afternoon panel looked at the recent decision in R. v. Kapp, Racial equality, aboriginal rights, and Section 15
Dwight Newman, University of Saskatchewan, College of Law
Bryan Finlay, Weir Foulds LLP, Toronto
Craig Jones, Office of the Attorney General, British Columbia
Jonathan Kay, National Post, Toronto
The kenynote speaker over dinner was George Jonas of the National Post.
Justice Louis LeBel of the Supreme Court of Canada
In his regular column for Lawyers Weekly Magazine, freelance technology writer Luigi Benetton quoted Omar Ha-Redeye in Draft, edit docs in real time, in the Aug. 21, 2009 edition.
Omar Ha-Redeye, a University of Western Ontario law student, shares Smith’s point of view. “It’s all incredibly inefficient, especially in light of the technology we have today,” he says, adding that lawyers will need to better their productivity using such measures. “If they don’t, their competitors will,” he says.
…“The majority of graduating lawyers are now female, and the majority of practising lawyers are not,” Ha-Redeye notes. “Legal practise is not conducive to having a family, picking up kids, dropping off kids and those types of responsibilities, which are not necessarily gender-specific but tend to be, given our history.”
…Ha-Redeye believes that collaboration systems might strengthen groupthink in organizations as hierarchical as law firms.
“They’re different from anonymous tools like Wikipedia,” he says. “People may be highly deferential to those higher in a hierarchy than they are.”
Reviews on Slaw and Law is Cool.
Glenn Kauth of Canadian Lawyer magazine mentioned Omar Ha-Redeye in the current June 2009 issue,
Even law students are using the Twitter-blog combination to get their names out there and position themselves in the field. Omar Ha-Redeye, a second-year student at the University of Western Ontario law school, has garnered a lot of attention through his blog as well as through the web sites Law is Cool and Slaw, too, which he says is already benefiting him as he develops a reputation well before he graduates. “I have lots of informal mentorships with lots of lawyers practising in the field.”
The article also interviewed Erik Magraken of MacIsaac & Co, Deborah Glendinning of Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Rick Powers of the Rotman School of Management, Simone Hughes at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Michael Rabinovici of AR Communications Inc, Dan Michaluk and Susan Carnevale of Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP, Michael Rynowecer of BTI Consulting Group Inc., and David Diamond of Diamond & Diamond Lawyers.
A review of the piece by Omar Ha-Redeye can be found on Slaw.
Monia Mazigh, the wife of Maher Arar who campaigned tirelessly for his return to Canada, spoke at UWO Law today.
After a Royal Commission that exonerated him, Arar received an apology from the RCMP and compensation from the Canadian government to help cover his legal costs. Despite this, nobody has been held accountable in Canada, and he continues to face difficulties over his inclusion on lists in the U.S.
She said her husband’s case is just one of many that the Canadian public need to learn more about.
On Mar. 18, 2009, Hon. Jason Kenney, Min. of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, spoke at Huron College at UWO.
See the write-up and the discussion on Law is Cool.
Omar Ha-Redeye participated in the finals for the Lerners LLP Cup at the University of Western Ontario.
He was awarded the Mr. Justice CD Stewart Trophy for Appellate Advocacy. The award is given to the team with the highest score during any of the preliminary rounds. Omar shared shared the trophy with his partner Lawrence Gridin, who also writes on Law is Cool.
The winner of the Lerners LLP Cup this year was Christopher Crighton.
Lawrence Gridin, Leitch J, Kileen J (ret), O'Reilly J, Omar Ha-Redeye
Coverage of the event can be found on the UWO Law website. A special thanks goes to Prof. Mysty Clapton and Lerners LLP for hosting the event.
Law is Cool Slaw
