New Family Law resources have recently been released by the Justice Department as part of their free online legal training resources for professionals, Justice Canada Changes to Family Laws. Along with a family violence toolkit, three new free and accredited courses are available to help lawyers understand the 2021 amendments to the Divorce Act:
This course provides an overview of the amendments to the Divorce Act related to parenting including the new parenting terminology and best interests of the child criteria. It is intended to help legal advisers understand the child-focused approach of the Divorce Act’s parenting provisions and the impact of family violence on parenting arrangements.
This course is designed to increase legal advisers’ knowledge and understanding of the new change of residence and relocation framework in the Divorce Act. It focuses on the procedures people must follow in relation to moves and the principles a court will apply in making a decision about a child’s relocation.
This online course focuses on family dispute resolution and the new duties for parties and legal advisers under the Divorce Act. This course will also address the amendments to the Act that encourage parties to use family dispute resolution processes and family justice services.
This free Toolkit offers practical training to ensure that legal advisers can identify and respond to family violence in their family law cases.
The HELP toolkit is comprised of four sections:
HAVE an initial discussion about family violence
EXPLORE immediate risks and safety concerns
LEARN more about the family violence to help you determine what to recommend to your client
PROMOTE safety throughout the family law case
Each of these sections is covered in depth, along with a legal response guide and supplemental materials to assist practitioners. The Toolkit is based on new and existing research on family violence in the family law context.
The HELP Toolkit: Identifying and Responding to Family Violence for Family Law Legal Advisers can be accessed through the Department of Justice Canada website by clicking here.
To access all of the resources offered by Justice Canada Changes to Family Laws click here.
In a world already exhausted by the unrelenting pandemic, the holiday season offers the promise of a reprieve for some. Unfortunately, the holiday season is also a time when cyber criminals are particularly active as most people try to unplug and take some well-deserved breaks from work.
Having endured over a year now of government-imposed restrictions on personal liberty to curb the case count of covid, the general population is now able to better understand the implications of confinement. This blog will begin by exploring the historical reasoning behind solitary confinement, its effectiveness and psychological impact, and circle back to the current state of Covid-19 and what it entails for inmates who have already been deprived of many rights.
Insurers Can Deny Coverage After a Claim Is Accepted, SCC Rules November 24, 2021 – “The Supreme Court of Canada recently clarified that an insurer with no prior knowledge of a policy breach may later deny coverage once the breach has been discovered.”
Pitblado wins at the Supreme Court November 29, 2021 – “The Supreme Court rules that an employment discrimination dispute involving a unionized worker should be settled by a labour arbitrator appointed under the collective agreement, not by a human rights adjudicator.”
Misgendering Employees Can Result In Damages Against Employers November 23, 2021 – “Two recent decisions of Human Rights Tribunals in Ontario (EN v Gallagher’s Bar and Lounge, 2021 HRTO 240) and British Columbia (Nelson v Goodberry Restaurant Group Ltd. dba Buono Osteria and others, 2021 BCHRT 137) highlight the importance of employers respecting the preferred pronouns of their employees, and the potential consequences should an employer fail to show such respect.”
How Can You Contest A Blood Alcohol Test? October 14, 2021 “For years, police had to have a reasonable suspicion that a driver was under the influence before they could mandate them to take a breathalyzer test. What amounted to reasonable suspicion was variable. An officer might pull someone over if they saw them leave a bar and start driving, if their driving was erratic, or for any other number of reasons. In Manitoba, this is no longer the case: officers can administer mandatory breathalyzer tests without reasonable suspicion. That complicates one of the more common defences against DUIs.”
How Does Sandbagging Work in M&A Deals? October 7, 2021 “While both the federal and provincial governments have encouraged private sector employers to impose vaccination policies, it is not mandatory at this time. Employers are responsible for determining the appropriate balance in their workplace between health and safety considerations and the human rights and privacy interests of their employees.”
Critiquing Predictive Policing – Mikal Sokolowski “…predictive policing is considered a divisive controversial policing method, even considering the purported benefits that it offers. Although predictive policing has not been fully adopted in Canada, it has seen rapid adoption in the United States over the last ten years, which is understandable considering the benefits that predictive policing potentially offers. These benefits include predicting when, where, and who will be involved in crimes based on empirical data. Moreover, the reduction in crime rates once predictive policing has been implemented are staggering. However, there are several concerns with the adoption of predictive policing, including that it is generally operated by third parties. This reality means the police may not understand how to properly interpret the data and the data may not be subject to public scrutiny.”
New articles from the Canadian Journal of Law and Society and Criminal Law Quarterly are now available for Law Society members upon request. For a pdf copy of these, or other legal journal articles email us at library@lawsociety.mb.ca.
Canadian Journal of Law and Society
Introduction 36 No. 2 Can. J.L. & Soc’y 189 Dia Dabby, David Koussens
“This article reflects on the question of how culture and religion enter legal cases and public debates about the place of majoritarian religious symbols in diverse societies that have some democratic will to inclusion. In the context of the new diversity, the article considers how the articulation of “our culture and heritage” as a strategy for preserving “formerly” religious symbols and practices in public spaces excludes particular groups from the narrative of who “we” are as a nation. The reader is invited to consider how challenges to such symbols and practices might be articulated as a challenge to privilege and power and that a refusal to acknowledge those power relations puts the reputation of democracy and human rights at risk.”
Formalizing Secularism as a Regime of Restrictions and Protections: The Case of Quebec (Canada) and Geneva (Switzerland) 36 No. 2 Can. J.L. & Soc’y 283 Amélie Barras
Voting on Belonging 36 No. 2 Can. J.L. & Soc’y 263 Dia Dabby , Assistant Professor, Département des sciences juridiques, UQAM, Dabby.dia@uqam.ca
Introduction 36 No. 2 Can. J.L. & Soc’y 195 Dia Dabby, David Koussens
L’État Canadien et la Reconnaissance des Droits Religieux Autochtones 36 No. 2 Can. J.L. & Soc’y 245 Claude Gélinas
La Loi sur la Laïcité de L’État et les Conditions de la Fondation Juridique D’Un Modèle Interculturel au Québec 36 No. 2 Can. J.L. & Soc’y 323 Louis-Philippe Lampron
L’Effacement de la Laïcité Libérale en France. De la Séparation du Politique et du Religieux vers la Promotion du ⪡ Vivre-Ensemble ⪢ 36 No. 2 Can. J.L. & Soc’y 303
Convergence Culturelle et Légistique: Pour un Modèle Québécois D’Intégration Distinct Consacré par une Loi-Cadre 36 No. 2 Can. J.L. & Soc’y 339 Guillaume Rousseau
Criminal Law Quarterly
No More Extensions of Criminal Law Through Injunctions? Policing Blockades 69 C.L.Q. 402 Kent W. Roach
The Objectivity of Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt 69 C.L.Q. 513 Gerald T.G. Seniuk
“The thesis postulated here explains how the vague standard of “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” can be understood as an objective standard of proof even though the decision isbased on a subjective feeling of certitude. In the main, the objective nature of the reasonable doubt standard of proof can only be discerned as patterns emerge over time through the decisions made by individual judges in different cases. Most guilty verdicts depend on the trier’s strong subjective feeling of certitude about the guilt of the accused, a subjective certitude that is much closer to absolute certainty than it is to a probability, but still short of absolute certainty. This subjective feeling of certitude is constrained from slipping into arbitrariness or whimsy by the legal requirements that the verdict is correct in law, is reasonable, and is supported by the evidence. However, even with those constraints, there is room for uncertainty and disagreement. What elevates the subjective feeling of certitude to the level of objective proof is the agreement of a defined group of reasonable, informed people. In other words, the objectivity of proof beyond a reasonable doubt is a socially constructed objectivity that is defined by a methodology of agreement. This methodology of agreement is similar to what sociologists refer to as an objectivation and epistemologists as objectification.”
Requiem for a Representative Jury? So Long Peremptory Challenge and Hello Expanded Judicial Stand By 69 C.L.Q. 436 Brian Manarin
Notes and Comments R. v. Griffith and R. v. Leonard : A Dangerous Assumption in Recent Right to Counsel Cases Criminal Law Quarterly 2021 69 C.L.Q. 404 Kent W. Roach
Notes and Comments Revisiting the Air of Reality Test Within the Context of the Defence of Provocation: A Case Comment on the Court of Appeal for Ontario’s Decision in R. v. Alas Criminal Law Quarterly 2021 69 C.L.Q. 411 Kent W. Roach
Jury Selection Is Not Random Selection: A Methodological Critique of R. v. Kokopenace and a Recommended Solution 69 C.L.Q. 464 Michelle I. Bertrand, David Ireland and Richard Jochelson
The Manitoba Law Library would like to acknowledge with gratitude that we are situated on Treaty One Territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree and Dakota peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation.
Printing and Photocopying
If you need to use the library’s printing and photocopying services you will need to create an account. See us at the front desk for assistance.
Please note: The library will be closing early on Friday, May 9th at 11:00AM for a special event. Regular library service will resume Monday, May 12th at 8:30AM.
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