In 2015, the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice (CFCJ) at Osgoode Hall Law School published Civil Non-Family Cases Filed in the Supreme Court of BC – Research Results and Lessons Learned. This study is one piece of a larger, five year, “Cost of Justice” research initiative being undertaken by the CFCJ with the goal of defining the economic and social costs of justice on two fronts: the cost of...
Getting to know a low-commitment way to participate in Ontario’s environmental decisions As someone who is fairly set on a career in environmental law, I was surprised when the Environmental Law course didn’t immediately grab my attention. Not that the course isn’t a good one, it is. It just didn’t click with me until over a month in, when I saw the course in a different way. Rather than...
Nineteenth Annual JD/MBA Students’ Association Conference Anti-Terrorism legislation. Spyware. Big Data. Never in history have Western civilians been as aware of the eyes on them, and in their personal information. With the advent of organizations such as Facebook and Google, information about people is becoming a commodity in ways it could never have been imagined in the past. Understanding how...
The Osgoode Feminist Collective (OFC) Traces the Legacy of Misogyny in Canadian Courts The OFC has been spending time in the abandoned corridors of pre-renovation Osgoode uncovering a litany of archival resources from our feminist past as Osgoode’s Women’s Caucus. In our first edition of this monthly series, we have chosen to highlight the pervasive sexist attitudes that continue to plague the...
Netflix’s Making a Murderer Brings Justice Issues to the Spotlight My fellow peers were right in recommending Making a Murderer as an engaging and compelling docu-drama narrowing in on our perceptions of administration of justice. Netflix introduced the documentary in late 2015, just in time for law students to binge on the entire collection, post exam-stress and right before the new term. It...
The Murals of Northern Ireland and Movement Towards Peace In a recent issue I explored the value of public art within the context of restorative mural arts projects in Philadelphia and the benefits such programs have within the community. In contrast, this edition will be focused on the murals of Northern Ireland that represent sectarian violence that spanned over thirty years. Rather than...
The Glory and Pitfalls of the Adversarial Justice System Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder (1959) is fifty-seven years old. Nevertheless, it remains the finest trial drama ever put on film. It is impossible for me to put into words why my love affair with this film runs so deep. I first watched Anatomy of a Murder when I was a naïve twenty-year old. This was before I even thought about going...
The “War on Drugs” has faded into the recesses of public consciousness since the turn of the century, overtaken by the events of 9/11 and the subsequent and ongoing events in the Middle East. Nonetheless, we are occasionally reminded of the former, through news reports such as the recent capture of Mexican drug lord and head of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, or through the...
The Role of Public Health in President Obama’s Executive Orders On 4 January 2016, President Obama announced a series of executive orders that are meant to address what he calls an “epidemic of gun violence” in the United States. He justified these orders by referring to the blocking of gun reforms in the United States congress despite the increasing number of violent public shootings and deaths...
Do we have a Progressive New Prime Minister, or is it just a Honeymoon Period? From Syrian refugees to Indigenous relations to climate change, Canada’s new Liberal government’s policies have been a radical departure from the Harper government’s way of doing things – and these policies have got the international community talking. A new year, a new Prime Minister, a new start – but how long...
Checking in at the mid-way point of my term as Editor-in-Chief to review the year so far, and look ahead to the upcoming semester. When I started at Osgoode in 2013, I was drawn to the Obiter Dicta because it offered an open and inviting opportunity both for writing, and as a student organization to be involved with. Now approaching the end of 3L, my time with the Obiter has met and exceeded all...
A SYMBOL COMMANDING CHANGE IN CANADA
The image of Alan Kurdi’s tiny, lifeless body on the shores of Bodrum, Turkey commanded the world’s attention. The three-year-old immediately became the symbol of the dire situation facing Syrian refugees, displaced from their homes by civil war. His tragic story bore significant weight in the transformation of the world’s reception of Syrian refugees.
Every year, we witness things in sports that provide us with lasting memories. Some of these memories remain with us for a lifetime. This year was no different as the last twelve months gave us jaw-dropping, head-scratching, fist-shaking moments. NBA Year of the Warriors 2015 NBA Champions. A 24-0 start to the following season. The Warriors had the best start in NBA...
Some Areas of Concern Jim Balsillie, former CEO of Research in Motion, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “the worst public policy decision in the country’s history.”[1] The TPP is a trade agreement between Pacific nations to achieve regional trade integration. Canada officially joined negotiations in 2012. The TPP has been subject to much controversy due to its expansive scope and lack...
To say law school is a stressful environment would be both an understatement and a statement so ridiculously, blatantly obvious that you’d probably dislocate your jaw trying to say “duhhhhh” emphatically enough. I overheard someone say, “everyone in law school has an anxiety disorder: it’s called law school.” We end up balancing about 500 pages of readings a week with social and family...
In the opinion of one ‘self-proclaimed’ Bob Dylan expert Bob Dylan turns seventy-five this May. No other artist has a catalogue of songs as deep and diverse. No other artist has been as influential to music. Dylan is a musical icon of biblical proportions. In admiration of his five plus decades in writing and recording music, I thought it appropriate to provide an answer, once and for all, to the...
Connecting Climate Change and Health in the Paris Agreement Between 30 November to 11 December 2015, 195 countries as well as thousands of international organizations, activist groups, and spectators gathered in Paris in order to discuss how the international community will address climate change. The UN conference culminated in the adoption of the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015. This...
The importance of a memorable judicial writing style Judge Gail Standish, a former intellectual property lawyer and current district judge in California, made headlines last week with her dismissal of a copyright claim against Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off.” Swift was being sued for $42 million in damages by musician Jesse Braham, who claimed that the repetition of “players gonna play,” “haters...
Why OSAII Became Possible Thank you Osgoode for making social justice relevant and possible in today’s climate of corporate success, political correctness, and the social stratification. Thank you to the Osgoode staff, faculty, and the students for making the fight for what is right possible, supportive, and enjoyable. When I decided to apply for law school, it was after decades of being exposed...
A Comparison of the 2015 Team with Its 1992 Predecessor Part Five: Examining the Starting Pitching: Back-end of the Rotation Traditionally speaking, the back-end of the starting rotation is where General Managers (GMs) can go “bargain hunting” for cheap options via non-tendered players and/or wavier claims. Why? With the front and middle of the rotation sorted out, GMs can...
On November 15th, at approximately one o’clock a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), the mixed martial arts (MMA) world was flipped upside down. It was one of those moments that every fan that watched will remember, recalling their whereabouts and feelings when it happened. On November 15th, I had every intention of writing a comparison of the celebration of “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey, (at the time)...
Best Picture Predictions and then some With November well underway, Oscar season is in full gear. It is the most wonderful time of the year for movie fans like me. From the end of September until the middle of January is where studios typically position releases of their ‘award-worthy’ films. This puts us smack in the middle of a busy period, and thankfully, because we need something to distract...
Law and Technology The legal market is in an unprecedented state of flux. Over the next two decades, the way in which lawyers work will change radically. Entirely new ways of delivering legal services will emerge, new providers will enter the market, and the workings of our courts will be transformed. Unless they adapt, many traditional legal businesses will fail. On the other hand, a whole set...
Are companies required to bridge the gap between morality and legality? Convicted murderer Paul Bernardo made headlines this month when it became known that he had self-published a fictional e-book. The novel, titled A MAD World Order, is an allegedly violent thriller involving Mexican drug cartels and Russian agents, and became available for purchase on Amazon.com. It was a story that called...
A Review and Look at November’s Biggest Sales in the Art World During the month of November, thousands flock to New York City, are wined and dined, raise their paddles in the air, and possibly lose a few zeros from their bank accounts. The New York sales by Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips expect more than $2.1 billion (all prices in USD) to be sold in Impressionist, Modern, Post-War, and...