Last February 11, Ontario’s Minister of Labour, the Honourable Yasir Naqvi attended Osgoode to give a special lecture on “Employment Law, Politics, and the Stronger Workplaces for a Stronger Economy Act”. As it turns out, the day before, the Obiter received an unexpected email with an invitation from the Minister’s Director of Communications to interview the Minister after the lecture. I...
Dear Obiter: In November 2013, a Black female law student at Osgoode Hall Law School was racially profiled while studying in the Osgoode Hall Library. The student was asked by an Osgoode staff person to provide identification because “she did not look like an Osgoode student.” The Black Law Students Association (BLSA) at Osgoode is deeply concerned about incidents of racial profiling and...
Terms like corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) and responsible investment are often used as buzz words – positive and reassuring music to our socially responsible ears. For those business-oriented but sustainability-minded law students, exploring this interdisciplinary area is often inaccessible. Yes, we want to change how business is practiced; yes, we want to learn more about this...
The winter Olympics in Sochi have produced some memorable moments thus far, including the release of photos revealing the construction of side-by-side toilets, complaints of poorly designed courses, Russian cronyism inflating the cost of the games, back room dealings amongst figure skating judges, and reports of the comically small beds being slept on by the respective men’s hockey teams. But...
Eight years ago, our Chief Justice, the Right Honourable Beverly McLachlin, called on Canadians to improve access to justice in Canada, or continue the slow but unacceptable march towards legal inequality – for as she has so rightly repeated in her ensuing campaign, “there is no justice without access to justice.” Two years later, in 2008, Justice McLachlin made access to justice a national...
On February 12 and 13, some of the most committed Ozzies around put their talents together and put on a spectacular revue of the best legal humour in North York. This Editor attended the Thursday night performance, which is typically the rowdier event. The packed Moot Court room did not disappoint. Business Manager and performer Brendan Monahan reported before the show that there were no tickets...
In case you missed it, on Friday, January 31, the Osgoode Society for Corporate Governance (OSCG) organized a tour for Osgoode students to the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). As the first tour of its kind, it was a unique opportunity to learn about the work of the OSC and potential career opportunities. Located conveniently beside the Eaton’s Centre, the OSC is Ontario’s main regulatory body...
Interested in combining a challenging job with travel in a fascinating foreign country? Why not follow in the footsteps of other Osgoode graduates who have taught law and legal English at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law in the city of Chongqing, located in the province of Sichuan, Peoples Republic of China? For the past tweleve years, Osgoode has sent between one and three...
Last October, an 89-year-old lady named Audrey Tobias was acquitted for not filing out her census form. As some of you may know, Ms. Tobias did not forget, but in fact, purposely decided not to complete the form. According to section 31 of the Statistics Act, it is an offence to “refuse or neglect” to fill out a census form or to return it by the date and in the form required, or to knowingly...
York University has been caught in a firestorm over its decision to side with a male student over his wish to be excused from a group project because of his claim that his religious beliefs prevented him from working with women. This case has again reignited the age-old debate between secularism and religious values and between inclusiveness and diversity, debates that university administrations...
It’s late. 1 AM on a Saturday, actually. I’m tired and stressed and alone. I’m thinking about money. I should be thinking about Torts, but yeah, I’m thinking about money. I’m also looking at my Facebook chat list and I’m realizing that a lot of my friends are online too. They’re also tired. And yes, I’d bet that they’re thinking about money. And maybe feeling alone too. This is true, I...
Hot on the heels of his “I’m not Rob Ford” political campaign, polls are indicating that the other guy has an early lead on Rob Ford in the upcoming mayoral election in Toronto. Campaign critics have lauded the other guy’s campaign strategy, with some even suggesting that it may inspire a similar cultural zeitgeist as Obama’s equally memorable “Hope” campaign. We approached Torontonians to get a...
Happy Winter Semester Osgoode! On behalf of Legal and Lit, I hope you all had a very cheerful winter holiday season. Looking back on the fall term, I am reminded of the privilege it has been to serve you as L&L President. I have been learning a lot along the way and look forward to redoubling my efforts this semester to bring to fruition, in collaboration with my colleagues on the Legal and...
Did you know that almost 12 million Canadians will face at least one legal problem in a given three-year period? Or that taking just a two-day civil action to trial costs between $13,500 and $37,200? Canadians today are losing their access to justice as the costs of legal services and length of legal proceedings climb steadily upwards. The Canadian Forum of Civil Justice is starting a new segment...
This year, the Academic Policy and Planning Committee (APPC) (a part of Faculty Council here at Osgoode), has been discussing the bell curve and its application to small classes. The scope of the discussion includes all seminars, intensive/clinical programs and classes with enrolments under thirty students. As one of your student representatives on the APPC, I would like to take the opportunity...
On December 20th the Supreme Court of Canada released the Bedford decision, striking down Canada’s prostitution laws as unconstitutional, suspending the decision for one year. As an interested law student, I shadowed a member of one of the intervenors in the case, the Asian Women’s Coalition Ending Prostitution (“AW”), at the media scrum on the day the decision was handed down. AW is a...
In 1979, I left Osgoode Hall Law School, law degree in hand, excited and anxious about an uncharted career ahead. Thirty five years later, I am back at Osgoode, honoured to be selected as a Roy McMurtry Clinical Fellow.
From January 13 to February 7, I will be at Osgoode full time, eager to add to your legal education, and to learn as much as I can.
During reading week, I had the opportunity to travel to Prague to visit a good friend of mine, and of course, to do research for my Entertainment and Sports law seminar paper. PIERA SAVAGE <Contributor> I’d been to Prague a few months before, in late August, when it was still quite warm, and had fallen in love with the charming city. I welcomed the opportunity that reading week provided to...
According to information received by Obiter Dicta this week, the Legal and Literary Society’s 2013-14 budget includes an operating deficit of $22 825. Approved unanimously at a special September 12 meeting, the budget includes categorized revenues and expenditures for, among other things, clubs and major L&L events throughout the year. Legal and Lit’s constitution requires publication of the...
There is a certain kind of rivalry among siblings that is hard to describe. Perhaps it takes having siblings to truly understand experiencing un-vocalized love and very-vocalized competition, especially when your siblings make it to “high” places. So my dad and I often joke that he is the family’s parish priest, whose brothers have been made cardinals. While the priest has his ear to the ground...
I can’t tell you what Professor Michael Mandel meant to each of the approximately 4000 students he had a hand in educating over his lengthy 39-year academic career; I can, however, tell you what he meant to me. Through this, those of you who had the chance to learn from him might remember something about the experience, and those of you who didn’t might perhaps be able to get some idea of what it...
Last year, before starting my first year of law school, I received from Osgoode information concerning my courses and the professors who were teaching them. I eagerly searched each of them on Osgoode’s website. I remember reading Professor Mandel’s bio and thinking how interestingly odd it was (odd in a good way of course). I am not able to recall the details and could not go back to the website...
On October 27, 2013, the Osgoode community experienced the significant and tragic loss of an alum and cherished professor, Michael Mandel.
Many students received an email from the Dean, twitter and facebook headlines soon followed. Within hours, the Osgoode community reacted. Lawyers, academics, alumni and current students began to express their feelings of loss across various outlets.
At first, I was somewhat ambivalent about my stance on the Quebec Charter of Values.
Nicholas Banerd <Contributor>
I have always fervently supported the idea of a secular state. The Parti Quebecois’ ban on religious symbols would only apply to state-workers, and citizens seeking government services.
Law school is expensive.
This academic year, each of us will pay Osgoode somewhere in the neighborhood of $22,000. That’s more than 75% of the median Canadian’s income.