How Each Crisis that Engulfed 2020 was Predictable and Foreseen In 2007, Nassim Nicholas Taleb published his seminal piece, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, to great commercial success and critical acclaim. The book, among other things, told the story of a popular assumption that remained nestled in the minds of ‘Old World’ citizens until the late 17th century: that all swans...
As L&L’s social convener, I get the opportunity to connect with a lot of our classmates while I host weekly online social events.The majority of messages that I receive are from club execs who reach out to me for advice on hosting online events or from colleagues asking about plans for the upcoming winter semester (no, I don’t know the answer to that). As we’ve progressed through the school...
Unless you live under a rock, you are probably at least vaguely aware of the United States presidential election. The contest between incumbent Donald Trump and former Vice-President Joe Biden has truly been a clash of titans, if titans meant men in their seventies. There are a great many differences between the two candidates, but one area where the contrast is most evident is in their...
Midterms have arrived for 1Ls. The length of time allowed for each midterm varies from a few hours to a few days, but one thing is consistent: for Contracts, Torts, and Criminal Law, midterms might be the first substantial graded work of the semester. For students who have been working very hard with little graded feedback, the stakes seem high even for no-downside midterms, which count for zero...
Further crippling the reputation of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) a week post Nova Scotia’s egregious acts of violence against Indigenous fisheries, the Meng Wanzhou extradition case is slashing public trust in police authority. On October 28th, Meng’s lawyer elicited from Constable Winston Yep a likely breach of Meng’s Charter rights. The high-profile case commenced on December...
“We’re a social enterprise.” As a novice “social” entrepreneur running my own company, I’ve used and heard this phrase a lot. The term “social enterprise” has rapidly emerged as a way of describing a new and improved generation in business and entrepreneurship. In recent years, social enterprise has become prominent, attracting the interest and attention of investors, mainstream media, and...
Content warning: This story contains details about the murder and sexual assault of a young child. Until last Thursday, the identity of nine-year-old Christine Jessop’s rapist and murderer was unknown. For thirty-six years, her family was unable to find answers, after the exoneration of Guy Paul Morin removed the main suspect. The police and prosecution’s singular focus on Morin had devastating...
A survey conducted in 2019 found that 71% of Canadians believe the country needs to take the lead globally in the fight against climate change, and 76% believe the country needs to be doing more on the issue as a whole. But you probably didn’t need to hear the statistics to back up the statement “Canadians care about the climate.” It is evident in small ways, such as more restaurants offering...
Since the beginning of September, there has been a significant increase in daily COVID-19 cases province-wide, most likely due to the reopening of schools and universities. New daily cases now top five hundred, up from less than a hundred in the middle of August and surpassing the pandemic’s first peak in April. However, despite the recent upward trend in COVID-19 cases, Ontarians should not be...
By-elections have been called for October 26th in the ridings of Toronto Centre and York Centre. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, voters in these two ridings will be electing two members of Parliament (MPs) to represent them in the House of Commons. Both Toronto Centre and York Centre were formerly held by Liberal MPs, and while many predictions have the Liberals retaining these two seats, nothing...
A Public Diary Entry from Corey LeBlanc The start of a new school year can always be a stressful time. Doubly-so in the high-pressure environment that is law school. And so further in the COVID-era. Consequently, the fact that my September was going to be a little rocky was to be expected. However, the extent to which my little karmic ship was hammered by the proverbial open-and-stormy waters...
During my first welcome reception at Osgoode, I vividly remember a male articling student at the hosting firm telling me, completely unprompted, why there aren’t as many women in law as men. “I guess it’s all the harassment,” he said, laughing nervously. “It can be hard, you know. With sexism.” At the time, I was irritated that he had acted as if this was some sort of revelation to me...
For many Canadians right now, the scale of the coronavirus calls to mind the Great Depression or the 2008 financial crisis—events that forever reshaped society. The current crisis has changed the way we travel and interact with people, the level of surveillance and security we are accustomed to, and even the way we practice hygiene. Will touch become taboo? What will become of sports stadiums...
The world is on fire. Right now the most obvious example of this is in the Western United States where 3.1 million acres have already burned down due to forest fires over the past two weeks. Despite the wealth of scientific evidence that names climate change as the main culprit behind this, President Donald Trump says the wildfires and mass devastation that is happening are just because of poor...
There’s a trope that law school self-selects for people who like to argue. But even if you like to argue, you may not be going about it in the most productive way. If law school is all about education, the way we converse about opposing views should follow suit. This is where we need the principle of charity. The principle of charity addresses how we should assess an argument or particular...
What This Means and Why We Should Care It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way governments around the world operate. You don’t need to look much further than south of the border, where an already controversial federal government has further fallen into disrepair in the face of the pandemic. In a country that was once considered a bastion of democracy, we now see the...
Osgoode Hall Law School Has Survived Challenges Before, and Will Survive Them Again The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent shutdown of most of Canadian society, including the cancelling of all in-person instruction here at Osgoode Hall Law School, is not how I envisioned the end of my 2L year going. I am worried for my family, I am worried for my friends, I am worried for our...
In the age of a global pandemic, we all face unavoidable change. There is change to our daily routines, our interactions, and (hopefully) hygiene habits. In an effort to contain the spread of the virus and protect high-risk populations, we are all adjusting to social distancing practices, and the cancellation of classes, as well as social events, entertainment, and sporting events. While some of...
It’s probably too early for optimism, but our next issue is in September… The truth is I am probably jumping the gun on talking about some of the takeaways of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are still people suffering because they contracted it, because others were careless, because people simply lived their lives without knowing that they were a risk. In some sense, the virus is an example of...
Everything You Need to Know About the COVID-19 Pandemic In an effort to assist Osgoode Hall Law Students during these unprecedented times, the Opinions Section publishes this COVID-19 explainer: What is Coronavirus? What is COVID-19? Are they the same thing? A: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)...
Last October, swarthy Joe Rogan interviewed scrawny Edward Snowden about mass surveillance, patriotism, and extraterrestrial life. Eleven million people have tuned in since. Snowden, who copied and leaked over a million highly classified files from US military and intelligence agencies, shares the stage with Chelsea Manning, and the currently unnamed individuals behind the Panama Papers and the...
How Canada’s Expropriation Laws Function to Preclude Compensation for Private Property Owners Flipping through my property law textbook, I was struck by the realization that, in certain situations, the Crown has the power to expropriate the land of private citizens without compensating its owners. After navigating through the legal topography of expropriation, several of my cursory concerns...
The Rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump Editorial Note: This article was submitted before Super Tuesday. The Democratic Presidential Primary is shaping up to be one of the most chaotic in recent memory. 29 candidates threw their hats into the ring, creating the most competitive primary in US history. This list, with candidates ages 38-89, contained seven visible minorities, six non...
Why Chief Justice McLachlin’s Confidence in Hong Kong’s Courts Should Give Us Pause From London to Beijing Almost 23 years ago, the United Kingdom handed over control of their Hong Kong colony to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). As part of the transfer agreement, Hong Kong would become a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the communist nation, but would be able to retain the...
Editor’s Note: Occasionally the editorial team here at Obiter chooses to re-publish timely and relevant submissions from our archives. In acknowledgement and celebration of Black History Month, we bring you this piece penned by Class of ’13 alum, Shawn Knights, from Volume 85 of Obiter Dicta, originally published February 11, 2013. Since its inception, there has been an ongoing debate about...