In one of the largest university settlement cases, the University of Southern California (USC) has agreed to an $852 million USD settlement in addition to their previous $215 million settlement approved by the federal court. The total settlement is even larger than many of the settlements that followed the child sex abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. Ironically, both are closely related...
Growing up, Luke didn’t feel Indigenous at all. Most of his family lived on or near the reserve on Scugog Island quite close to Lindsay, Ontario, where he was born. “We’d go out to res very often, but it never felt like an Indigenous community, it was just my family,” he tells me as we sit on opposite sides of a picnic bench on a cold November morning in front of his studio in downtown Kitchener...
Almost every aspect of law school is tough: building your summaries, studying for exams, job recruits, and having to balance all that with your extracurricular and volunteer activities. Plus, you have to deal with it all in a virtual environment where you’re stuck inside watching the seasons pass you by. That is precisely why it’s so important to watch a show with a main character that exudes...
It’s safe to say that this year has been one of the most challenging school years I’ve had, and I’ve definitely found myself turning to “feel-good” entertainment more and more. I love turning on an episode of “Parks and Recreation”, re-reading Lord of the Rings, or making a matcha latte as a reward for getting through another long day of working from home. As exam season approaches and stress...
The music of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) is some of the most exquisitely crafted in the classical repertoire. The composer’s perfectionism is evinced by his small output. There are basically a handful or two of major works, and many of the orchestral pieces are simply arrangements of compositions for piano. But there are few, if any, duds. Take, for example, the String Quartet (1903). It is easy to...
It’s hard to believe that we’re nearly at the end of the academic year, and while that is a relief in many ways, it means that we have to confront the beast once more: finals. It’s time to scream at yourself for not having taken better notes in class, fire up the ol’ L&L database, and get to work. And so, I have compiled an ever-so-carefully curated playlist of classical music to...
A Recap of the 2021 NBA Trade Deadline The NBA trade deadline day has always been a nerve-wracking day for NBA fans waiting to see whether their favourite players will be traded. For Raptors fans, this year’s trade deadline had the potential to be franchise-altering with the possibility of trading both franchise star and GROAT (Greatest Raptor of All Time) Kyle Lowry and long-time Raptor Norman...
Staff Writer Luke Giffen Reflects on his NHL Predictions and Takes Us Back Through What’s Been a Truly Bizarre, One-of-a-Kind NHL Season As we move well past the halfway point of this strange NHL season, I thought it would be a good idea to look back on how my predictions stacked up from when the season first began. Also, I’ll recap the multitude of interesting stories that have popped up along...
Boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler passed away on March 13, 2021. He had his name legally changed to “Marvelous” after announcers did not refer to his nickname. He was marvelous in the ring and was considered one of the “Four Kings” of his generation of boxers, which included Thomas Hearns, Roberto Durán, and Sugar Ray Leonard. I love the sport of boxing, and it’s taught me some transferrable skills...
Why we ought to give the future HOFer his flowers while he is still here As the adage goes, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. For a brief moment in time, Raptors fans were given no choice but to stare into the unknown and envision a world without Kyle Lowry. The whirlwind of a nine-game losing streak, talks of a rebuild in the media, and rumours of a frugal real estate transaction...
Innovation has been the defining feature in equipping the international community to fight back against COVID-19. As the race for a vaccine shaped much of last year and as vaccinations continue to ramp up across the world this year, it has become increasingly vital to contextualize the strategy of the different players in the intellectual property and pharmaceutical patent scene. In particular...
The microeconomics and internal workings of our securities markets and exchanges are incredibly complex, and few know anything beyond that – even the most sophisticated of current investors. If the world of investing were isolated, then the obscurity of its nature would not be entirely concerning. But the reality is that much of society’s infrastructure – literally and figuratively – is tied up...
When families are unable to sort out their issues and take them to court, someone is going to win and the other will lose. Likely, the loser will be ordered to pay some amount in costs to the other party. This is what happened to Mr. Ryan Phelps in Phelps v Childs, 2021 ONSC 1468 when he tried to appeal an order from Abrams J. dated June 11, 2019. The Appellant, Mr. Phelps was ordered to return...
In the summer of 2019, the York Regional Police arrested approximately nine people with alleged links to the ‘Ndrangheta, an Italian mafia clan. In an operation called “Project Sindacato,” the police raided various locations seizing 27 homes, 23 sports cars, 11 gaming houses, gambling machines, luxury liquors, jewelry, and cash. By the time the raids came to an end, nearly $35 million in goods...
On February 24th, 2021, a German court sentenced Eyad al-Gharib, a former member of the Syrian regime’s intelligence service, to four and a half years in prison for aiding and abetting the torture of civilians. The court stated that the defendant had arrested at least 30 anti-government protestors at the beginning of the conflict in 2011, sending them to a facility where he knew torture takes...
will the Roaring 20’s lead to a burning of the next decades to come? According to Wall Street, Washington, and Ottawa economists, many consumers are sitting on piles of pandemic savings that is prompting the possible prospect of a post-covid boom. Even in the last few weeks, vaccine distribution has increased and retail sales have jumped. This is said to be a result of months of lockdown induced...
I. Ontario’s Ag-Gag Legislation On June 18, 2020, Ontario’s Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act (“the Act”) received Royal Assent. Some provisions of the Act came into force on September 2, with the remaining provisions of the Act and its Regulation coming into force on December 5, 2020. The Act creates provisions specific to places where farm animals are kept and...
I recently re-read the Pulitzer-prize winning Evicted by Matthew Desmond for my property class. Desmond truly does an incredible job providing a lens into the lives of the renters that he details, specifically in the way he traces the cyclical nature of eviction faced by many Americans today. I would recommend Evicted to anyone regardless, but Desmond leaves a lot on the table when it comes to...
On July 1, 2021, Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella will retire from the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”). Justice Abella, the first Jewish woman and former refugee to sit on Canada’s highest court, will step down after 17 years at the Court, and 45 years as a judge. Before her appointment to the SCC, she served on the Ontario Family Court and Ontario Court of Appeal. In the coming months...
This year, with a longer than usual eligibility period and closed theatres preventing traditional premieres and releases, the Oscars nominations look very different. Regardless of how the actual awards pan out, the big winner seems to be diversity, with historic nominations for actors of colour in nearly every category. It’s truly amazing that in the nearly one hundred year history of the Oscars...
What began as an exploration of Canadian cuisine became an deeply personal and moving family history Chop Suey is a personal favourite of mine, and a few years ago, I decided to track down the origin of this quintessentially Chinese-Canadian cuisine. I found that story in Ann Hui’s book, Chop Suey Nation. I recently found myself re-reading Chop Suey Nation and immersed in the narrative Hui...
It is often remarked that Prokofiev’s music started out spiky, and became more lyrical and harmonically conservative later on—especially after his return to Russia in the mid-1930s. While many of the earlier works are angular (e.g., the Scythian Suite) and many of the later works (e.g., Romeo and Juliet) are unabashedly melodious, there are also plenty of pieces that defy this categorization. For...
I have known my friend Mike (real name withheld) for about ten years. We grew up together attending the same summer camp, and then we spent four more years in Montreal completing our undergraduate degrees. For as long as I have known him, Mike has bought, sold, and traded sports cards. And for as long as he has been collecting, I have been telling him to stop wasting his money. Of course...
Osgoode teams crowned champions, reach semi-finals, among 26 teams across North America in National Sports Moot hosted by U of T On March 13th, Osgoode Hall sent two teams (virtually) to the annual Hockey Arbitration Competition of Canada, hosted by the University of Toronto. This year’s Osgoode teams were executive members from the Osgoode Entertainment & Sports Law Association, Jordan Kazan...
When Thomas Tuchel first joined up with a struggling Chelsea squad, he vowed to make them into a team that no one enjoyed playing against. Given their dire form at the time, most probably wrote off this task as one that would have to wait until the following season when Tuchel had come to grips with the rollercoaster nature of Premier League life. However, the rangy German has proved himself to...