Because Cowardice has No Place in Law or Journalism I’ll get down to the brass tacks here. This issue of Obiter contains two articles that might be controversial. One article is about Jordan Peterson’s opinion on personal organization in the context of cleaning one’s room, and while none of the article’s content is controversial on its own, people have been criticized for referencing Peterson...
INTRODUCTION On July 28th, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the universal human right to clean drinking water and sanitation, which called upon governments and international organizations to provide funding and technology transfer to developing countries in order to realize this right. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon proclaimed that “…all people have the right to safe...
Candid Advice from the Editor-in-Chief So you’ve made it to law school. Let me start by congratulating you and apologizing for how quickly you may find yourself in over your head. Getting into law school is a lot like having kids; people will talk about how great an experience it is before you start, and then laugh at you for ruining your life when it’s too late to turn back. This is not...
I came across a story this weekend that struck me on a personal level for several unexpected reasons. The story began with a real estate listing, a semi-attached commercial space at 716 Gerrard Street East, listed for $539,000. I didn’t know the building, nor was I familiar with the area, but it was the subject of the story, the late resident of the space, that drew my attention. From the early...
How I turned an idea, a passion, and four months of free time into a business. This summer, I decided to dedicate my time to building a legal information website. I made this decision without any particular affinity for web development, or any real business or legal experience to guide me. The decision had something to do with the weak job market, my lack of confidence in my professional...
I don’t take advice well. I think I’m naturally mistrustful of the presumptuous, despite being very presumptuous myself. When people give me well-intentioned guidance, I usually disregard it. Thus, I have no expectation that any of you will consider the following seriously. In fact, I’ve never expected anyone to agree with anything I wrote here (there’s a special circle of hell for those that...
Though this issue of the Obiter hits stands (or MacBook screens) two weeks after the finale of the most explosive depressing season of The Bachelor, your EICs were so struck by the similarity between us law students and Clare Crawley that we decided to forego timeliness ever so slightly in aim of expounding this cautionary tale of love, rejection, and self-delusion. For those of you who have been...
This week’s theme is “Go Green.” Environmental law and related practice areas are extremely important to Osgoode, to Canada, and to the world. Just ask Al Gore. Unfortunately, at least one editor-in-chief of our esteemed editorial board knows nothing about environmental law, other than its incredible magnitude on our future. However, this editor does know something about going green. I’ll leave...
There has been a lot of ink spilled over the fresh demise of Heenan Blaikie LLP. The legal landscape of downtown Toronto has been recently altered, as a well-known and prestigious mid-size firm unraveled before our very eyes. Every agonizing blow narrated, almost in real-time, by newspapers and legal blogs across Canada. For many of us in law school, this is the first time that we have borne...
AS THE winter weeks drudge on – somewhat confusingly, might we add, what with a polar vortex and spring-weather preview within the span of a week – your friendly neighborhood EICs are feeling thankful to have found respite from the January blues in all the usual places. And what might those be, you ask? Have we joined the New Year’s resolution train and gone on a health kick? No. Do we suddenly...
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.
Sam Michaels gets right down to work this week on the page opposite, taking three Senators to task for their well-publicized abuse of reimbursement privileges, and Senator Wallin in particular for her lawyer’s subsequent lack of tact in comments he made about a Senate motion that would suspend Wallin’s privileges of office. Michaels, in the best sort of Obiter Dicta way, exemplifies the public...
It’s no secret that trudging through the more stressful and overwhelming times in our lives can encourage escapism, day-dreaming and basically anything other than attending to the things that need to be attended to. Case in point: readings, no; falling down the rabbit hole of endlessly Googling corgi pictures, yes. It is in this spirit that we feel particularly inclined to regale you with musings...
Welcome back Osgoode. The hallowed halls of Osgoode are alight again with the beaming faces of fresh faced first years and their much wiser and more weathered second and third year counterparts.
Almost two weeks ago, following Pope Francis’ election, many of our friends and acquaintances sounded off, outraged, regarding his views on sexuality.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of freedom of expression. It is more than a legal right. It is more than a constitutional right. It is a manifestation of human freedom at its most basic level.
What is the relationship between law and politics? Are they synonyms? Is politics a manifestation of law? Or, is law a manifestation of politics? I argue that the answer to these questions centres on the idiosyncrasies of the reader.
It is easy to forget, seeing as our students today probably worry considerably about grades and academic fortitude, that for nearly a century, Canada’s first official law school at Osgoode Hall didn’t even grant degrees.
In these pages lies Student Caucus (SC)’s response to the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC)’s Pathways Report on the future of articling. It is a commendable and articulate effort, to be sure, especially in view of a rather tight deadline, which the response notes. But alas! I’ve been forgotten again.
With the American election resolved and the President re-elected, the question now becomes what to expect in a second Obama term, and what its implications are for Canada. To be sure, the President retained his position decisively in the Electoral College, but won much more narrowly in the popular vote.
You know that scene in Love Actually when Hugh Grant, playing the British Prime Minister, wonders aloud at the portrait of Thatcher on the wall if she had the same problems as he? Well, we’ve been poring over the back issues of the Obiter from as far back as 1970 and wondering the same thing. Adorning the walls of Room 0014G are 109 volumes (some of them duplicates) of this superb publication...