EDITOR'S NOTE The information in this article may be out-of-date. For current information on employment laws for workers under 18 years of age in Alberta, see CPLEA's Youth & Work FAQs.Employment laws are often different for young workers under 18 years of age to protect them from … [Read more...]
Vicarious Liability: The Legal Responsibility of Employers
“It is right and just that the person who creates a risk bears the loss when the risk ripens into harm.” - Bazley v. Curry, 1999 CanLII 692 (SCC) Introduction After the massive train derailment disaster last summer in Lac Mégantic, Quebec, the chief executive of the train company was roundly … [Read more...]
What ever happened to … The Law of Sniffer Dog Searches: Part 2
Introduction: The Flux of Law This article illustrates how quickly and remarkably the common law can adjust when judicial principles change and when new judges are appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.The common law is generally intended to endure. Judges describe what they do as not … [Read more...]
Insubordination and Dismissal
It is . . . generally true that wilful disobedience of an order will justify summary dismissal, since wilful disobedience of a lawful and reasonable order shows a disregard – a complete disregard – of a condition essential to the contract of service, namely, the condition that the servant must obey … [Read more...]
Comma Law
The writer who neglects punctuation, or mispunctuates, is liable to be misunderstood for the want of merely a comma . . . – Edgar Allan Poe Introduction “Let’s eat, Grandma” or “Let’s eat Grandma.” As the saying goes, “commas save lives.”This adage humorously demonstrates the … [Read more...]
Whatever Happened to … The Law of Sniffer Dog Searches
When does a sniff amount to an illegal search? The Supreme Court of Canada recently weighed in on this question and the decision changes the law in Canada from what it had previously been. What was the law prior to the recent decision?Assume you are walking along the street or are on public … [Read more...]
All Is Not Lost: The Law of Lost and Found
“Property and law were born and die together” - Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher, The Theory of Legislation (1931)Introduction We all know the feeling when we lose something. Cell phone? Car keys? Most of us also know what it feels like to find something, such as a wallet. Losing a … [Read more...]
A Secular Christmas
This article deals with the law of Christmas, the celebration of this Christian event and the public displays of words or symbols that accompany it. No Clear Separation of Church and State in Canada Most Canadians incorrectly assume, perhaps from a steady consumption of American pop culture, that … [Read more...]
Occupational Health and Safety 3: Ticket Offences at Work
Introduction Most Canadians are familiar with “tickets” for minor offences. If we have personal experience at all with the legal system, it is most likely through receiving the occasional ticket for parking, seat belts, rolling through a stop sign, speeding or some other traffic offence. There … [Read more...]
Categories for Immigration to Canada
Since 1978, Canada has allowed Canadian citizens or permanent residents to sponsor their relatives to immigrate to Canada. Family reunification was an important objective of the former Immigration Act and remains so . . . Of the over 2 million permanent residents admitted to this country between … [Read more...]
