In May 2010, Providence Health Care in Vancouver announced the opening of the first newborn safe haven in Canada at St. Paul’s Hospital. Four months later, Providence confirmed a healthy baby was dropped off at the hospital, setting off a further round of national and international media … [Read more...]
Vol 38-2: Birth and the Law
Full PDF of this issue Table of Contents Featured Articles: Birth and the Law Special Report: The Law and Christmas Departments Columns Featured Articles: Birth and the Law Few events in life are as intimate and personal as giving birth, but even this aspect of life has legal … [Read more...]
Bench Press 38-1: Student Uprising
A group of students brought a class action against George Brown College in Ontario. They complained that the course description in the College’s calendar negligently misrepresented the benefits of its graduate international business management program in violation of the Consumer Protection Act. … [Read more...]
Situation in the Supreme Court
An interesting and unprecedented situation is unfolding at the Supreme Court of Canada. The newest designate to the Court, Marc Nadon, has stepped aside for the time being because a challenge to his appointment has been filed. A Toronto lawyer alleges that Justice Nadon does not meet the … [Read more...]
Bench Press 38-1: Cabinet Tries to Flip the Bird
A group of Alberta and Saskatchewan environmentalists asked former environment minister Peter Kent to issue an emergency protection order for the sage grouse under the federal Species at Risk Act. There are very few of the birds left and scientists worry they could disappear altogether if their … [Read more...]
A New Danger for the Urban Forest
LawNow received this article response from one of the lawyers involved in a recent cases that was featured in a Bench Press post called A Tree Grows in... Toronto? A new danger has been added to the many challenges facing the urban forest in Ontario. It arises from an unexpected source - the law … [Read more...]
Bench Press 38-1: Test for Refugees
Rachidi Ezokola worked for eight years for the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, four of them as a UN diplomat. He moved to Montreal in 2008 with his wife and eight children and asked for refugee status, claiming that he had received death threats from Congolese intelligence agents. … [Read more...]
Bench Press 38-1: Defining Dads
This is complicated. R and H were in a same-sex interdependent relationship and decided they would like to have a child. D, who was also in a same-sex relationship, agreed to bear a child for them, using R’s sperm. A child, S was born and was raised for her first three years by R and H, with … [Read more...]
The Law and Birth
Canadians were shocked and saddened by the death of a Winnipeg mom and her two young children this summer. Today comes the news that Allyson McConnell , convicted of murdering her two sons and deported to her native Australia, has been found dead, of an apparent suicide. The birth of a child is … [Read more...]
Bench Press 38-1: A Tree Grows in ….Toronto?
Two neighbours in Toronto contested the ownership of a large Norway maple tree. Katherine Hartley claimed sole ownership of the tree and wanted to cut it down because she feared it was dangerous. Her neighbours contended that the tree straddled their property line, so that they had ownership of the … [Read more...]
