With all the protesting going on these days, Montreal has become a veritable political theatre for all manner of agitprop and self-expression. Of course, no anti-whatever rally would be complete, these days, without the requisite Guy Fawkes masks, bandanas worn as masks, balaclavas (aka ski masks), etc. What do all of these things have in common? Wearing them may soon be a criminal offense punishable by jail time (up to 5 years!)…
Author: David DesBaillets
Oasis juice gets slammed by the court of public opinion!
Though a simple copyright infringement case might not seem like the stuff of civil rights, a closer examination of the circumstances in Ms Deborah Kudzman’s legal struggle against the Lassonde Corporation (makers of Oasis fruit juice products) illustrates perfectly how access to justice in our system is definitely rigged in favour of the rich. The facts of this lawsuit may strike you as banal at first blush. Ms. Kudzman was served, back in 2005…
Craig Scott: The NDP’s brand new MP and public intellectual
As a New Democrat, nothing makes me prouder than to hear that the latest edition to the team blew his nearest rival (Gritty Grant Gordon) out of the water, in his resounding victory (nearly twice as many votes!) in Toronto-Danforth’s recent by-election. Jack’s spirit can rest easy knowing that his riding is still in good hands, and that his successor will continue his valuable work there. As a academic constitutional/human rights lawyer I couldn’t be more proud…
Big Tobacco’s Big Mistake
Few corporate so called legal “persons” are as heartless a big tobacco. When it comes to crushing their opponents, there is no low they won’t stoop to in their legal tactics, or, for that matter, their threats of violence towards whistle blowers (see The Insider, a movie about former tobacco company executive Jeffrey Wigand) and others who dare cross them. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprising when they dispatch a army of high priced lawyers to a small claims court in Rimouski Québec with the intention of scaring the shit out of the plaintiff…
NDP’s Pat Martin gets SLAPPed in the face by RackNine
Of the all the absurd recriminations of the past week regarding the now infamous Harper government robocalls situation, my personal favourite was this: RackNine (the hucksters who operated call centres for several Conservative election campaigns, but which is not currently under investigation) is suing Pat Martin and the NDP…
Anonymous’ Actions Amount to Blackmail
The message from Anonymous to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews was chillingly simple: scrap C-30 (the perversely titled Protection of Children Act designed to enable the government access to the IP addresses of the nation without so much as a court order) or else they will continue with even more scandalous revelations about the minister’s checkered personal life being made public. On February, 22nd, they released another video through YouTube where they revealed more details about Toews’ mistress…
Spanish Judge Garzon Subject of Kafkaesque Trial
People love to invoke the name of Franz Kafka for the slightest fucking absurdity in their lives. Example: I waited in line at the post office for an hour. Then I was told by the clerk that I would have to put my own envelope in the mailbox! WHAT A KAFKAESQUE TWIST OF FATE! In truth, very few situations in our humdrum daily lives would actually make good material for one of this Czech/German/Jewish writer’s novels or short stories…
First Nations and the Supreme Court v. Enbridge and the Harper Government
With the debate over the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal heating up in Ottawa, and the likely scenario of some sort legal battle emerging, it might […]
The good, the bad and the ugly: The Trials of 2011 in Retrospect
I know that these year in review columns, annoying though they may be, are all the rage around New Years (apologies for the lateness). Also, that they remain a cheap way for hack journalists and bloggers to basically recycle the past years work while, at the same time, attempting to pass it off as new content. So, without further ado, here are my personal top Canadian legal highlights for the year 2011 (in no particular order)…
BC Supreme Court draws line on freedom of religion when it comes to polygamy
The provincial government of British Columbia basically posed the following question to the court: Is section 293 of the criminal code, which prohibits polygamy.
Liberals always seem to squirm a little bit when questions of religious freedom come into conflict with other rights that they cherish (i.e. gender equality), the way they did last week when the British Colombia Supreme Court handed down its epic reference on the legality of polygamy in Canada. I suppose the situation is bound to cause…