The ideological systems in other capitalist states have developed from historical traditions which differ from Canada's. Thus in England, much wider criticism of the judges is permitted. In the United States, it is even encouraged. The organic, Tory view of the world with its attendant respect for authority is deeply rooted in Canada. 3 9 This older, pre-capitalist ideology still exerts powerful pressure. There is, inevitably, a tension between this traditional ideology and the ultra-individualistic demands of contemporary North American capitalism. It is in the resolution of this tension that the issues of how much and what kind of criticism may be directed at judges will be determined. At some point it will be perceived widely that the deficiencies of the Canadian judiciary are of a magnitude sufficient to be an ideological liability. At that point the content of the ideology will undergo a subtle shift. It will then be accepted that in order for justice to be seen to be done, for the integrity and impartiality of the administration of justice to be maintained, the protective covering must be removed from our judges.
If politicians are willing to mislead the public in order to evade the constitutional limits on their powers, they destroy the basis of their own authority.. Parliament (specifically the Senate) balked when asked to ratify the government’s public order emergency proclamationit and it remains unclear whether the Trudeau government had a rational basis to conclude that it had the power to proclaim such an emergency,
Is there actually a need, and have the need assessments been done, as laid out in various statutes and regulations, for the implementation of a "vacant property" fine or tax
On what basis can the Governor in Council reasonably conclude that there are “threats to the security of Canada” The Case for a Single Stringent Standard
I I suggest that the candidates be subject to a review by arm’s length, outside experts to ensure that the candidates have not engaged in actions that could bring disrepute to the Rotman School and to the University of Toronto.
Prior to IFRS (before 2011-2012), accountants aspired to attain high financial statement credibility by not recording financial numbers until those involved had “obtained sufficient and appropriate supporting evidence.” In contrast, IFRS thus largely has “tossed the need for credibility of evidence out the window.”
The thesis of this article (downloadable as a pdf file) is that the now extensive contemporary literature on the economics of property rights has generated more heat than light. Economists have invoked at least five distinct theories of ownership or property rights
Have We Legalized Corruption?: The Impacts of Expanding Municipal Authority Without Safeguards in Toronto and Ontario. This article discusses the importance of rule of law values such as predictability, certainty, equality, and procedural safeguards in controlling corruption at the municipal level of government and how those values are being replaced by political and economic values such as efficiency, discretion, responsiveness, and need.
Although the Bill correctly premises that sentencing must be proportional to the gravity of the offence, it incorrectly represents the existing Criminal Code as being deficient, when in fact the Criminal Code of Canada already provides a wide range of sentencing options and judicial discretion that ensures proportionality.
Unless amended by the Senate, Bill C-3 will not only be unenforceable and a joke, it will be an insult to the victims of sexual assaults and to all Canadians. The Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) will not be compelled to do anything in terms of education or reporting to Parliament; or in terms of accounting for the taxpayer money it spends .This was not the original intent of the Bill.
Bill C-30 is necessary because the government recognizes that its regulator the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) has been an abject failure. Consequently the government is taking direct action.
Is the Assessment Review Board of Ontario becoming a kangaroo court? New rules make it impossible for small businesses to be represented by counsel. Complaints by the Canadian Property Tax Association have been ignored.
Carpenter v. Doull-MacDonald well summarises the principles of prescriptive easements, which you may be surprised to learn is a limitations issue. Section 31 and 32 of the Real Property Limitations Act govern the establishment of prescriptive easements:
WHEREAS there have been shortcomings identified by municipalities of the services provided by MPAC that has caused challenges for the Region and local municipalities with respect to obtaining accurate and reliable information; AND WHEREAS due to the provisions of the MPAC Act and Assessment Act, municipalities are not permitted to choose an alternate service provider; BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Regional Chair write to the Minister of Finance to express the concerns raised with MPAC’s service provided to municipalities
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the law of privilege with specific emphasis on a party’s document disclosure and listing obligations. The intent is to provide details of the law as it pertains specifically to the identification and listing of privileged documents as these tasks are generally completed by paralegals.
History and Law of Crown Patents: Some Questions and Answers 1) What is the basic historical context for the issuance of Crown grants and patents in the Province of Ontario? In 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended the war between France and England under the Treaty. The French Crown relinquished any claim to present-day Ontario to England. By Orderin-Council, George III issued a Royal Proclamation, which created four new colonies, Quebec (previously named Canada), West Florida, East Florida and Grenada, established governments for those colonies, and dealt with the status of Indian lands in British North America.
For well over the past 200 years, there have been two (2) land title registration systems in Ontario, but that has been changing. Over the past fifteen or so years, titles under the Registry Act land titles system have been converted from that land registry system to the Land Titles Act.
It is very common that somebody who was served with a statement of claim does not file a defence with the court for various reasons. What happens next is usually that the defendant is served with a default judgment. The question is then if the defendant can move to set aside the default judgment.
It's not just rural Ontario residents feeling the pinch of high hydro bills; businesses are suffering too. One man says his company is in jeopardy before he even gets it off the ground. Perhaps Ontario need not fear that a Trump administation will gut the province's industry with trade barriers if the Wynne government will do it for him. A product of Ontario’s 2009 Green Energy Act, the Global Adjustment fee is a charge billed to all hydro customers in the province. For major manufacturers and large businesses, the fee appears separately on electricity bills. But for residential customers and small businesses, the fee is hidden
You may not know anything about “civil forfeiture laws.” Unfortunately, civil forfeiture laws allow provincial governments to seize property not only from criminals, but also from people who have never been charged with, or even suspected of, a crime. All the government has to show is that the property at issue was used by someone (anyone) as “an instrument of crime,” or was “the proceeds of crime” and they may take that property from its rightful owner with no compensation. These laws are not fair.
Unfortunately, there seems to have been little in the way of application or follow-through on these concepts. Lessons learned from the economic calculation debate on the viability of central planning, in our view, have application in land use planning. The theory of comparative advantage, as opposed to the theory of absolute advantage, deserves more serious consideration in land use policy. In addition, the widespread reliance on land use designation, and the abandonment of the prior provincial policy approach of purchase of environmentally sensitive lands financed through tax revenue, are inconsistent with the economic theory of public goods and have created important equity concerns for rural land owners, who have ended up bearing a disproportionate share of the burden of providing benefits shared among the citizens of the province
Why do so many lawyers who steal from their clients avoid criminal justice? A big reason is that the law society in practice does not report alleged criminal offences by its members to police.
Juggling many cases, doing little work on each while churning the file for billable hours can be a best practice for generating revenue for a law firm. A "best practice" for courts and tribunals to reduce work load can be restricting access to justice. This article examines the history behind the emergence of best practices, summarizes the prevailing models of the concept, surveys the worst practices on best practices, proposes a working definition and concludes that using best practices when thinking and writing about legal education is misleading and inappropriate.
An Argument for the Abolition of Race-based Laws and Entitlements in Canada. The ideas and concerns expressed in this essay present a vision of universal human equality. "You may say I’m a dreamer But I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one". John Lennon – Imagine
One of our two agreed descriptors for the purpose of governance and law-making was John Graves Simcoe’s famous 1792 phrase “the very image and transcript of that of Great Britain.” The other was “for the peace, welfare and good government.” This is found in all our constitutions, being the 1763 Royal Proclamation; the Quebec Act, 1774; the Constitutional Act, 1791; the Act of Union, 1840; and the Constitution Act, 1867, section 91, becoming “for the Peace, Order and good Government of Canada ..
Mortgage fraud is a crime in which the intent is to materially misrepresent or omit information on a mortgage loan application to obtain a loan or to obtain a larger loan than would have not been obtained had the lender or borrower known the truth
An integral part of the appeal to authority is the cognitive bias known as the Asch effect. In repeated and modified instances of the Asch conformity experiments, it was found that high-status individuals create a stronger likelihood of a court agreeing with an obviously false conclusion, despite the court normally being able to clearly see that the answer was incorrect. Humans have been shown to feel strong emotional pressure to conform to authorities and majority positions. A fallacy of Infallibility relies on an argument of the form: 'A' is an authority on a particular topic; 'A' says something about that topic; ' A' is probably correct. The equally fallacious counter-argument from authority takes the form: 'B' has provided evidence for position 'T'. 'A' says position 'T' is incorrect. Therefore, 'B's evidence is false.
Green energy is similar to what's happened in the European Union (EU), the province can look forward to higher taxes, a net loss of jobs, and little difference in terms of green house gas emissions. Fox said the Ontario Green Energy and Economy Act was actually proposed by an organization known as the Ontario Green Energy Alliance, which is a coalition of environmental groups, trade associations, equipment manufacturers and developers. He said that at a conference he attended where a member of the Green Energy Alliance was keynote speaker, it was claimed that the Alliance had written the legislation. is not unusual in the U.S. for an external organization to draft legislation and have it sponsored by someone in Congress. But this is unusual in a Canadian context."
Recently a new type of fraud has surfaced: A more sophisticated, intricate, organized and often difficult to detect fraud. Lawyers, by virtue of their pivotal role in conveyancing, are integral to the success of these disturbing new types of fraud
In simple terms, one can rely on the Land Titles register only when one is dealing with the registered owner and not with an imposter. As for the government standing behind the system and guaranteeing good title, as the old song said, "It ain't necessarily so." What may be more shocking than the brazen conduct of the fraudsters is the damage done by the fraud and how the authorities react to it.
In this paper we discuss the concept of legal non-conforming use, as it is known in Ontario, or as the Supreme Court has described it more generally, “the doctrine of acquired rights”.1 The historical, legal context within which this concept has evolved is addressed succinctly in the recent Supreme Court of Canada judgment, Saint-Romuald v. Olivier
Many, if not most municipalities in Ontario, have started to enact zoning bylaws that purport to limit repair, renovation, or use of buildings that are non-conforming as to use, or non conforming as to performance standards. But the courts have made clear and unambiguous rulings that municipalities may not limit or coercively bring to an end these rights, beyond the narrow constraints of the Planning Act and common law.
"John Locke further argued that property rights were the natural extension of an individual's right to hold whatever they produced by their own initiative. The "fruits of the earth" belonged to those who were willing to use their labour to produce them". This 115 page paper (downloadable as a pdf file) explains the interconnection in Canada between Crown Patent land grants, its qualifications, and the limits to municipal government authority.
Who is Mr. Trudeau to tell senators whether they are Liberals or not? He told reporters the newly minted independent senators would “no longer be Liberal organizers, fundraisers, activists in any form.” So the senators can no longer be members of a riding association or make political contributions or ask others to do so? Apart from the absurd impracticality of the idea, what about the right of all Canadians to be engaged in politics as they see fit?
This is a summary of the third revision of the Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Assessment Review Board ("ARB") originally proclaimed in force in 2003. Significant revisions were enacted in 2009. Once again there has been a further significant if not a remedial revision of the Rules. This overview is prepared as a commentary upon the Rules as they affect residential property owners. My impression is that since their original enactment the Rules of the Board have become more complex and more restrictive in respect of residential property owners seeking to appeal their assessments made by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. ("MPAC")
The government of Ontario has adopted wind energy development as an alternative energy source. It enacted the Green Energy and Economy Act, May 2009, with the intention to fast track the approval process regarding industrial wind turbines. The Act legislated a centralized decision making process while removing local jurisdictional authority. Throughout this process, the government reassured the public of inexpensive and reliable electricity. This report explores the costs and benefits related to the renewable energy policy established in Ontario, Canada
If performed successfully, impeachment can be an extremely effective way to undermine your opponent’s case. However, it is double-edged. If your attempt to impeach fails, the witness will emerge stronger and her evidence reinforced. Use this technique carefully.
While it’s true that corporate governance has always been a major concern in Canada because of clubby boardroom atmospheres, the problem has been brought into much sharper focus by unfolding events. The result is that board directors are now investors’ last best hope for fair treatment in Canada.
The Supreme Court of Canada has long pursued the view that our law is somehow an expression and repository of what it terms “Canada’s fundamental values.” In Bruker v. Marcovitz, the Court added to the catalogue of these judicially decreed and enforced values one concerning religion, namely, the protection of Canadians against the arbitrary disadvantages of their religions.
Simply, as statutorily conceived and constructed, the CJC's brief is judicial education and discipline, full stop. That brief does not include, as the Council pretends, sustaining "public confidence in the independence and impartiality of Canada's judges" but even if it did, such permission would, and could, not include authority to challenge the constitutionally arranged, separated, and divided responsibilities of the federal state. The legal community finds itself in a state of cultural and ethical narcosis. As this present matter attests, its members appear not to understand whence their offices came or what their offices require them to be and do.
ARB Changes for 2009 ARB Changes for 2009 Bill 114 Changes Bill 114 Changes Recent Court Decisions & Recent Court Decisions & Property Tax Applications Property Tax Applications
You could easily react to Justice Stone’s words by falling back on the ancient aphorism, “the more things change, the more they remain the same,” and move on to a new subject. But I hope you’ll react differently
Have we arrived at the best system of judicial appointments? I focus in this essay on the controversy generated by the JAC reforms.
The Act establishes a basic two year limitation period (the "Basic Period"), subject to certain exceptions, which commences on the earlier of the day the essential elements of a claim are known to the claimant and the day a reasonable person ought to have discovered them. In addition to the Basic Period, the Act establishes an ultimate fifteen year limitation period
Canada has embarked on a complex and premature path to overhaul its accounting guidelines and the way in which every public company reports earnings and cash flows to investors.
As set out in the Terms of Reference, I have reviewed potential areas of reform and made recommendations to make the civil justice system more accessible and affordable. I believe the bulk of the recommendations are suitable for implementation within a reasonable time and, if implemented, will enhance access to justice for Ontarians- Coulter A. Osborne 2007
Having tracked most of this material for several years, my concern has been extensively along the lines of these pyramid schemes and Ponzi frauds being well over half of the income trusts.If you add up the distribution, you can see it comes to $335 million over that period of time. You can also see that the income loss is $133.6 million. The translation is that the distributions are 250% of income and they paid out $201 million in excess of what they earned
Given the less than clear understanding of what, precisely, constitutes unlawful bonusing, it is not surprising that many municipalities undertake activities which are arguably in contravention of that general prohibition. Municipalities in the 21st century are engaged in an intense competition to attract and retain business. In this competitive climate, it can be hard to draw the line between where the promotion of the legitimate economic interests of a municipality ends and the conferring of illegitimate advantage begins.
The panel has been asked to ponder the role of courts and judges in modern democracies. I submit that the answer is straightforward: The proper role of courts and judges in any genuine democracy, ancient or modern, is to uphold the law, not to change the law. What, though, has the Supreme Court of Canada done?
Given at the 2005 Cooke Lecture, Wellington New Zealand
As much as Rosen has gather somewhat of a following among investors, for him it's not good enough. He is frustrated that there seems to be little political traction on tightening Canadian accounting standards.
The term sub judice literally means "under judicial consideration". The sub judice rule is part of the law relating to contempt of court. The rule governs what public statements can be made about ongoing legal proceedings before, principally, the courts.
Strict Liability - What it really means and how is it different from other kinds of claims? There is good reason for the public at large to be confused about claims based upon strict liability. This is because the most common kinds of lawsuits are based upon some kind of “fault”. If liability is imposed without fault, there is a sense that some injustice has occurred.
This article is excerpted from Geoffrey Thompson's chapter on "Injunctions and Preservation Orders" in British Columbia Creditors' Remedies—An Annotated Guide. This CLE practice manual addresses the key legal issues and practical considerations of enforcing creditors' rights.
Generally, the public has gradually abdicated its role in peacekeeping and law enforcement and increasingly expected police to take on these responsibilities which were once a citizen’s civic duty. There has also been increasing pressure on police to intervene in civil matters. One difficulty arising from the expectation to maintain a crime control orientation while being asked to perform other duties by the public is the creation of considerable confusion and uncertainty among police officers about their proper role
The ideological systems in other capitalist states have developed from historical traditions which differ from Canada's. Thus in England, much wider criticism of the judges is permitted. In the United States, it is even encouraged. The organic, Tory view of the world with its attendant respect for authority is deeply rooted in Canada. 3 9 This older, pre-capitalist ideology still exerts powerful pressure. There is, inevitably, a tension between this traditional ideology and the ultra-individualistic demands of contemporary North American capitalism. It is in the resolution of this tension that the issues of how much and what kind of criticism may be directed at judges will be determined. At some point it will be perceived widely that the deficiencies of the Canadian judiciary are of a magnitude sufficient to be an ideological liability. At that point the content of the ideology will undergo a subtle shift. It will then be accepted that in order for justice to be seen to be done, for the integrity and impartiality of the administration of justice to be maintained, the protective covering must be removed from our judges.