Thought Leadership

2015

• Drones in Canada: Who Can Regulate What? Or, Why Potatoes might be Good for Drone Regulation

  Posted on Thursday, November 5, 2015

  

  Canada has been an early adopter of flexible regulations for limited commercial drone operations. The Canadian Aviation Regulations require all commercial Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV, or “drone”) operators to obtain special permission from Transport Canada before their respective flights. But, in 2014, Transport Canada carved out an exception to this requirement to allow some commercial operations to proceed without the delay. These rules address safety concerns. Other than a brief hat-tip to privacy and a reminder to follow the law, there is no discussion on Transport Canada’s drone webpages or in its rules of the myriad other issues arising from the increasing prevalence of drones in the skies, including privacy, property rights, liability, noise pollution, enjoyment of public space, impact on local businesses, and so on.

• Access to Justice for Consumers of Telecommunications Services

  Posted on Monday, November 2, 2015

  

  Consumer rights in telecommunications are of growing importance for Canadians, since access to telecommunications services is practically universal in Canada. Telecommunications services are pervasive in the daily lives of Canadians regardless of their socio-economic status. Telecommunications services are more than a consumer service—they serve as an important access point for social and economic participation, public legal education, content creation, and citizen engagement. When consumers experience problems with telecommunications services there is a spillover effect on the other aspects of their lives. 

• Prevention of social media radicalization

  Posted on Tuesday, October 27, 2015

  

  No one can deny the significant development of security measures after 9/11 all over the world in order to try to prevent threats of terrorist attacks. However, terrorist groups have developed their strategies by not relying on sending terrorists to other countries. Instead, they remotely work on radicalizing teenagers and young people in other countries through social media. The people working to remotely radicalize teenagers and young people using online social media websites exploit the minimal level of control of published content and the strong values for freedom of expression and against censorship.

• Documenting the Locker Room?: The Dalhousie Dentistry Scandal

  Posted on Monday, October 19, 2015

  

  A highly publicized scandal rocked Dalhousie University in December 2014 when some of the contents of the all-male “Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen” Facebook page were made public. Contents included: a poll by one fourth-year male dentistry student asking his male colleagues which of their female peers they would “hate fuck”; an invitation from the same student to vote on which of their peers they would like to “sport fuck”; a photo of a bikini-clad woman captioned “bang until stress is relieved or unconscious (girl)” followed by the comment “Can you tell me what chloroform smells like?”; a post defining “penis” as “the tool used to wean and convert lesbians and virgins into useful, productive members of society”; and one member’s comment on the penis definition post saying “by productive I’m assuming you mean it inspires them to become chefs, housekeepers, babysitters, etc.” (Task Force Report, pp. 5-7).

• Panel Discussion “What’s Wrong with Copying?”

  Wednesday, September 16, 2015, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

  Panelists:

  Dr. Abraham Drassinower
  Associate Professor and Chair in the Legal, Ethical and Cultural Implications of Technological Innovation, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

  Andrew Bernstein
  Partner, Torys LLP

  Jeremy de Beer
  Full Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa

  Listen

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• Judges (or future judges) Blogging?

  Posted on Tuesday, October 13, 2015

  

  Unmistakably — and whilst the exact degree of requisite expertise remains to be determined — judges must possess some understanding of the fundamental notions of technology in order to grasp the related issues permeating cases and to adequately filter and assess evidence. As well, as online communication itself increasingly forms the subject of legal dispute, judges best acquire the aptitude for understanding not only by gaining some facility with (fundamental) technical aspects of the digital revolution but also through experiencing Internet culture. They are at the same time invited to avoid excessive reliance on and disclosure to support staff or ‘experts’, which can be problematic and threaten their independence to a certain degree. 

• Prof. Scassa Publishes Second Edition of Canadian Trademark Law

  Posted on Thursday, October 8, 2015

  Professor Teresa Scassa has published a new book entitled Canadian Trademark Law, 2nd Edition. This book expands and updates the first edition, which provided a comprehensive account of trademark law in Canada. In the second edition, Professor Scassa takes into account the recent significant changes brought about by the Combating Counterfeit Products Act and the Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, and discusses the impact yet to come as key (and in some cases controversial) provisions of these bills take effect in the not too distant future.

• La marque de commerce dans les réseaux sociaux et sur le Web

  Posted on Monday, October 5, 2015

  

  Retenir l’attention du public, voilà le mot d’ordre de toute entreprise qui cherche une clientèle, de tout artiste qui veut faire apprécier son art.  Désormais, pour accroître la visibilité d’une compagnie ou d’une personne, les réseaux sociaux sont des incontournables. Tous, entreprises, artistes, célébrités, gagnent à être présents sur les réseaux et les plateformes, qui se multiplient : YouTube, Facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yahoo, Hotmail, pour ne nommer que les principaux. En certains cas,  ce sont les recommandations des utilisateurs dans les réseaux sociaux, qui ont l’impact le plus grand sur la popularité d’un œuvre, d’un produit ou d’un service. Certains artistes d’ailleurs décident de s’occuper eux-mêmes de leur publicité, en devenant leur propre producteur et animateur radio sur les réseaux sociaux; finie la dépendance aux  méga-entreprises de l’industrie culturelle. 

• Emerging Legal Issues in the Smart Cities Context

  Posted on Monday, September 28, 2015

  

  The term “smart cities” refers to urban spaces that are networked and sensor-loaded. The data harvested in these ‘smart’ urban environments is used in analytics aimed at improving efficiencies, informing planning, and enhancing service delivery. Data sources are multiple and diverse, from data routinely generated by municipal operations to smart cards used in public transportation, smart metering of utilities, and the use of traffic cameras and other sensor networks.

• The Arrival of Artificial Intelligence and “The Death of Contract”

  Posted on Monday, September 21, 2015

  

  Like it was yesterday (it was in fact 1990), I remember when I was a 1L studying the law of contract.

  The inimitable G.H.L. Fridman stood front and centre at the podium, a little man with a big British accent and all pomp and circumstance of a royal coronation. There he was, ready to deliver an hour-long introduction to our year-long subject matter—a single sentence, it seemed, comprised of many subordinate clauses, peppered throughout by a series of parenthetical remarks.