Vancouver Sun Letter
A letter of mine found its way into the Vancouver Sun today. This one comes in response to a piece last week by Senator Mobina Jaffer about the role of…
Harper’s Building All Those Prisons. Why Aren’t We Filling Them With Conservatives?
It’s not like the Conservative ranks, federal and provincial, are short of miscreants who deserve a long stretch behind bars. Yesterday the fellow who was in command on the bridge…
Alberta Has Been Climate Changed – And It’s Forever
“This is Pacific Northwest U.S. weather we’re getting and we’re not built for it. We didn’t design our cities, our floodways, our flood maps, anything for this. ” – John…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Thomas Walkom discusses how a continued economic slump is combining with the Cons’ economic policies to destroy secure jobs in favour of…
Do You Make the World Better? There’s an App for That
By now most people have heard what a carbon footprint is, but have you heard about your gloabl ‘handprint‘? The notion is that it’s the opposite of a negative counter…
Canada Loses an Autism Champion: Andy Scott Passed This Morning
Andy Scott With A Megaphone Supporting Autism Cause with Andrew Kavchak Canada has lost an autism champion with the passing this morning of former Fredericton MP Andy Scott. In a…
Nothing (All That) New Under the Sun: Solar-Powered Shipi Visits North America
The New York Times has a fascinating video this morning about a solar-powered ship visiting New York. The Turanor Planetsolar circumnavigated the globe last year, and is now following the…
140 Law – Legal Headlines for Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Here are the leading legal headlines from Wise Law on Twitter for Tuesday, June 25, 2013: Big Law’s Troubling Trajectory 2013 Pacific Legal Technology Conference goes National Former Gawker interns…
Dave from Etobicoke
This made me laugh. Even more because of this. And this.
The PMO needs some adult supervision
The Tories have a lot of problems these days. From Harper’s Chief of Staff writing an ill-advised (and now subject to an ongoing RCMP investigation) $90K cheque to a senator…
Ashes to Ashes
April Reign Gizmodo has an article on designs that differ from the usual burial experience. Some are wonderful, the wind chime I’m not as sure about. April Reign – In…
St. Thomas forensic mental health centre opens with fanfare and problems
The bright and shiny new Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health has opened in St. Thomas with much fanfare and more than a few problems. The new building may “fight…
The Uncertain Future of Open Data in the Government of Canada
It is possible to state that presently, open data is at its high water mark in the Government of Canada. Data.gc.ca has been refreshed, more importantly, the government has signed…
Former Fredericton MP Andy Scott Passes Away
At the age of 58, former MP Andy Scott has passed away after a battle with cancer. Very sad news. He was a very hardworking MP, dedicated to helping the…
It’s Never Enough, Is It?
Forget for the moment that Macdonald’s is one of the world’s biggest corporations; forget for the moment that a steady diet of its food will likely shorten your life; forget…
Blatant Hypocrisy
Martin Regg Cohn calls Rob Ford’s bluster, after his meeting with Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa, exactly what it is — blatant hypocrisy. And Cohn provides a little historical context:…
Global Warming: Right Here, Right Now
* I’m in Washington DC, attending the fourth annual Citizens Climate Lobby gathering. Monday morning, climate scientist and hero Dr. James Hansen addressed the crowd of 350. And today –…
Does that mean he “Coyned” it?
It was National Post political columnist Andrew Coyne who used the term. He wrote that “Toryism, in its current incarnation, resembles less an ideology than a pathology.” If too many…
Amateur Hour
I’m not sure this should surprise anyone, given the way the PMO has acted recently: The Prime Minister’s Office orchestrated a protest earlier this month at which Conservative party interns…
Mistake of fact and due diligence are different defences
R. v. Legrande 2013 ABCA 229 makes clear the distinction between mistake of fact and due diligence. For strict liability offences a reasonable belief in a mistaken set of facts…