Russia’s Ruling on Pussy Riot: A Verdict Against Freedom of (Artistic) Expression? On Friday, August 17, 2012, Torontonians gathered outside of the Russian consulate in protest against that nation’s treatment of three members of a feminist punk-rock collective known as Pussy Riot. The band members were on trial in faraway Moscow on charges of hooliganism, [...]

Linda Gibbons is no stranger to the law, and to the fact that it can be a harsh teacher, given that she has spent a fair amount of time in prison for her anti-abortion picketing activities.  Labeled by the media as “peaceful but relentless,” Gibbons has served a total of nearly nine years behind bars, [...]

The one-two punch of the Quebec government trying to control the student strikes and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) being threatened with back to work legislature have turned Canadian attention to the state of union workers. The rights and privileges of workers when on strike have become a constant stream of headlines. Another controversial union [...]

University students across the country held their breath this week when the Alberta Court of Appeal released its decision in Pridgen v University of Calgary, 2012 ABCA 139.  While on its face, the case decides whether universities are subject to Charter scrutiny, and whether the University’s discretion to impose disciplinary sanctions on theses students was [...]

Section 32 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms limits the Charter’s application to the activities of the Federal government and Parliament, and the government’s of each province. While the purpose of this provision is to clearly limit the scope of the Charter’s application, as in many areas of law, what initially appears to [...]

For many Internet users, the year started off inauspiciously. SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, was introduced in the United States House of Representatives. It swiftly put websites out of business and people all over the world protested online and on the streets. The United States Supreme Court, rather quietly, came out with their decision [...]

In their recent decision in Nygård International Partnership v Canadian Broadcasting Corporations (Nygard v CBC), 2012 MBCA 8, the Manitoba Court of Appeal dismissed the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) motion to strike out Nygard’s statement of claim accusing the CBC of committing a series of economic torts. The case is interesting not only because of its high [...]

A unique feature of the Global Occupy Movement which dominated headlines during the fall months was its ability to harness new forms of online social media to raise awareness, voice political critiques, and to provide some unity to an otherwise disjointed protest. It is perhaps by virtue of this virtual existence that the movement gained [...]

One night, you could listen to Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” with your friends, remix it with another tune and then pen a bestselling book titled Peter and the Wolf and Zombies. That would all change in 1994 with the signing of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, a trade agreement that restored the copyright [...]

On October 17, 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada released its landmark decision in Crookes v. Newton, 2011 SCC 47, affirming 2009 BCCA 392 and 2008 BCSC 1424. At issue was whether creating an internet hyperlink to defamatory material constitutes “publication” of the material for the purposes of defamation law. The case challenged the Court [...]