CBA NATIONAL NEWS
Labour and Employment Law Amendments In a letter addressed to the Senate Committee on National Finance and House of Commons Finance Committee, the CBA National Labour and Employment Law Section expressed concerns about the process for legislative amendments to the Canada Labour Code and the Public Service Labour Relations Act contained in Bill C-4. Repeating its objections to omnibus legislation such as Bill C-4, the CBA noted that labour amendments were conceived and drafted without adhering to tripartite custom, placing all parties at a disadvantage when reviewing changes to the Bill.
CBA NATIONAL NEWS
Proposed Amendments to Testamentary Trusts The Department of Finance proposed draft legislation that would eliminate graduated rate taxation of trusts and certain estates. Drawing from their experience in estate planning and tax, both the CBA National Wills, Trusts and Estates Law Section and the Joint Committee on Taxation of the Canadian Bar Association and Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada seek to keep the status quo in their recent submissions. While the proposed amendments appear to mitigate the perceived abuse of creating testamentary trusts upon death, the CBA states the Income Tax Act already has effective means to deal with abuse through existing anti-avoidance regimes applicable to trusts and their beneficiaries.
NATIONAL MAGAZINE
Snowden’s Canadian Lawyer Handling a case shrouded in mystery, Robert Tibbo played a major role in getting Edward Snowden out of Hong Kong. Read the article
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Photo of Robert Tibbo in Hong Kong taken by Pierre-Louis Mongeau.
CBA NATIONAL NEWS
CBA NATIONAL NEWS
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act Amendments
Tech Resolutions for 2014
The CBA opposes regulatory Senator Raynell Andreychuk amendments to the Immigration and Mario Bellissimo and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) in Part 3, Division 16 of Bill C-4, arguing that important changes in diverse and unrelated subject areas in a single Bill precludes meaningful comment and debate. While the CBA National Immigration Law Section supports modernizing the selection system for economic class immigrants, it objects to the use of framework legislation to give the Minister unilateral authority to change programs through Ministerial Instructions, without Parliamentary oversight or need for public consultation.
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The new year can be an opportunity for solo and small practitioners to make technological advances in their practices – to improve productivity, reduce costs, and maybe catch up with the 21st century. Here are five great candidates for New Year’s tech resolution. Get a password manager. Get a tablet and network-connected storage device. Make everyone compatible with each other, everywhere. Master social media. Say goodbye to Windows XP.
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FEBRUARY 2014 / BARTALK 19