The
Canadian
Spring 2015
Bar
A s s o c i at i o n
•
S a s k a tc h e w a n
Branch
BarNotes VOL. 29 NO. 3
Assisted Dying: Supreme Court Averts Constitutional Showdown with Québec | PAGE 8 Get Ready for the Next Generation | PAGE 11
The Canadian Bar Association Saskatchewan Branch
IN THIS ISSUE...
306, 105-21st Street East Saskatoon , SK S7K 0B3
www.cbasask.org
Branch News
Pro Bono Spotlight
2014-2015 eDITORIAL bOARD
President’s Message
In-House Counsel Pro Bono
by Gail Wartman, QC .................... 4
by Nicole Sarauer ....................... 23
Ashley Smith Editor MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP
National News
Lora Bansley Communications Chair Information Services Corporation
2015 Mid-Winter Meeting by Bryan Salte, QC ....................... 5
2015 Distinguished Service Award ....................................... 7
Commentary Assisted Dying: Supreme Court Averts Constitutional Showdown with Québec by Françoise Hébert ..................... 8
Get Ready for the Next Generation by Beth Bilson, QC .................... 11
Summary Judgment in Family Law by Kate Crisp ............................. 12
Real Estate Solicitors: Presumed Liable by Michael Derbowka & Tyler Dahl .................................................... 14
Overtime Pursuant to The Saskatchewan Employment Act by Scott Spencer & Jared Epp ..................................................... 17
Annual Return Filing for Condominium Corporations by Sheri Hupp ............................. 19
3D Printing & Implications on IP Rights by Nathan Schissel .................... 20
YOUNG LAWYERS My First Try at... Chambers (by myself) by Nicole Hamm ........................ 22
2 BarNotes / Spring 2015
Highlights from the Association .......................... 24
Postcard Oceania Cruise Ship by Bill Selnes ............................. 25
Provincial News Judicial Appointments ..... 25
Calendar of events ... 27
Scott Bell MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP Kate Crisp Scharfstein Gibbings Walen & Fisher LLP Jared Epp Robertson Stromberg LLP Azure-Dee Farago SaskPower Corporation Jackie Francis Francis & Company Danielle Graff MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP Nolan Kondratoff Leland Campbell LLP Amjad Murabit College of Law University of Saskatchewan
Items of Interest
James Streeton Kapoor Selnes & Klimm
Bar Judicial Council Reps ............ 6 Call for Nominations: 2015 Community Service Award ...................................................... 7
Hannah Zip Knott den Hollander
Professional Development opportunities ............................. 26
Kayla Stuckart Communications Officer CBA Saskatchewan
Address Changes ...................... 27
Front Cover Acknowledgements The photograph featured on the Spring 2015 issue was taken by CBA member Alana Wakula.
Brenda Hesje Executive Director CBA Saskatchewan
BarNotes is a quarterly publication of CBA Saskatchewan, provided to its members. This publication is intended for information purposes only and should not be applied to specific fact circumstances without the advice of counsel. CBA Saskatchewan represents more then 1,100 members and is dedicated to improving access to justice, reviewing legislation and advancing the administration of justice. BarNotes is published 4 times per year and circulated to over 1,100 legal professionals. If you are interested in advertising, please contact Kayla Stuckart, Communications Officer, kayla@cbasask.org.
© CBA Saskatchewan
EDITOR’S NOTES Spring 2015 Ashley Smith MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman LLP
A
fter a winter that would never end, I am happy to welcome everyone to Spring! Our Editorial Board has put together another interesting issue of Barnotes to accompany you on those first few days out on the deck.
This issue is full of a multitude of topics including Overtime Pursuant to The Saskatchewan Employment Act, 3D Printing, summary judgment in family law, the growing liability placed on real estate counsel and recent changes to the annual filings for condominium corporations.
With the prominent discussion regarding assisted dying and the Supreme Court’s recent decision of Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), 2015 SCC 5, Francoise Herbert’s article discussing this recent decision is as interesting as it is timely. We hope to feature the many sides of this debate in future issues. Beth Bilson asks us all to reflect on the profession and the next generation of lawyers in her article entitled “Get Ready for the Next Generation”. In the spirit of the next generation, Nicole Hamm is featured in our young lawyer column discussing her first solo Chambers hearing. As always, we welcome your feedback and your article submissions. Have a wonderful Spring and we look forward to seeing you this Summer!
Spring 2015 / BarNotes 3
BRANCH NEWS President’s Message Gail Wartman, QC McDougall Gauley LLP
It
is the season of the Mid-Winter Meeting. I was welcomed warmly at both the Manitoba and Alberta meetings, I greatly enjoyed our Branch’s annual Mid-Winter Meeting in Saskatoon, and most recently I attended the National Mid-Winter Meeting in Ottawa.
One of the best parts of involvement with the CBA is learning from experts – and discussing with colleagues – about current concerns in our profession. We had a panel on end-of-life issues on the very day the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its decision in the Carter case. We heard about mental health and wellness issues at all three Branch meetings. We are getting regular updates about the CBA’s Futures Initiative project, including a lot to think about concerning Alternate Business strategies.
But one of the most compelling discussions in which I have recently been involved is that concerning the CBA’s Re-Think. As most of you will be aware, this is a process in which the whole CBA is taking inventory: Who are we? What do we do best? How can we do things better? What things should be left behind? And what new things should be initiated? This sort of exercise, difficult as it may be, is something all organizations must do from time to time, to remain healthy and relevant. And all of us agree that these questions must be asked, first and foremost, from a member-centred perspective.
The Board of Directors, made up of representatives from all provinces, territories, and CBA conferences, participated in a workshop to grapple with some of these questions at the National Mid-Winter Meeting. One of the major trends our organization is facing, like all others, is the rapidly-changing demographic in our profession. There is a lot of discussion – similar to that at any law firm meeting – about different attitudes brought by people of different generations. And we realize that the CBA has to figure out what the younger members of our organization (and young lawyers and students who are not yet members) need from our organization. A lot of us in the Baby Boom generation are too ready to label the Millennials and Gen Y’s as not willing to show firm loyalty, not able to persevere, lacking focus, and having a big sense of entitlement. These are the same types of destructive stereotypes that label the Baby Boom generation as workaholics and slave drivers. Not true; not helpful.
I have had the pleasure of meeting with students at the College of Law on a regular basis as a member of the CBA Saskatchewan Executive Committee, and every time I go there, I come away impressed with their attitudes, their curiosity, the background education and experience they bring, and their yearning to make the world a better place. They inspire me. I often see the same spirit in the young people I work with in our firm, and generally in the profession. As much as 4 BarNotes / Spring 2015
I can, I try to mentor and guide them if needed, but I am always open to their wisdom and the fresh ways of doing things and receiving things that they bring.
In our CBA Re-think, one of the key messages we must keep before us - and I think we will –is that the younger generation of lawyers is one of the richest resources we have. Those of us who are older need to remember this, and those in the younger demographic of the profession need to speak up and be heard in this ReThink process. The best way we can all figure out how the CBA can give the best possible service to young lawyers is to hear it directly from you.
Do you have suggestions or feedback for the Branch? Contact Gail: gwartman@mcdougallgauley.com Ph: 306-694-0052
BRANCH NEWS 2015 Mid-Winter Meeting: In Review Bryan Salte, QC College of Physicians & Surgeons of Saskatchewan
T
his year’s Mid-Winter Meeting, held from February 5th and 6th, 2015 in Saskatoon, was a success. The plenary sessions addressed a broad range of issues. The CPD sessions addressed a broad range of substantive, practical and ethical areas of practice. It was also an excellent opportunity to meet with colleagues who we seldom see in a social environment.
Plenary Sessions
The opening plenary addressed a current hot topic in legal practice – alternative business models for legal practice. The presentation addressed the issues outlined in the CBA report Futures: Transforming the Delivery of Legal Services in Canada, which suggests that it may be necessary to consider alternative methods for legal service delivery, including allowing non-lawyer ownership of entities which deliver legal services. Michelle Hollins, QC was unable to present due to a health problem. Allan Fineblit, QC, former CEO of the Law Society of Manitoba, and Tom Schonhoffer, QC, Executive Director of the Law Society of Saskatchewan, filled in for her admirably.
The John Stack Lecture had Gabor Maté, a Vancouver physician and renowned author and speaker, speak about addiction, depression and stress in the legal profession. Copies of his books which were available for sale rapidly sold out – demonstrating the relevance and power of his presentation. The final plenary, the President’s Forum, closing the Mid-Winter Meeting was a panel discussion addressing end of life and physician assisted death. Reverend Cathy Coates moderated with panelists Dr. Vivian Walker a palliative care physician, Françoise Hébert of Dying with Dignity Canada and Graeme Mitchell, QC, with the Constitutional Law Branch of the Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice. The Supreme Court added interest to the presentation by releasing the Carter decision the morning of the presentation. The Carter decision struck down the laws against physician assisted death.
the work of the planning committee and I would like to extend my thanks to them: Brett Cavanaugh, Doug Hodson, QC, Marilyn Penner, James Sproule, Sheldon Stener, Greg Walen, QC, Anita Wandzura, Gail Wartman, QC, Lisa Watson and Gary Zabos QC.
Social Event
Brett Cavanaugh and Anita Wandzura did an excellent job planning this year’s Thursday Night Social Event for the Mid-Winter Meeting. “Fun & Games” was held at the Sheraton Cavalier Hotel where friends and collegaue were treated to fun, games and of course a few drinks. 9 Mile Legacy Brewing Company hosted the Grape Game Show where beer and wine knowledge were put to the test. A cartoonist and balloon sculpture extraordinaire added quite a few laughs to the event, as well.
Sponsors and Exhibitors
I would also like to express my appreciation to the sponsors and exhibitors who set up booths to provide information to attendees, provided door prizes and subsidized the event, allowing it to be provided at a much lower cost than comparable CPD opportunities.
The exhibitors and sponsors for the 2015 Mid-Winter Meeting are listed below. I hope you save the date for the 2016 Mid-Winter Meeting, February 4th and 5th, 2016 in Regina.
2015 Mid-Winter Meeting Exhibitors CBIA Carswell, a Thomson Reuters Business ChildView CLASSIC
CPD Sessions
There were five concurrent educational streams. The goal of the planning committee was to ensure that each time slot contained five disparate topics so that attendees could find something of interest at each of the CPD sessions. Attendees could meet all of their annual Law Society CPD requirements and three years of ethics credit requirements by attending the conference. A total of 12 hours of CPD credits and 9 hours of ethics credits were available. We were only able to deliver the quality of topics and speakers through
College of Law ISC (2 Booths) Law Reform Commission Law Society of Saskatchewan Library LawyerDoneDeal PBLS Continued on Page 6...
Spring 2015 / BarNotes 5
BRANCH NEWS BAr Judicial COUNCIL Reps
Continued from Page 5...
PLEA Stewart Title TitlePlus VoicePro Technologies
2015 Mid-Winter Meeting Sponsors Platinum Sponsors CBIA/CBA Financial
Murray J. Alberts CLU, CH.F.C., CHS Information Services Corporation Potash Corporation
Representatives of the Bar Judicial Council exchange views as to how the administration of justice within the province can be improved. Matters of concern and interest are exchanged. If you have suggestions on how the administration of justice can be improved, suggestions can be given to the appropriate representative listed below.
Court of Appeal Murray Sawatzky, QC McDougall Gauley LLP, Regina msawatzky@mcdougallgauley.com
St. Thomas More College St. Thomas More Lawyers Guild Gold Sponsors
Christine Glazer, QC McKercher LLP, Saskatoon c.glazer@mckercher.ca
Ashmeade & Low Investigations Law Society of Saskatchewan Stewart Title Guaranty Company Silver Sponsors DirectWest econveyance
Court of Queen’s Bench Michelle Ouellette, QC McKercher LLP, Saskatoon m.ouellette@mckercher.ca
Saskatchewan Government Insurance Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice SaskTel Virtus Group LLP, Chartered
Jenn Pereira Robertson Stromberg LLP, Saskatoon j.pereira@rslaw.com
Accountants & Business Advisors Bronze Sponsors Brunsdon Junor Johnson Appraisals Carswell, A Thomson Reuters Company Globe Printers VoicePro Technologies
Provincial Court Bonnie Missens Sask. Indian Gaming Authority, Saskatoon bonnie.missens@siga.sk.ca Suzanne Young Grayson & Company, Moose Jaw syoung@graysonandcompany.com
6 BarNotes / Spring 2015
BRANCH NEWS 2015 Distinguished Service Award: Gregory Walen, QC
G
reg Walen, QC, a partner with Scharfstein Gibbings Walen & Fisher LLP, was selected as the recipient for the CBA Saskatchewan 2015 Distinguished Service Award.
Greg has been involved with the Saskatchewan Branch of the Canadian Bar Association for over 20 years. He has served as Vice-Chair and Chair for the Family Law North section, was a Committee Member on the 2015 Mid-Winter Meeting Planning Committee, along with presenting at various continuing legal education sessions at past Branch Mid-Winter Meetings. Greg has also actively worked with various legal organizations across the province including the Law Society of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Lawyers Insurance Association, University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law, Saskatchewan Legal Aid Commission and Saskatchewan Trial Lawyers Association.
(L-R) CBA Saskatchewan President Gail Wartman, QC, 2015 Distinguished Service Award Recipient Greg Walen, QC, and Paul Korpan, QC, after the Awards Luncheon held at the 2015 MidWinter Meeting.
Friend and colleague, Paul Korpan, QC, a partner with Kanuka Thuringer LLP, expressed that Greg’s “contribution to the education of the legal profession generally is what sets him apart. He has authored more papers and presented at more Continuing Legal Education seminars in Saskatchewan than any other academic or
practitioner in the area of family law.” As a Bencher with the Law Society of Saskatchewan, Greg played a significant role in developing continuing legal education programs for the organization, including the rollout of the mandatory Continuing Legal Education program.
caLL fOR nOMINATIONS: 2015 Community Service Award The Community Service Award recognizes the valuable contributions CBA Saskatchewan members have made to the communities in our Province, by demonstrating outstanding dedication, service and commitment to the community.
Eligibility
the 3 nominators; • Written confirmation from the nominee agreeing to have his/her name put forward for the Award; • A concise curriculum vitae of the nominee; and • Letters of support, if possible.
• Must be a CBA SK member with 10 years call to the bar; • Current Executive Committee members are not eligible; • Except under extraordinary circumstances, former members of the Branch Executive are not eligible for this award for a period of 3 years from the date that their respective service on the Executive ended; • Must be a resident of Saskatchewan; • Nominees must be able to attend the Award Event; and • Must have made exceptional contributions and/or achievements using volunteer skills for the betterment of the community or a non-profit organization.
Deadline for Nominations
Nomination Procedure
The recipient will receive a recognition certificate; an announcement will appear in the local papers and a tribute will be published in BarNotes.
The nomination must include the following: • A Nomination Form including full details as to why the individual should receive the Award; • The signature of 3 CBA members; • Full name, business and home address, telephone, and email information of both the nominee and
Nominations must be received by May 15th, 2015. Completed nominations must be submitted to Brenda Hesje, Executive Director, brenda@cbasask.org
Selection Process
• Selection made by CBA SK Awards Committee; • Nominations are valid for two years; and • The number of Awards to be presented annually will not exceed one.
Award
Nomination Forms Forms are available at http://bit.ly/2015CSAform
Spring 2015 / BarNotes 7
COMMENTARY Assisted Dying: Supreme Court Averts Constitutional Showdown with Québec Françoise Hébert Board of Directors, Dying with Dignity Canada
In
June 2014, Québec enacted Bill 52 – An Act Respecting End of Life Care, which permits medical aid to die. By framing assisted dying as a health-care issue, Bill 52 was attempting to ‘go around’ the Criminal Code’s total prohibition on assisted suicide (s. 241). Would the federal government challenge Québec over Bill 52?
Speculation became moot on February 6, 2015, when in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Canada allowed the Carter case appeal (Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), 2015 SCC 5 (35591), finding that the prohibition on assisted suicide violated the Charter rights to life, liberty and security of the person (s. 7). The Court suspended the declaration of invalidity for 12 months, allowing Parliament and the provincial legislatures to respond, should they so choose, by enacting legislation consistent with the constitutional parameters set out in the Court’s decision.
Physician-assisted dying will henceforth be allowed across Canada for a competent adult person who (1) clearly consents to the termination of life; and (2) has a grievous and irremediable medical condition (including an illness, disease or disability) that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition. Parliament and the provincial legislatures have concurrent jurisdiction over health, and both levels of government may regulate the practice of medical aid to die. It is too early to speculate on what actions Parliament may take, if any. But provincial governments will want to regulate the practice of assisted dying by physicians in their jurisdiction.
Québec is ahead of the curve. Bill 52 shows a remarkable coming together of public, medical, legal and political will, and offers a model law that other provinces may want to consider.
Québec confronts the challenge of assisted dying
In 2009, the Collège des médecins du Québec released a discussion paper suggesting that the debate on euthanasia should focus on appropriate end of life care. In certain exceptional situations – uncontrollable pain or interminable suffering, for example – euthanasia could be considered the final step required to assure the provision of quality care, and some treatments could be deemed appropriate even if they contravened certain legal stipulations.
Never before in Canada had a college of physicians invited the debate on euthanasia. The discussion paper, released at a time when 8 BarNotes / Spring 2015
opinion polls showed that a significant majority of Quebecers favoured assistance to die, provided the impetus that politicians needed to address this difficult moral issue.
Three months later, the National Assembly of Québec created the all-party Select Committee on Dying with Dignity, to investigate assisted dying within the broader context of end-of-life care. The Committee consulted with experts in medicine, law, ethics, sociology and psychology, following which it published Dying with Dignity: Consultation Document May 2010, to stimulate public debate. The document tried to answer two core questions: 1. How should we respond to the suffering experienced by some people at the end of life? The Committee concluded that palliative care must be accessible to all, including those who wish to die at home, that training in palliative care must be offered to healthcare workers, and that there needs to be more investment in palliative care research. They also concluded that Quebecers must be informed of their rights to refuse or stop treatment and of the means available to plan for this final stage of life, and that advance medical directives must be respected.
2. How should we respond to requests for help to die? The Committee concluded that a new option is needed in the continuum of end-of-life care, because palliative care cannot ease all suffering. They proposed the option of ‘medical aid in dying’, to be performed by a physician in a medical setting, following a free and informed request by a patient. Such an option is needed, the Committee explained, to offer a more gentle death, and the comfort of knowing the option was available when and if suffering became unbearable.
Two years later, after public hearings held across the province, the Committee published the Dying With Dignity report, a responsible and authoritative examination of this topic.
Québec decides to go around the Criminal Code
The Committee recognized that Parliament has jurisdiction in criminal law, and that euthanasia and assisted suicide were criminal offences punishable by up to 14 years in prison. But noting that it is up to the provinces to enforce criminal law, and that each province’s Attorney General is responsible for deciding whether to lay charges and undertake criminal prosecutions,
COMMENTARY recommendation number 20 proposed that: The Attorney General of Québec issue directives (in the form of “guidelines and measures”) to the Director of Public Prosecutions to ensure that a physician who provides medical aid in dying in accordance with the criteria provided by law cannot be prosecuted. By reframing medical assistance to die as a health care issue, and refusing to prosecute physicians who assisted patients to die in accordance with criteria specified in a new Québec law, the province would in effect be ‘going around’ the Criminal Code. Recognizing the constitutional implications at play, the Government of Québec appointed a Committee of legal experts to advise it on implementing the recommendations.
The legal experts concluded that provincial responsibilities in health care are broad, and cover the major portion of end-of-life care. Québec regulates the doctor-patient relationship, the organization of the health-care system, provisions regarding consent, conditions of access to care, and the training of health care professionals. The federal government intervenes in these health care matters only by creating offenses to suppress certain behaviours it deems criminal, such as assisting a suicide. However, the legal experts pointed out that the decision to prosecute criminal offenses is at the discretion of the Attorney General of Québec, who could determine that no charges would be laid against anyone acting in conformity with the regulations of laws passed by the Québec National Assembly. This seemed to clear the way for Québec to introduce a law on end-of-life care that would protect physicians against federal criminal liability, if they acted in accordance with the provincial law.
(chapter A-29); • At the end of life and suffering from a serious and incurable illness; • In an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability; and • Experiencing constant and unbearable physical or psychological suffering which cannot be relieved in a manner the patient deems tolerable.
Before administering medical aid to die, the physician must be of the opinion that the patient meets all of the criteria, and that the request is informed and made freely, in particular by ascertaining that it is not being made as a result of external pressure. The physician must obtain the written opinion of a second physician confirming that the criteria have been met. The physician must personally administer the medical aid to die, and stay with the patient until death ensues. The Act does not require physicians to administer assistance to die if they refuse to do so for moral or religious reasons - in such cases the Act ensures that other physicians will be found to deal with the request. Bill 52: An Act respecting end-of-life care is the culmination of five years of expert testimony, public consultations, and courageous political leadership in dealing with a morally difficult issue. Faced with a twelve-month deadline to respond to the Supreme Court’s decision, other provinces may find Québec’s Bill 52, and its plans for implementation, a useful model to follow.
Bill 52
On June 5, 2014, in an historic free vote in the National Assembly of Québec, Bill 52: An Act respecting end-of-life care, was passed into law. The overarching purpose of Bill 52, as outlined in its Explanatory Notes, is “to ensure that end-of-life patients are provided care that is respectful of their dignity and their autonomy and to recognize the primacy of wishes expressed freely and clearly with respect to endof-life care.” The law explicitly recognizes the right of Quebecers to receive end-of-life services that include palliative care, and the option of medical assistance to die within a robust regime of safeguards to ensure transparency and to protect the vulnerable. Although constituting only a small portion of Bill 52, the sections that deal with medical aid to die created the most controversy. The rules would have to be clear to prevent misunderstandings, they must not impose complex bureaucratic hurdles that would cruelly delay medical assistance to die for those suffering greatly, but at the same time they could not be so broad as to endanger the life of vulnerable individuals who might be pressured to end their life when that was not their fervent wish. In Bill 52, patients must meet all of the following criteria to access medical aid in dying: • Of full age and capable of giving consent to care; • Insured within the meaning of the Health Insurance Act
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COMMENTARY Get Ready for the Next Generation Beth Bilson, QC College of Law, University of Saskatchewan
In
my expeditions into the archives to explore the history of the College of Law, I have come across a number of stories of the challenges faced by women law students as they pioneered in an environment shaped by the traditions and practices of a legal profession that was almost exclusively male. Though some of these stories describe circumstances that now seem extreme in some respects, recent research on the legal profession in Canadian jurisdictions, including Saskatchewan, suggests that the profession has not entirely succeeded in removing all barriers to equality for women lawyers.
Study of the work world at large indicates that any inequities based on gender are multiplied and magnified when other characteristics like race, disability or sexual orientation are examined. To this point, a scarcity of baseline information and small numbers have prevented systematic analysis of the impact of these characteristics on the legal careers of Aboriginal lawyers, visible minority lawyers, lawyers with disabilities or gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered lawyers. There has been some preliminary research in larger jurisdictions like Ontario, but the numbers of lawyers in Saskatchewan who fall into these categories have to date been too small for meaningful statistical analysis. Clues about the possible profile of the legal profession in the nottoo-distant future may be found, I think, by looking at changes in the composition of the student body in the College of Law over recent years. For some decades, the College has been tracking the proportion of women students. Though this proportion changes slightly from year to year, we would now usually expect the student population to be roughly half male and half female. An example of the scale of change that this is bringing to the demographics of the profession in Saskatchewan is that 46% of female lawyers are under 40, whereas only 24% of male lawyers are under 40. The College has also tracked the enrolment of Aboriginal students, on the basis of voluntary self-identification, and the proportion of Aboriginal students has held steady for some time at close to 10%. Nearly all of these students complete their law degrees, but there has been little systematic analysis of where they go after they leave law school, or what obstacles they encounter as they develop as lawyers.
minorities. The fact is, however, that the members of visible minorities form an increasing part of the Canadian population, and it seems likely that university and law school student bodies will reflect this. Saskatchewan itself has become more diverse in this respect. Add to this that, for the past decade or so, approximately half the students in the College are from outside Saskatchewan – and particularly from provinces like Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario with high visible minority populations – and it is not hard to understand the trend.
Neither does the College specifically track students with disabilities. The College has long had accommodation policies designed to even the playing field, however, and requests for such accommodation provide something like a proxy for assessing the numbers. It seems likely on this basis that up to 10% of law students have a disability, and these disabilities cover a wide range, including physical impairments, learning disabilities, depression and addictions. It may be stating the obvious, but if this is what a law school looks like, this is what the legal profession looks like – or at least will look like soon. The predominant paradigm of law practice was largely developed by men, and it may or may not suit them – whether it does is a discussion for another day. This paradigm, based on particular assumptions about client service, financial sustainability and personal ambition, has certainly been shown to have drawbacks from the point of view of women. If current practices and assumptions have not created a supportive environment for women, it is unlikely that they will be any more successful in allowing Aboriginal lawyers, visible minority lawyers or lawyers with disabilities to flourish. Given the demographic trends I have identified here for students, the continuation of legal structures and systems in their present form would be setting up a significant proportion of the legal profession for failure. The unfairness – not to mention the waste of capacity – that this represents is something we should all be concerned about.
Information about other groups is not routinely gathered by the College. It seems too glib to say that simply walking through the College of Law would cement the impression that there are more students than there used to be who are members of visible
Spring 2015 / BarNotes 11
COMMENTARY Summary Judgment in Family Law Kate Crisp Scharfstein Gibbings Walen & Fisher LLP
In
recent years many provinces have implemented new rules of court, which have expanded the courts ability to grant summary judgment in the hopes of reducing the pressure on the court’s limited resources and increasing access to justice. The question, however, is whether the summary judgment process is suited to the disposition required by judges in family law disputes.
The Supreme Court of Canada recently rendered its landmark decision in Hryniak v. Mauldin.1 While this decision was certainly not a family law matter, the Supreme Court has signified that a shift in culture is necessary with respect to the use of such applications. Although this decision was in respect of a civil application for summary judgment, its overarching principles are applicable to all summary judgment applications.
Summary Judgment
The decision of the court in Hryniak and changes to the rules of court in a number of provinces has recently expanded the jurisdiction of the court to determine applications summarily.
The Supreme Court in Hryniak had before it an application pursuant to Rule 20 of the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure. However, the wording of Justice Karakatsanis’ judgment is not limited to an interpretation of those, or similarly worded rules, but to all courts in all provinces. In her opening paragraphs, Justice Karakatsanis clearly sets the tone for addressing summary judgment applications in all spheres and at all levels. She states that: [1] Ensuring access to justice is the greatest challenge to the rule of law in Canada today. Trials have become increasingly expensive and protracted. Most Canadians cannot afford to sue when they are wronged or defend themselves when they are sued, and cannot afford to go to trial. Without an effective and accessible means of enforcing rights, the rule of law is threatened. Without public adjudication of civil cases, the development of the common law is stunted.
[2] Increasingly, there is recognition that a culture shift is required in order to create an environment promoting timely and affordable access to the civil justice system. This shift entails simplifying pre-trial procedures and moving the emphasis away from the conventional trial in favour of proportional procedures tailored to the needs of the particular case. The balance between procedure and access struck by our justice system must come to reflect modern reality and
1 2014 SCC 7 [Hryniak].
12 BarNotes / Spring 2015
recognize that new models of adjudication can be fair and just.2
In assessing the use and appropriateness of summary judgment applications, Justice Karakatsanis, speaking for the Court, found that:
[4] … a trial is not required if a summary judgment motion can achieve a fair and just adjudication, if it provides a process that allows the judge to make the necessary findings of fact, apply the law to those facts, and is a proportionate, more expeditious and less expensive means to achieve a just result than going to trial.
[5] To that end, I conclude that summary judgment rules must be interpreted broadly, favouring proportionality and fair access to the affordable, timely and just adjudication of claims.3 [Emphasis added]
A recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court, CAS v. T.,4 commented on the applicability of the principles outlined in Hryniak to family law matters. The application before the court in CAS v. T. was for, among other things, a final order for custody and access. The court held that: [9] The circumstances where a court can grant a summary judgment motion were recently analyzed by the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of Hryniak v. Mauldin, 2014 SCC 7, 366 D.L.R. (4th) 641. Although Hryniak occurred in the context of a civil proceeding, the general principles nonetheless apply to this case.5
Summary Judgment in Family Law
Prior to the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Hryniak, it seemed that summary judgment applications would often be inappropriate to address issues of spousal support, which the courts stated required a detailed analysis as outlined in Miglin.6 However, in light of the broad interpretation and proportional approach to summary applications now required by courts following Hryniak, applications involving spousal support should not be presumptively inappropriate. The appropriateness and fairness of a determination of a summary judgment application is “not whether the procedure is as exhaustive as a trial, but whether it gives the judge confidence that she can find 2 Hryniak, supra note 1. 3 Hryniak, supra note 1. 4 2014 ONSC 916. 5 Ibid. 6 See: Kelly v. Kelly, 2004 CanLII 4328 (ON CA); Shachtay v. Shachtay, 2013 MBCA 17.
COMMENTARY the necessary facts and apply the relevant legal principles so as to resolve the dispute”.7
In a recent decision from the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Sarmiento v. Villarico,8 after the issuance of the Hryniak decision, the Court faced a summary trial application involving division of family property and spousal support claims.
The court referenced the views outlined by the Supreme Court in Hryniak and ultimately found that based on the affidavit evidence before it, the matter could be dealt with summarily. The court’s ability to do so was based in large part on the objective evidence provided by the wife, which supported the assertions of fact in her affidavit and the inconsistencies within the husband’s affidavit and between his current and previous affidavits. With respect to custody and access, although parenting arrangements require a factually based determination, this does not necessarily mean that such a determination cannot be made on a summary judgment application. In its decision in Yule v. Earl-McIntyre,9 the Ontario Supreme Court determined an appeal of the motions judge’s decision to grant summary judgment which varied the parties access arrangements. The parties had previously brought applications with respect to the father’s ongoing access to the child. These applications led to an assessment being completed by the Children’s Lawyer, following which it was agreed the matter could proceed by a motion for summary judgment. In determining the application, the motions judge found that there were no material facts in dispute which necessitated a viva voce hearing and made a final order varying the father’s access. The father appealed the decision. On appeal the Court commented on the use of summary judgment in custody and access cases. The Court referenced the decision in Cress v. Crack,10 in which that court held that: There is, however, no reason in principle why summary judgment in a custody case cannot be granted. It is in the best interests of a child to have issues resolved rapidly. Section 26 of the Children’s Law Reform Act provides that a custody matter should be heard within six months after commencement of the proceedings. An ongoing custody dispute is generally stressful and difficult for children. There may be claims for custody that cannot survive scrutiny even on a motion for summary judgment, although the power to grant summary judgment is a custody action or to determine an issue on affidavit evidence should be exercised with great caution.11
7 Hryniak, supra note 1 at para. 50. 8 2014 BCSC 455. 9 2001 CanLII 28178 (ON SC) [Yule]. 10 (February 28, 1996), Doc. Sault Ste. Marie 13,765/94 (Ont. Gen. Div.). 11 Yule, supra note 1 at para. 16.
The Court in Yule also referenced the decision in Piccolo v. Picard.12 In the Piccolo decision, the Court determined an access dispute by way of summary judgment. In arriving at its decision to deal with the matter summarily, the Court held as follows: … While the motivating factor for such a decision must be grounded in the need to act in the best interests of a child in proceedings either under the Children’s Law Reform Act, above, or the Child and Family Services Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C-11, the need to avoid wasting valuable court resources is also a major consideration in proceeding with an application on a summary judgment basis.13
Upon reviewing these decisions, the Court in Yule held that:
Rule 16 of the Family Law Rules give the court specific legislative authority to utilize the summary judgment procedure when the court concludes that there is no genuine issue for trial and does not limit this authority to child protection matters. However, it remains appropriate that summary judgment jurisdiction be exercised cautiously as that is consistent with the principles of justice and the best interests of children.14
Although these cases are based on the statues and rules of court of Ontario, the principles outlined therein are clearly applicable to determination of custody and access issues across jurisdictions. It cannot be highly controverted that a speedy determination of custody and access matters is preferable to a protracted legal battle between the parties, assuming of course that the courts have the necessary information and ability to make that determination. Undoubtedly affidavits with respect to summary judgment applications for custody and access matters will contain conflicting evidence, however, it is important to determine if those conflicts are material to the ultimate issue.
Conclusion
Having regard for the changing landscape in this area, it is important to consider the use of summary judgment applications in resolving family law disputes. Although the matters in issue may be more complex and many of the facts will likely be in dispute, if you feel that a judge could make a determination of your client’s matter without the necessity of a full trial, your client’s interests, and the interests of justice, may be best served by such an application.
12 (June 20, 1997), Doc. Sudbury D5/97 (Ont. Prov. Div.) [Piccolo]. 13 Yule, supra note 1 at para. 17. 14 Ibid. at para. 18.
Spring 2015 / BarNotes 13
COMMENTARY Real Estate Solicitors: Presumed Liable Michael Derbowka & Tyler Dahl Cuelenaere, Kendall, Katzman & Watson
T
he liability placed on real estate lawyers is continually growing. This growth is coming from a number of different sources, including mortgage lenders, changes in technology, and the courts. As our liability increases, we will need to spend more and more time in ever narrowing time frames to ensure that we have exercised due diligence and have protected our clients’ interests. In some cases, the liability can and ought to be curtailed. Nonetheless, solicitors will soon find themselves, if they haven’t already, facing the following issues with respect to their practice:
Mortgage Lenders
More often than not, the ever growing liabilities faced by lawyers who practice in the area of real estate are coming from mortgagees. Each lender has its own standard set of requirements and instructions for solicitors acting on its behalf, and those requirements are expanding. In his excellent, as of yet unpublished, paper, “Residential Mortgage Lenders’ Instructions – An Outsider’s Perspective”, Mark Tipperman states, “Canadian mortgage lenders seek to cast responsibility upon lawyers for due diligence and insurance services that the lenders can and should be handling on their own or through qualified third party service providers.”
In Mr. Tipperman’s paper, he identifies several solicitor instructions that solicitors ought to be concerned about. For example, mortgage instructions are often requiring solicitors to, generally, provide assurances that are outside the scope of their profession. That is, these are assurances that ought to be made by insurance agents, title insurers, real estate appraisers, surveyors, creditors, or by the borrowers themselves. Ultimately, it is Mr. Tipperman’s hope, and that of the authors of this paper, that the Canadian Bar Association, in consultation with lenders and solicitors, produce standardized instructions and opinion letters to be used by all who practice in this area. Otherwise, mortgage lenders will continue to shift more responsibility for various conditions of the mortgagee/mortgagor relationship onto the solicitor than ought to be.
Technological Changes
Lawyers, whether we like it or not, must continually adapt to new technology. These changes in one’s practice would seek to increase efficiency and accuracy in closing a real estate transaction. But, with the introduction of any technological change, solicitors will be unable to rely on the tried and tested usual practices with which they are 14 BarNotes / Spring 2015
familiar. While this particular change may be ultimately a good thing, with the substantial increase in real estate transactions occurring over the past few years, it becomes difficult for the solicitor and their assistant(s) to simply find the time (and to take the time) to learn and implement such changes.
British Columbia and Manitoba have already successfully implemented similar web-based software, but Saskatchewan is largely unfamiliar with such software. Additionally, as such technology seeks to increase our efficiency in completing a real estate transaction, perhaps our timeframes for closing a real estate transaction will further narrow (as has been the result of every other form of embraced technology that touches a real estate transaction). Clients, realtors, lenders, and mortgage brokers already often expect an ability to act on and close a real estate transaction immediately and such expectations are only likely to grow with changes that improve our efficiency.
Courts
The Common Law has occasionally weighed in on the liability of real estate solicitors, albeit the law does not appear to be settled on several issues. The following questions arise when reviewing case law relating to real estate conveyancing: Can a solicitor rely on usual practices of the profession to deviate from an initial retainer agreement? What is required of solicitors when they are only retained after their clients have already entered into an agreement for purchase and sale? What obligation, if any, do clients have with respect to informing solicitors of unusual information with respect to plans for the property or their role in purchasing it? Can a solicitor rely on usual practices of the profession to deviate from an initial retainer agreement?
Most often, when a client meets with a solicitor for real estate purposes, that client has already entered into a contract for purchase and sale of property.
In Polischuk et al. v. Hagarty (1984), 14 DLR (4th) 446, 42 OR (2d) 417, the Ontario Court of Appeal determined that a solicitor, acting for a purchaser of real property, breached the retainer agreement between himself and his clients when he deviated from the contract for purchase and sale by accepting an undertaking from the vendor’s solicitor to obtain and register a discharge of the vendor’s mortgage in exchange for paying the balance to close on the date of closing. According to the contract for purchase and sale, the solicitor ought
COMMENTARY to have required the discharge of the vendor’s mortgage prior to paying the balance to close. The Ontario Court of Appeal made this determination despite the fact that it found, “…that in accepting the undertaking from Mr. Mitches [the vendor’s solicitor] and paying the balance due on closing to him, he [the defendant] acted in accordance with the general practice of the profession in London and Middlesex County, at that time.”
Hagarty can stand for the proposition that the solicitor is required to carry out the terms of the contract for purchase and sale, unless instructed otherwise by the client. In Hagarty, the solicitor was only retained after that contract was entered into, and at no time did the solicitor discuss deviating from that contract with his clients. The Court of Appeal states, in its conclusory paragraphs: Accepting that the defendant solicitor acted on the closing of the transaction in accordance with the general practice of ordinarily competent solicitors, that does not end the matter. He was retained to carry out the terms of the clients’ agreement of purchase and sale and not to substitute other terms for it. In my opinion, there is no principle of law or professional dealing that justified him in failing to enforce the contract, as written by his clients, unless he received instructions to do so, or the matter was clearly left to his discretion, after he had given advice on it.
However, the clients must be placed in a position where they can understand the contract for purchase and sale before they can be expected to make any decision whether to deviate from it. For instance, even though the client may be bound by the real estate agreement, the solicitor has a duty to ensure that the client understands it and is getting what he or she bargained for. What is required of solicitors when they are only retained after their clients have already entered into an agreement for purchase and sale?
In Orr v. Metropolitan Toronto Condominium Corp. No. 1056, 2014 ONCA 855, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge’s finding that the purchaser’s solicitor fell below the standard of care of a competent real estate solicitor by failing to review the plans of the condominium (the subject property) with the client. The Court of Appeal states approvingly, at para. 79: The trial judge considered that the lawyer’s primary responsibility in a condominium transaction is to ensure that the client “is getting title to what they believe they have transacted for.” (Para. 271) She went on to explain that in order to confirm this, “the client must be shown the plans to ensure that their unit is the one identified, in the correct location, the size, whether it has a terrace which might be an exclusive use common element, whether it is a single storey unit or multi-level.” In the end, the purchaser’s solicitor was required, and failed, to find
that the third storey of the condominium unit, which turned out to be an illegal addition, was absent from the plans. Furthermore, that solicitor was not entitled to rely on the estoppel certificate, which erroneously stated that the unit was not in violation of the declaration – whereas the declaration stated that it was a two storey unit and the unit was, in actuality, a three storey unit in contravention of that declaration: see paras. 52 and 89.
Accordingly, the solicitor was required to ensure that the estoppel certificate was accurate and that the title being conveyed matched the expectations of her client. In other words, the solicitor was not permitted to merely carry out the deal (the contract for purchase and sale) that the client had previously entered into. Similar duties were placed on the purchaser’s solicitor in Moorcroft v. Doraty & Kebe (1990), 71 OR (2d) 470, 65 DLR (4th) 315. There, the Ontario High Court made the following remarks: [p 473] [A] solicitor acting for the purchaser in a real estate transaction must ensure that his clients understand the contents of the initial agreement. [p 474] A purchaser [has] a right to expect that a solicitor whom he consulted would apprise him of the potentially adverse effect that the pertinent printed words in the agreement could have if he were advising prior to the initial contract being signed, and if the retainer followed the formation of the contract, would acquaint him fully with the state of the title prior to closing.
In a commentary on Moorcroft, Norman M. Fera states that the solicitor’s liability ought to take into consideration the timing of the solicitor’s retainer and whether the purchaser had a right to rescind the agreement for purchase and sale: see Norman M. Fera, “Solicitors’ Negligence: An Essay on the Moorcroft Decision” (1991) 23 Ottawa L. Rev. 319. Fera states: It is submitted that the inquiry and finding concerning the purchasers’ right to rescind should be prerequisite to determining solicitor’s negligence… It must be recalled and emphasized that the solicitor’s negligence in Moorcroft was not founded on the solicitor’s failure, during the gratuitous consultations, to properly advise and inform his clients about the exception and other clauses in the standard form agreement. The negligence was grounded, essentially, in the lawyer’s failure to acquaint the client “with a state of the title” (which the client had agreed to accept subject to rights of way).
In other words, Mr. Fera takes issue with the fact that the solicitor was found negligent for failing to acquaint the client with the terms of the agreement that had already been entered into and that already bound him. Continued on Page 16...
Spring 2015 / BarNotes 15
COMMENTARY Continued from Page 15...
What, if any, obligations do clients have with respect to informing solicitors of unusual information concerning plans for the property or their role in purchasing it? Even when a solicitor does discuss the terms of the agreement that was previously entered, prior to the retainer, the solicitor will likely not take the time to discuss any and every possible limitation of the property.
In Hill v. King, 2014 SKQB 86, 440 Sask. R. 279, the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench remarked, in obiter, that the plaintiff had engaged a lawyer “throughout” the purchase of a cabin and, therefore, “[s]urely he consulted with the lawyer and was told of the limits of Parcel A” (paragraph 18). That is, surely the solicitor told the client that his parcel did not extend to the lakeside. However, there was no evidence that the plaintiff ever brought to the attention of his solicitor that he planned to make improvements to the lakeside or that he believed that the property extended to the lakeside. In fact, the court went on to find that there was no reference to the lakeside or lakefront in the offer to purchase (paragraph 20) and that there was no mention of the lakefront in the appraisal of the parcel (paragraph 21). Accordingly, it may have never occurred to the solicitor that there was a question, in the mind of the client, as to whether or not the parcel extended to the lakefront. Similarly, in Tran v. Kerr, 2014 ABCA 350, the Alberta Court of Appeal found a solicitor had been negligent in carrying out a fraudulent transaction by a straw purchaser in a real estate transaction. The straw purchaser admitted that she had agreed to be a straw purchaser and that she agreed to participate in the transaction without exercising reasonable care. Furthermore, the straw purchaser did not raise her concerns or disclose her true role in the transaction to her solicitor. Nonetheless, the solicitor was found negligent for failing to discover that the client was a straw purchaser and failing to disclose the potential consequences of the fraudulent acts to the client. Interestingly, the Alberta Court of Appeal, at paragraph 49, placed the bulk of the blame on the solicitor rather than the straw purchaser: In this case, contribution to the damage should be unequal. Both the appellant [solicitor] and the respondent [straw purchaser], through their negligence, allowed a scheme to proceed in a way that damaged the Royal Bank. The appellant, however, as a member of the Bar, had a higher obligation to ensure that the transactions were appropriate. The proximity of their respective conduct to the damage and their relative fault mandate that the appellant bear 60% of the liability.
Normally, solicitors must perform a series of requirements at the behest of a mortgagee that should give rise to suspicions about the true nature of the transaction. For instance, solicitors are often required to get assurances from their clients as to the value of 16 BarNotes / Spring 2015
the property, the intention of the purchaser to become the owner, whether the property will become the purchaser’s principal residence, the source and amount of the down-payment, and other such information. However, as noted in paragraph 34 of Kerr, “the mortgage application given to the Royal Bank in the name of the respondent [straw purchaser] was not introduced in evidence.”
The Court of Appeal went on to note, at paragraph 35, “It is clear that some sort of mortgage application was made, and one might assume that it contained fraudulent misrepresentations… There is no evidence on this record of the actual contents of the mortgage application, or who actually made it.”
Surely, if the respondent straw purchaser had been acquainted with the mortgage application documents and fraudulently executed them—all without disclosing to her solicitor that, as a straw purchaser, she was not going to be owning, living in, or making payments on, the property—then the solicitor might never have discovered the irregularities. A solicitor should normally be able to rely on the declarations made by a client. Furthermore, if the lender did not require that those declarations be made by the applicant and nonetheless approved the straw purchaser’s mortgage application, then shouldn’t the mortgagee share in the blame?
Throughout this article we have attempted to show the marked increase in liability faced by solicitors. This increase is coming from all directions and will no doubt continue to climb. Furthermore, it is accompanied by continual pressures to complete transactions in ever narrowing time frames. This should be a concern for all solicitors. Our clients should also be concerned. If the trend continues to place more and more liability on the solicitor—in an attempt to act as insurance for lenders, purchasers, sellers, realtors, home inspectors, etc.—then it will be increasingly difficult for the solicitor to ensure that they are meeting the demands that are being placed on them. Furthermore, if there is no way to ensure that those demands are being met, the services being provided are not likely to improve. As concluded by Mr. Fera, in his above noted article: In all likelihood, imposition of strict liability on the solicitor will not create a better lawyer or a better served consumer. When reasonable skill and diligence may not be sufficient, when the usual and long-established practice of fellow solicitors is no certain safeguard, when provident precautions against known risk are not apt to protect, and when limitations and disclaimers related to the retainer are doubtful defences, then the solicitor’s refuge lies not in trying to do more and to do better but, rather,… to do nothing and survive [by trying not to worry about it].
Faced with this ever expanding liability, resembling strict liability, whenever something does go wrong, the solicitor will likely find themselves presumed liable.
COMMENTARY Overtime Pursuant to The Saskatchewan Employment Act Scott Spencer & Jared Epp* Robertson Stromberg LLP
O
ne of the more significant changes ushered in by The Saskatchewan Employment Act (the “SEA”) relates to the new overtime provisions. Although some have questioned whether or not the new overtime regime can effectively safeguard workers against unscrupulous employment practices, the government has maintained that the changes benefit both employee and employer by promoting greater flexibility within the workplace.
Under the former legislation, an employer was required to pay overtime at a rate of time and onehalf for each hour an employee worked in excess of 8 hours per day or 40 hours in any week (whichever was more favourable to the employee). Although the employer could modify this work schedule to four, ten hour days, or, in some cases, average the number of hours worked over several weeks, it required the Director’s permission to do so. An employer did not have any other options to structure a work schedule that managed overtime.
Disputes between employer and employee about overtime under the former legislation generally centered around whether the employee actually worked overtime and whether the overtime was authorized by the employer.
The SEA significantly modifies the concept of overtime by giving both employers and employees the ability to modify the rules relating to the scheduling of work and when overtime should be paid. With this added flexibility comes an increasingly complex set of rules, exemptions, exceptions, and record keeping requirements.
Although weekly hours of work in Saskatchewan remain set at 40 hours, with daily hour limits of either 8 or 10, the employer, with the written agreement of the employee, can modify this standard work schedule, both in terms of the average work week and the daily number of hours. This agreement does not need to be submitted to the Director. An employee can now agree to have weekly overtime pay calculated on the basis of a 160 hour, four week period (with a maximum of 44 hours per week). An employee can also agree not to be paid overtime until he or she works more than 12 hours in a single day. These changes, although not “wide open”, are significant.
Critically, the above types of arrangements must be voluntarily agreed to by the employee in writing. In the case of existing employees, employers can modify the overtime policy with the consent of at least 50% of the employees who are affected by the change. Further, on a going forward basis, employers should ensure that any modification they intend to make to an overtime policy is set out as a term in the employment contract. Further, unlike other provisions an employee may agree to, any
agreement to modify overtime cannot exceed two years in length and employers are required to keep a copy of any overtime agreement for at least five years following the expiry of the agreement.
Accordingly, employers who take advantage of a modified overtime schedule will need to be diligent and ensure that they are renewed by the employee every two years. Employers must keep diligent records, both of upcoming expiry dates for their agreements, and of any agreements which have been in force over the last five years. Employers who do not do so risk complaints to labour standards by employees, who can seek retroactive overtime pay for time worked after the overtime agreement expires.
Although the above changes in the SEA are intended to promote flexibility between employer and employee, an employer, subject to emergency circumstances, is still prohibited from scheduling an employee in such a manner that the employee (except for residentialservice facility operators) does not have a period of 8 consecutive hours of rest in any day. Employers are also, subject to a number of exceptions, required to grant one day off every week to an employee who ordinarily works at least 20 hours in a week. However, not all categories of employees are required to be given days off, including employees who suppress forest or prairie fires or employees who are live-in care providers or domestic workers. In the case of the latter employment category, the employee is entitled to two consecutive days off. Retail workers whose workplace employs more than 10 people are also entitled to two consecutive days of rest in a week, provided they have not agreed to otherwise modify their working hours. As was formerly the case, overtime is required to be paid at a rate of one and half times an employee’s pay. Employees who are not paid by the hour must have their pay converted to an hourly rate to make the required overtime calculations. In the case of employees who are paid on a monthly basis, this calculation requires the employer to multiply the employee’s monthly wages by 12, divide that total by 52 and then divide the regular weekly hours worked (note this amount cannot exceed 40 for the purpose of the calculation). In addition to the above overtime arrangements, individual employees and their employer can also agree, in writing, to create an overtime bank. Any time banked in this type of arrangement must be banked at 1.5 times the number of overtime hours worked. As the name suggests, an overtime bank allows an employee to build up overtime hours worked and apply them to their regular shifts as paid time off at the preferred rate. Continued on Page 18...
Spring 2015 / BarNotes 17
COMMENTARY Continued from Page 17...
All banked time must be paid out at the employee’s regular wage within 12 months of the time it was banked. Also, if an employer wants to terminate an overtime bank agreement, they must give the employee notice of their intention to do so at least one pay period in advance.
As under the former legislation, an employer’s obligation to pay overtime to an employee arises only where the excess hours are authorized by the employer. The SEA provides that overtime pay is required where the employer “requires or permits” the employee to work hours which exceed the statutory amounts or the modified arrangement. Employers should be sure to have clear protocols in place for the approval of overtime, particularly in work environments where employees are expected to manage their time. In workplaces where it is feasible to do so, employers may wish to implement a policy requiring prior approval for all overtime hours, to avoid unexpected claims of overtime at a later date. If the employer decides to lay-off or terminate an employee, it cannot use the banked time as a substitute for the statutorily required notice period. Rather, the employer must pay-out the banked time in addition to any notice or pay in lieu. However, if an employee resigns and gives notice (which employees are now required to do under the SEA), an employer can apply any hours banked against the weeks remaining in that employee’s work period.
Although the majority of employers and employees will be subject to this new overtime regime, the SEA also creates a number of exceptions: some of which existed in prior legislation. For example, professional practitioners, including students in training, are not entitled to overtime. Commissioned salespersons, who travel regularly and who earn all their remuneration as commissions are also not entitled to overtime.
From an employer’s perspective, the SEA’s new regime on overtime should be seen as a positive step forward in labour relations. The legislation gives the employer significantly more control over the time and manner in which overtime is paid. It also gives employers, who are subject to fluctuating work flows, the ability to negotiate overtime banks which can then be applied to work days where less staff is required. From the employee perspective, the flexibility allows for greater work life balance. Provided that employees and employers respect the trade of working hard in exchange for work life balance this new flexibility can benefit both sides. A modified version of this article was presented on October 29, 2014 at a convention for Saskatchewan employers. * with context and editorial contributions from Candice Grant.
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COMMENTARY Annual Return Filing for Condominium Corporations Sheri Hupp Ministry of Justice
S
tarting April 1, 2015, condominium corporations will be required to file an annual return with the Corporate Registry at Information Services Corporation (ISC). As such, it is anticipated that many lawyers will be receiving questions. Here are some questions and answers to assist you in answering the condominium corporations that you represent:
What is the applicable legislation?
The current Act is The Condominium Property Act, 1993. The current Regulations are The Condominium Property Regulations, 2001. Both the Act and the Regulations contain all recent amendments and are available on the Queen’s Printer website at: www.qp.gov.sk.ca.
What is an annual return?
An annual return is the annual filing requirement that must be filed by every condominium corporation with the Corporate Registry at ISC. It verifies that your corporation’s information in the Corporate Registry is correct on an annual basis. Clause 35(2)(d) of the Act
When does the requirement for annual returns take effect? The annual return requirement starts on April 1, 2015. Subsection 45.1(2) of the Regulations
What should a condominium corporation do to be ready for their annual return? It is important to ensure that the address for service is up to date at the Corporate Registry at ISC. An accurate address for service is vital, as ISC will be sending out corporations’ annual return forms to the address for service contained in the Corporate Registry. Customer Support at ISC can be contacted by telephone at 306-7872962 or by email at corporateregistry@isc.ca to clarify or update a corporation’s address for service.
When will an annual return be due?
Starting April 1, 2015 an annual return will be due on the last day of the month following the condominium corporation’s anniversary month. The anniversary month is the date that the condominium corporation was incorporated. Similar to other corporate entities, the Corporate Registry will mail annual returns in advance of the anniversary month. Confirming address for service information will ensure condominium corporations receive their annual returns from the Corporate Registry in a timely manner. Subsection 45.1(1) of the Regulations
Can the time of year that the annual return is due be changed? Upon the request of the condominium corporation, the Director of Corporations may designate another anniversary month if the corporation satisfies the Director that it is reasonable and appropriate to do so. This request will be processed in the Corporate Registry at ISC. A valid reason for making this type of request is to align the anniversary month so that it occurs just after your annual general meeting (AGM) each year. This type of request cannot be made on a frequent basis so it should be considered in depth before the request is submitted. Contact Customer Support at ISC by telephone at 306-787-2962 or by email at corporateregistry@isc.ca for more information. Subsection 45.1(6) of the Regulations
What information will be required on an annual return? The annual return will be in Form MM as contained in the Regulations. It requires three pieces of information: • • •
the corporation’s address for service; a list of the corporation’s current directors; and the submitting party information.
The submitting party information is required in case the Corporate Registry needs to contact someone to answer questions.
As the Corporate Registry will be sending out a pre-populated annual return in Form MM, the corporation will only have to verify whether or not the information supplied is correct. If the address for service or the director information needs to be updated, a Form DD containing the current information will need to be included with the annual return. For the first annual return filing, all condominium corporations will be required to submit a Form DD as there is no director information currently on file at the Corporate Registry. Form DD includes detailed instructions. All forms will be available on ISC’s website. For further assistance, contact Customer Support at ISC by telephone at 306-787-2962 or by email at: corporateregistry@isc.ca. Forms DD and MM in the Regulations.
More Information: Queen’s Printer www.qp.gov.sk.ca ISC Customer Service corporateregistry@isa.ca Ph: 306-694-0052
Spring 2015 / BarNotes 19
COMMENTARY 3D Printing & Implication on IP Rights Nathan Schissel MacPherson Leslie Tyerman LLP
3D
printers are not new. The first patents for 3D printing were filed in the early 1980s; however, many of these patents have now expired and, as a result, 3D printing has recently become much more accessible to businesses and individual consumers. The technology has also advanced significantly in recent years and 3D printers can now create very complex, large and durable objects in a short period of time. 3D printing has the potential to drastically transform the landscape in which businesses in the manufacturing and design-based industries operate. Many are also predicting that most Canadians will have personal 3D printers in their homes in the not-to-distant future.
Like many new technologies, 3D printing raises a number of legal questions and challenges, particularly challenges related to the unauthorized reproduction of products protected by intellectual property (IP) rights. Therefore, while 3D printing has the potential to allow anyone to create almost anything wherever and whenever they want, it also has the potential to create friction between the owners of IP rights and the users of 3D technology.
What is 3D Printing
3D printing (also known as “additive manufacturing”) is a common term for a number of different techniques that are used to create three-dimensional objects from a digital model. The design for the 3D object is created on a computer using a scanning device or computer aided design (CAD). The design is used by the 3D printer as a “blueprint” to create the object layer-by-layer out of metal, nylon, plastic or other materials. 3D printing differs from traditional manufacturing technology which generally involves providing a base material and then removing the material that is not required through a “subtractive” process such as cutting.
Implications on IP Rights
3D printing makes it possible for individuals to manufacture products for their own use, even if the products are protected by IP laws. These IP laws apply to the technologies that are used to create the 3D objects as well as to the objects themselves. 3D technology raises issues with four main classes of IP rights – copyrights, industrial designs, trademarks and patents.
Copyright
Copyright is an unregistered right that automatically arises upon creation. For the most part, the principles of copyright protection 20 BarNotes / Spring 2015
and infringement apply to 3D printing as they apply to any other copyrighted material.
In Canada it is generally not an infringement of copyright to make a copy of an article or object which has a practical or “utilitarian” function. For this reason, many functional consumer products are not protected by copyright. The exception to is this where the original object is considered an original “artistic” work and has been reproduced 50 times or less. For example, a local business that makes unique jewelry or pottery could stop the reproduction of those designs under Canada’s copyright legislation.
Copyright may also extend to the design or blueprint for the object that is created using a 3D printer. As such, a person who copies or distributes a blueprint for a 3D object without the permission of the owner could be infringing the owner’s copyright in that blueprint. However, the increased use of 3D technology will create challenges for copyright owners. The same thing that happened with peer-to-peer music file sharing may happen with designs for 3D objects that are shared electronically and printed at home. This type of electronic sharing is difficult to detect and taking action against infringers is time consuming and costly. Further, the Copyright Act contains exemptions for users where a copy of a work is made for private purposes under certain circumstances. For example, an individual who copies a design for a 3D object for his or her own use may not be infringing the copyright in that design (particularly if that individual is not obtaining any economic benefit from reproducing the design).
Industrial Designs
Industrial design protection can be an effective way to protect against infringements caused by 3D printing. Industrial designs protect aesthetic features of useful products. In other words, designs protect the “look and feel” of an object such as its shape, pattern, configuration or ornamentation. For example, protection can be obtained for the shape of a food container or the visual features of a running shoe. In order to benefit from the protection, the owner must register the design with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. Registration can prevent the unauthorized production, distribution and imitation of identical or substantially similar designs for commercial purposes. However, there are limitations on the protection that the Industrial Design Act provides. The legislation does not protect functional components of the object – for example, a manufacturer cannot obtain protection for a specific function or feature of a camera or video recorder. Further, industrial design infringement will only occur, if a copy is produced that is nearly identical in look and feel
COMMENTARY to the protected design. One of the key features of 3D printing is the ability to customize the design to suit a particular purpose. Therefore, making even a slight change to the original design before it is printed could avoid infringement. For this reason, the owner of the design may need to anticipate the ways that the object can be changed or customized and then apply for protection for a range of variations to the design.
Trademarks
A trademark is a word or combination of words, slogan, design, sound, colour, three-dimensional form (or combination of any of these types of elements) used to distinguish products or services from those of another entity and to identify particular products or services to the consumer. Trademarks add value to value intellectual property as they help protect owners develop and maintain goodwill and brandrecognition. As such, the unauthorized duplication of 3D printed designs can undermine the owner’s brand recognition and reputation.
Individuals or companies that rely heavily on the goodwill in their brands are best served by registering their trademarks, however a trademark owner does acquire some limited legal rights simply by adopting and using the mark (these are known as common-law trademark rights). Therefore, if a trademark owner can demonstrate that a particular design enjoys sufficient reputation to warrant common law trademark protection, the owner may be able to stop the
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sale of objects made using a 3D printer which are confusingly similar.
3D designs can be the subject of an actual Canadian trademark registration however in order to register, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office requires an applicant to establish that the design has acquired “distinctiveness” in Canada (i.e. evidence of substantial sales and/or advertising of products using the design). Finally, if a 3D-printed object displays the logo of a trademark owner the sale of that object could violate the rights of that trademark owner (unless the seller has obtained the owner’s permission to sell the object). In this case however, the seller could easily remove the trademarked logo from the design of the 3D object prior to printing.
Patents
Patents are used to protect a process or product. A patent gives the owner an exclusive right to make, use or sell the invention for a defined period of time in the jurisdiction where the patent is granted. Therefore, patent infringement can occur by the simple act of printing a 3D copy of a patented object without the permission of the owner. Additionally, Canada’s Patent Act does not contain a personal use exemption (unlike the legislation protecting copyright and trademark in this country) and therefore the absence of a commercial purpose is not an exception to patent infringement. An example of this type of infringement would be to use a 3D printer to create a patented kitchen utensil; the act of printing the patented object would be an act of infringement as would the sale or use of the object without permission of the owner. However, similar to the challenges faced by copyright owners, patent owners may find it difficult to enforce their rights where the reproduction of a patented invention is being by done by an individual in the privacy of his or her own home. It may be extremely difficult to monitor home use of 3D printers and patent infringement may go widely unnoticed.
Conclusion
3D printing technology has the potential to profoundly change the environment in which we now live. 3D printing can result in cheaper, faster and more versatile manufacturing however it raises a number of challenges to current IP laws in Canada. Many are predicting these laws will need to evolve to adapt to the nuanced issues raised by 3D printing. If so, this will not be the first time that these laws have adapted to accommodate a rapid increase in the use of new technology by Canadian individuals and businesses and it won’t be the last. New technologies have challenged IP rights before but many IP owners have adapted and flourished in these new environments.
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Spring 2015 / BarNotes 21
YOUNG LAWYERS My First Try at... Chambers (by myself) Nicole Hamm Olive Waller Zinkhan & Waller LLP
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don’t think there’s a more intimidating situation for a junior lawyer than arguing in Chambers. Why? First and foremost, it’s often in Chambers that you have your first interaction with a particular Justice. Then, there’s the fact that Chambers applications aren’t exactly cheap; your client expects a good result for all of the time, preparation and expense. Finally, and perhaps most importantly (and most intimidating) there’s always an audience in Chambers. Who wouldn’t want to have senior counsel watch them argue a complex case?
However, I think the main problem with Chambers for a junior lawyer is the fear of the unknown. These fears run the gamut from not knowing which Justice will be presiding to having no idea where your matter falls on the list until you arrive. And then there’s the possibility of questions – what if you don’t know the answer? You fear looking foolish not only in front of the Court, but also in front of your peers. It doesn’t help that more senior counsel often like to terrorize junior lawyers with stories of their first time in Chambers ‘back in the day’ when a Justice pummelled them with questions and embarrassed them to the point that they didn’t want to return. With all of this in mind, it was with much trepidation that I undertook my first solo Chambers application. I had been in Chambers before, but many months earlier and with a fellow associate as my crutch, so to speak. This time I would be on my own, and the facts of the case brought a whole host of legal issues into play – more than in your usual Chambers application.
So I did what most would do. I thought about the case constantly. I thought about it at home in the evening. I thought about it while walking to and from work. And I’m quite sure I thought about it for
22 BarNotes / Spring 2015
the entire three hour drive from my hometown of Rosthern back to Regina one weekend. Yet after all of that thinking, I was still unsure that I was taking the correct approach. So I finally made myself sit down one evening and write it all down. And then I thought about it some more, of course.
I managed to finalize all of the materials after a lot of second-guessing on my part and soliciting countless opinions from other lawyers. And I continually thought about it until the night before the Chambers appearance, when I finally recognized that I had to trust that my preparation would show.
The Chambers appearance came and luckily I found my case near the top of the list. When it was my turn to go up, I felt like an imposter sitting at the counsel table – and I imagine many junior lawyers have felt the same way. There was only one question from the bench – one that I anticipated (thankfully) – and then it was done. And in the end, I enjoyed the experience. It was actually kind of fun. The end result favoured my client in many ways; however, they were not completely successful on the one issue that I knew they cared about most. My client was upset about this, and I must admit that this made me upset. I felt like I’d failed my client, even though they were still largely successful. Luckily, though, my penchant for stewing paid off, as I eventually realized that my client achieved 90% of what they wanted with the application, and that their success was attributable to me and my work. I had successfully represented my client, and for my first time out there by myself, I more than held my own.
PRO BONO SPOTLIGHT In-House Counsel Pro Bono Nicole Sarauer Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan
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awyers who practice as in-house counsel often feel like they are unable to participate in pro bono opportunities or find that their organizations do not have a pro bono policy in place. This is unfortunate, as in-house counsel represent a growing demographic of lawyers in the province with the skills, capacity, and will to give their time to help those in their community who are in need.
There continues to be a need for pro bono legal services in Saskatchewan. The recent Annual Report released by Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan notes that while over 1,500 individuals received pro bono assistance from Saskatchewan lawyers in 2013, many more need help.
This volunteer work is important. Our self-regulated profession gives us a moral obligation to ensure that we, as gatekeepers of legal advice, are warranting that those in need are able to access advice at critical times in their lives. The justice community is currently undertaking some self-reflection on how access to justice can be improved, and the pro bono efforts of volunteer lawyers are a big part of that puzzle. Besides that, it simply feels good to provide some real-time assistance to those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to receive any legal guidance. Volunteering with Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan presents an opportunity for lawyers to: •
• • • • •
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take part in a very rewarding component of a professional career, namely giving back to the community as a professional with particular skills and abilities; develop relationships with other volunteering lawyers and build community contacts; enhance the reputation of lawyers - both within the legal community and in the public eye; develop a sense of connectedness and purpose from knowing that their job includes the ability to represent and assist clients of limited means with important legal matters; make a tangible difference in their community; develop their trade and have greater autonomy which can provide meaningful work experience and accelerated professional development opportunities such as client interaction and court time; work on cases involving diverse legal issues and areas of law beyond day-to-day practice; and develop a wide array of advocacy skills.
Creating a policy which allows for in-house lawyers to do pro bono work provides a variety of benefits to corporations and their legal departments, including:
• improving the corporation’s reputation and status locally and nationwide, and strengthening the corporations relationships and ties with the community; • improving and strengthening relations with the corporation’s outside vendor law firms; • contributing to improving employee recruitment, retention, and overall morale; and • encouraging teamwork and collaboration among the in-house legal department staff.
Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan provides support for pro bono work through the provision of extended malpractice insurance, access to a Disbursement Fund, precedent resources, space to meet with clients, research assistance through the Law Society of Saskatchewan Law Libraries, mentoring, and other case assistance.
There are many different ways a lawyer can become involved in pro bono work, but it all begins with their employer adopting a pro bono policy that encourages lawyers to participate. Luckily, many other corporations have created policies that can be modelled in Saskatchewan. For example, Royal Bank of Canada adopted a formal pro bono policy in 2007, and has provided a wide variety of work for nonprofit organizations, including assistance with incorporation, governance, charitable tax status, employment and real estate issues, legal risk assessments, and the development of policies. RBC lawyers have also partnered with law firms to serve as duty counsel at the small claims courts in Ontario, assisting eligible individuals in a range of ways, from providing advice and assessing the merits of their cases to advocating at brief appearances in small claims actions. One of the other programs RBC is involved with in Ontario is Pro Bono Law Ontario’s Unaccompanied Minors Project, which assists unaccompanied children in Canada. As a Saskatchewan example, Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan has worked with Saskatchewan Justice lawyers since 2008 in creating a pro bono policy and a particular program, the Immigration and Refugee Panel program, where Justice lawyers provide representation for individuals with refugee and immigration matters, an area where they do not traditionally practice, but through training and mentorship have been able to provide the service exceptionally well. Lawyers who are working in-house have many skills that could be well utilized in the pro bono world, be it through assisting small non-profits and charities in corporate work, or helping high needs clients in specialized programs supported with mentorship and extensive training. I would encourage you to contact our office to further discuss pro bono opportunities for in-house counsel if this topic interests you.
Spring 2015 / BarNotes 23
NATIONAL NEWS Highlights from the Association Dean Scaletta acclaimed as CBA Treasurer Dean Scaletta, Director, Information and Litigation for Manitoba Public Insurance in Winnipeg, has been acclaimed as the CBA’s next Treasurer, a position currently held by Annette Horst. His three-year term will officially begin at this summer’s CBA Legal Conference in Calgary. Scaletta has been a CBA member since he was a law student. He was called to the Manitoba Bar in 1982. He worked in private practice for six years before joining the Manitoba Public Insurance Legal Department. His current position with the public insurer deals primarily with access and privacy issues. He has been actively involved in the CCCA throughout his career, including serving as Manitoba Chair, and has been on the national board of directors – he became National Treasurer in 2011. Other professional associations include the MBA Bar Council, where he has been an elected member since 2001, and the Law Society of Manitoba, where he was first elected Bencher in 2011.
Proposed Updates to Joint Policy Statement on Audit Inquiries
better? For the who, what, where, when and why of the CBA ReThink, we talked to Project Manager Cathy Cummings. Read Cathy’s Comments: http://bit.ly/5W-RETHINK
Policy Maker of the Year: Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada was named the policymaker of the year in 2014 for the importance of its rulings in clarifying the constitutionality of government laws and intentions. Former Supreme Court Justice Louis LeBel, who retired in the fall of 2014, sat down with National Magazine to discuss his time on the highest bench in the country. Read the article: http://bit.ly/2014SCC
Pandemics and the Workplace The CBA’s National Labour and Employment Law Section has created a pandemic preparedness resource guide entitled Pandemics and the Workplace: A Resource for Lawyers*(Exclusive to CBA members) to address the key questions for employers and employees and institutions providing health care.
Read more: The CBA has concluded its negotiations with the Auditing and http://bit.ly/CBA-Pandemics Assurance Standards Board to update the Joint Policy Statement on Audit Inquiries (JPS). Among the changes is the inclusion of in-house counsel in the scope of the JPS, recognizing the expanded CBA Skilled Lawyer Series role of corporate counsel in client matters. Also, the new JPS does not require lawyers CBA has launched the fifth season of the CBA Skilled Lawyer Series, to consider the applicable financial with three streams: corporate drafting, financial literacy and persuasive reporting framework when responding trial advocacy. In addition, with the new year comes a new round of to an audit inquiry. Your input is valued. teleconferences and meetings, including the National Energy, Environment Please take the time to review the material and Natural Resources Law summit in Calgary in March, and the second and provide your comments to: annual CBA Ethics forum in Toronto. epii@cba.org. Read the proposed draft and an explanatory memo: http://bit.ly/JointPolicy
Spotlight on CBA ReThink On November 1, the CBA began a major project that will examine the Association from its roots to its tips to determine why it exists – What does it do? What does it no longer need to do? What does it need to do 24 BarNotes / Spring 2015
Learn more: http://bit.ly/SkilledLawyers
POSTCARD FROM A LAWYER Oceania Cruise Ship Bill Selnes Kapoor Selnes & Klimm
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uring September Sharon and I spent 24 days happily cruising in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea on the Oceania cruise ship, Riviera. As often seems to happen for me three of my highlights from the trip do not involve big events.
On the ship I found I looked forward to team trivia each afternoon and evening. As well as the challenge of seeing what I could remember of trivial matters with the rest of my team for answering the questions from the cruise director it was a chance to make some interesting new friends.
My favorite experience on the trip was is Sochi, Russia where Sharon and I went on a tour that included a visit to Stalin’s summer dacha. It is a large green compound. The guide said it was painted green to help conceal it from bombers as Stalin was paranoid that someone might try to attack him at the dacha. Best of all there was a re-creation of his office with his desk and a life size statue of the diminutive dictator, 5’4”, sitting behind it and I was able to have a picture taken of me standing beside Stalin. A copy of that photo accompanies this post card.
Bill Selnes visiting Stalin’s “Summer Dacha” in Sochi, Russia.
On the afternoon team that gradually gathered together we met a couple from Cairns, Australia and a couple from the Isle of Wight in England and became good friends during the voyage.
In the evening session we met a wonderful Jewish family from Florida. They invited us to join them for Rosh Hashanah services and the special meal that goes with the celebration of the Jewish New Year. It was a new experience for Sharon and myself to be part of a Jewish celebration. In the Greek Islands I found our stop at the Island of Patmos special as we took a bus up into the hills overlooking the port to visit the cave, underneath a church, that the Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation after he left the Holy Land. It was a unique experience to connect back to biblical times.
PROVINCIAL NEWS Provincial Court Judge Appointed in Wynyard
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he Government of Saskatchewan appointed Michelle Marquette as a judge to the Provincial Court in Wynyard, on December 19, 2015.
“Judge Marquette has practiced law for nearly 20 years, and has a particularly good understanding of the legal issues common in rural Saskatchewan,” Justice Minister and Attorney General Gordon Wyant said. “Her experience as both a legal professional and a community leader make her an excellent choice for this appointment.”
Judge Marquette graduated with distinction from the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan and was called to the Bar in 1994. Since 2006, she has operated a sole practice, the Marquette Law Office, in Wadena.
real estate, wills and estates, criminal law, family law, corporate law and civil litigation.
Throughout her career, Judge Marquette has been an active member of her community through her children’s activities and local community groups. Judge Marquette replaced Judge James Plemel, who will became Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of Saskatchewan on January 1, 2015.
During her legal career, Judge Marquette specialized in the areas of
Spring 2015 / BarNotes 25
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The best fit for success. Membership in the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) provides more than 37,500 lawyers access to the piece of the puzzle which enables them to excel. The CBA enhances your professional influence by providing the platform for you to participate in legislative and policy solutions in your field. The CBA leadership role helps you keep your edge by accelerating your professional development through innovative tools and access to accredited professional development programs and industry leaders. The CBA protects your interests and upholds the core values of the legal profession every day in ways that individual lawyers and law firms cannot accomplish alone. We do this by leading the debate on fundamental issues such as solicitor-client privilege, the Rule of Law, access to justice, and an independent judiciary.
Join today by visiting www.cba.org.
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Calendar of Events April 9, 2015 Executive Committee Conference Call April 16, 2015
LAW DAY
April 18, 2015 Law Day Mock Trial Saskatoon April 18, 2015
Run for the Law Fun Run/Walk
Saskatoon
April 19, 2015 Law Day Fair Saskatoon April 25, 2015 Law Day Mock Mediation Regina April 25, 2015 Lynn Smith Memorial Run Regina May 15, 2015 NOMINATION DEADLINE: COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD May 15, 2015
Executive Committee Meeting
Conference Call
June 5, 2015
CBA Board of Directors Orientation
Ottawa
June 6-7, 2015 CBA Board of Directors Ottawa June 18, 2015 Executive Committee Meeting Regina June 18, 2015 ANNUAL MEETING Regina July 9, 2015
Executive Committee Meeting
Conference Call
August 6, 2015
Executive Committee Meeting
Conference Call
August 12, 2015 CBA Board of Directors Calgary August 13, 2015
CBA Annual Meeting of Council
Calgary
August 14-16, 2015
CBA LEGAL CONFERENCE
Calgary
Have you changed office locations or have a new job? If so, please advise CBA Saskatchewan so we can update our records. All changes should be sent to info@cbasask.org. Written changes may be sent to: CBA Saskatchewan, 306, 105-21st Street East, Saskatoon, SK, S7K 0B3. Updated addresses are needed for our National Database and Legal Directory & Day Planner publication.
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Spring 2015 / BarNotes 27
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