QUID NOVI
Vol 43 No 12 15 Feb 2022
NCDH 305 - 3644 Peel Montréal, Québec H2A 1X1
quid.law@mcgill.ca @quidnovi.mcgill
McGill University Faculty of Law Faculté de droit de l’Université McGill
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF RÉDACTRICE EN CHEF Anna McAllister ART DIRECTOR DIRECTRICE ARTISTIQUE Hanna Rioseco LAYOUT EDITOR ÉDITRICE DE MISE EN PAGE Souang Wu COPY EDITORS SECRÉTAIRES DE RÉDACTION Marie-Ève Ouellet Muna Tojiboeva Raina Young COLOUMNISTS CHRONIQUEURES ET CHRONIQUEUSES Gary Preteau Me Katarina Daniels Preksha Mehta Sofia Watt Sjöström CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE COLLABORATEURS ET COLLABORATRICES Cameron Hogg-Tisshaw, DALA droit autrement / legal alternative, Meghan Albert Special thanks to Prairie Koo for designing the layout. ~ The Quid Novi is published weekly by the students of the Faculty of Law at McGill University. Production is made possible through the direct support of students. All contents copyright ©2022 Quid Novi.
Les opinions exprimées sont propres aux auteurs et ne réflètent pas nécessairement celles de l’équipe du Quid Novi. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the McGill Law Students’ Association or of McGill University. Envoyez vos commentaires ou articles avant jeudi 17h00 à quid.law@mcgill.ca. Toute contribution doit indiquer le nom de l’auteur, son année d’étude ainsi qu’un titre et un sous -titre pour l’article. Les images doivent être soumises séparément. L’article ne sera publié qu’à la discrétion du comité de rédaction, qui basera sa décision sur la politique de rédaction disponible sur notre Facebook @quidnovi.mcgill.
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1 QUID NOVI
CETTE SEMAINE...
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Vol 43 No 12 15 Feb 2022
INSIGHTS
COMMUNAUTÉ
EVENTS
3 | A QUICK WORD FOR
2 | FROM THE GELBER
4 | THE INNOCENCE TALKS
TODAY The Welcome Rise of Wordle
5 | LES CAFÉS PRÈS DE LE FACULTÉ Partie 2
7 | LAW SCHOOL’S TRANS-
The Elusive Yvon Blais
Innocence McGill | March 7–9
4 | INNOCENCE MCGILL Tommy Was Not the Exception
6 | DIALOGUES ON INDIGE-
NOUS PEOPLE’S TERRITORIES: STORIES OF RESILIENCE Session One: Indigenous People’s & Global Challenges | February 17
FORMATIVE IMPACT For Good and Bad?
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Vol 43 ● No 12
FROM THE GELBER The Elusive Yvon Blais
Me Katarina Daniels| Liaison Librarian
While hopefully you are all familiar with the “Key Resources” menu on our Law LibGuide page; there is one resource on this list that often gets overlooked but it actually has some very important titles that many of you need for required course readings.
M. Cumyn, La vente - not a major deterrent but just be aware the citation you’re looking for might not match what you see in your syllabus.
La Référence is a specialized legal database that contains summaries of Quebec case law and doctrine which most importantly includes ebooks published by Yvon Blais.
Say you are trying to find the book “La Preuve Civile” by Catherine Piché The citation you’ll eventually need to click on is “Royer, J.-C., La preuve civile, 6e édition par C. Piché, 2020” - so the information is there, but if you are browsing authors you might be thrown off the “Royer, J.-C.”.
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There are a couple ways in which La Référence can be confusing. The first is that it is owned by Thomson Reuters which also brings us WestLaw Next and its various associated platforms. So one might easily assume that the way to access their Yvon Blais textbook is through WestLaw or their OnePass access. This is not the case and you’re going to be very confused and frustrated if you try. Your McGill access to La Référence has nothing to do with OnePass, all you need to do is follow the link from the LibGuide directly to the La Référence database - there’s no extra sign-in, your McGill authentication is all you need. But the struggle does not end there. Once on La Référence you might be inclined to just search for the title of the book; 90% of the time this will only lead to more confusion. Although I should mention that it did work wonderfully one time. More likely you’ll need to navigate your way through their collections. This means knowing what category your book falls into, which might require some trial and error; it also means spotting the correct title which is not as easy as you might think. From the homepage you click into Doctrine, then (most likely) Collections doctrinales *This is where most assigned course readings are found. 2
Another trick is that they sometimes like to hide books within books (very meta).
Then you’ll be brought to a list of topics which categorize each book into various subjects - hopefully the topic of your book is obvious to you, it sometimes takes me a bit of trial and error.
Before you do any of these things you can also try searching the book in the McGill Library main catalogue. You might get an ebook link that takes you right where you need to go but if not, you know where to go. Et comme toujours...N’hésitez pas à nous contacter si la bibliothèque peut mieux vous soutenir dans vos études. Pour céduler des consultations, ou si vous avez des questions de référence, veuillez contacter: Sonia : sonia.smith@mcgill.ca Ana : ana.rogers-butterworth@mcgill.ca
At this point you are almost there. The final challenge is actually finding your title; because the naming conventions for the books titles are a little confusing, it might look like the volume you need is not there, but it actually is. For example, if you are looking for P.-G. Jobin, La vente, 4th Ed., Yvon Blais, 2017 You would first need to know to go through “contrat”, after this you may browse the list of books looking for “2017” but you won’t find it. Instead you will see Jobin, P.-G. et
Nos assistant.e.s de recherche : law.library@mcgill.ca
A QUICK WORD FOR TODAY The Welcome Rise of Wordle Gary Preteau | 2L
One of the staples of selfhelp social media posts is the importance of a strong morning routine. They tend to preach things like meditation, exercise, journaling, and a handful of other things that make me believe these influencers forgot the length of a morning. I personally feel like my mornings, even if not full of meditation, are acceptably productive. I wake up, have coffee, and, as of a few weeks, play Wordle. The game has likely infected a few of your social media feeds, as people celebrate or lament a bunch of different coloured boxes. For the uninitiated, it’s quite simple. You have six chances to guess a five-letter word and the game notifies you if a letter is correct and in the right position. It is effectively a digitized and far less morbid version of the children’s game “Hangman”. Wordle is far from the first game of its ilk to go viral on social media. Games like Temple Run, Angry Birds, and Flappy Bird all saw massive booms in popularity during the social media age. Wordle is not the first “thinking” game to go viral, as I can remember intense games of Trivia Crack and Word with Friends. Yet Wordle does something these other games do not: it only
gives you one word per day. In doing so, the whole Wordle world is trying to guess the same word. Once you either get or miss the word, you must wait until the next day for continued success or redemption. Some may find this frustrating, but it has been a major reason for my enjoyment of the game. In an Internet age where you can satiate even the largest appetite for entertainment, this forced limitation is refreshing. Rather than binging a game to level up or win as many games as possible, all Wordle offers is a small dose of entertainment during your day, whether it be a morning ritual or a nightcap to a busy day. Only having one word also makes the game eminently shareable. Unlike other games, where all you can share is a high score, Wordle allows you to share a score that is understandable to other players, who played the exact same game as you. There is obvious potential for this to become excessively competitive, but it has not, as far as my experience goes, devolved into that. The daily Wordle Twitter trends are largely just people’s scores and jokes about the game. It may be that Wordle
is simply not consequential enough to cause excessive competitiveness or that the game attracts a community that avoids this type of behaviour. Either way, Wordle dialogue on social media is often a reprieve from much of social media’s more unsavoury discussions. Whilst many companies use Wordle-based jokes to promote themselves, the game itself is devoid of advertisements. There are no ads before your daily word. No premium package or special tokens are pushed onto you. It is just a website with a game. The only special features are a mode that increases difficulty, the choice between a light or dark theme, and a mode adjusting the format to accommodate colour-blindness. This is again a refreshing alternative to many other games, whether mobile or consolebased, that flood users with ads and promotions. It is interesting that a game which is effectively a solo game gained so much popularity in this moment. To an extent, the game would’ve likely been very popular regardless of the pandemic. Yet, I do think Wordle’s explosion makes sense in this strange time between the pandemic’s peak and
“post-pandemic” life. Early pandemic life offered so much time at home, feeding into more bingeable shows and games. Today’s pandemic life has us slowly starting to return to the hustle-and-bustle of life, meaning we cannot devote as much time to some random game everyone else is playing. We do, however, have time for a quick little word game once per day. Combined with the pandemic boom of TikTok, where anything and everything can go viral, this specific time-frame seems uniquely suited for Wordle’s growth. I am sure that within a few weeks or months, Wordle will burn out like the rest of these viral games and apps. The New York Times recently acquired the game and, despite a promise to keep the game initially free, worry remains that the game will end up behind a paywall. The more natural decline of these games, where the fervour slowly melts away with time, will surely knock it off the peak if a paywall does not. Yet, for however long Wordle remains a part of the cultural zeitgeist, I have enjoyed its presence. Lastly, for anyone who was curious: Wordle 235 5/6. Not great, not bad. I will try again tomorrow.
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INNOCENCE MCGILL Tammy Was Not the Exception Innocence McGill
Wrongful convictions are not a new phenomenon and unfortunately, they may always continue to be a purge on the criminal justice system. The case of Tammy Marquardt who was wrongfully convicted of 2nd degree murder of her 2-year-old child in 1995, is a perfect example of the failures we see in the criminal justice system.
in 2005 the AIDWYC asked for a public inquiry into Smith’s work and more broadly into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario. Soon after, the Gouge Inquiry was initiated. The inquiry was tasked with reviewing the conduct of criminally suspicious child deaths for which Smith had performed autopsies. Thankfully, the Gouge Inquiry reviewed Tammy’s case in 2007 and 2008. The inquiry’s findings revealed that Charles Smith’s conclusion in Tammy’s case was unprofessional and misleading. Based on the separate opinions provided through the inquiry, the AIDWYC brought an application for leave to appeal Tammy’s case to the Supreme Court of Canada. Tammy was released in March 2009 pending the decision on her application, which would be granted a month later.
Image taken from https://www.npr.org/2011/06/30/137507575/ the-child-cases-lessons-from-canada
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As summarized by Innocence Canada here, Tammy Marquardt’s ordeal started in 1993 when she checked on her son, Kenneth, only to see him in his crib, tangled in his sheets. Despite the efforts to save him, he tragically had stopped breathing by the time emergency crews arrived. Eventually, an autopsy was conducted by Charles Smith and it was concluded that the death was not accidental. It was based on these findings that Tammy was arrested and charged with the second-degree murder of her son. Tammy’s trial included expert testimony from Charles Smith, and despite testifying to her innocence, Tammy was found guilty on October 24, 1995. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole for 10 years. Tammy appealed her conviction to the Ontario Court of Appeal, but it was ultimately dismissed in early 1998. Her appeals for innocence were halted there, because she was denied further legal aid funding. In the meantime, doubts regarding Charles Smith’s competence were growing as early as 1991 and culminated in the early 2000s. In 2003, the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), now Innocence Canada, started inquiring into cases where Smith had given expert testimony and which had resulted in convictions. By 2004, Tammy had enlisted the help of the AIDWYC for her case. Finally, 4
In the end, the Court of Appeal of Ontario quashed her conviction in 2011 and ordered a new trial. It was at that appearance that Justice Rosenberg stated “[w]e recognize this has been a terrible ordeal for you and it’s tragic it has taken so long to uncover the flawed pathology that led to your conviction in 1995.” The Crown eventually withdrew the charges prior to the commencement of the trial. Although it cannot be said that the miscarriage of justice Tammy endured all those years was only caused by Charles Smith’s testimony, it was undoubtedly pivotal. This led Tammy to be wrongfully incarcerated for 14 years based largely on poor expert evidence. When she was released in 2011, Tammy said in this article that she never imagined she would regain her freedom, thinking that “there is not justice. They’re going to believe him and they’re not going to believe somebody like me.” In addition to the wrongful conviction, there was also the initial trauma of losing Kenneth and her other children due to being incarcerated. Yet, behind this grievous story, lies many, many more tales similar to hers. Charles Smith conducted more than 1,000 child autopsies during his time at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. As recounted by the CBC, it was eventually found that he had made questionable conclusions of foul play in 20 cases – with 13 of them resulting in criminal convictions. Tammy’s case and the other wrongful conviction cases had many commonalities. As it was raised in this article, the convictions relied on junk science and presumed guilt before the trials even began. Smith also had a seemingly unshakeable reputation as an expert witness which made challenging his reports nearly impossible. These miscarriages of justice
also disproportionately targeted vulnerable individuals. Tammy’s story and all the others that arose from the misconduct of Charles Smith undoubtedly shaped the future of expert evidence in Canada. Accordingly, shortcomings like these serve as reminders that not only do we have a responsibility to address our failings, but that organizations like Innocence Canada still play an important role in the criminal justice system. To learn more about wrongful convictions and to hear other engaging stories similar to Tammy’s, such as Maria Shepherd another victim of Charles Smith, Innocence McGill will be hosting its annual conference, The Innocence Talks, March 7-9, 2022. We’d love for you to join us!
LES CAFÉS PRÈSPartieDE LA FACULTÉ 2 Preksha Mehta | 2L
Bonjour tout le monde! Je suis de retour avec les cafés et mes revues. Depuis la dernière fois que j’ai écrit un article à propos de ce sujet, j’ai eu beaucoup du monde qui m’a donné des recommandations pour les prochains cafés je devrais essayer. Cet article est un peu court considérant que nous avons été en confinement – plusieurs cafés étaient fermé et je n’ai pas pu rendre visite. Peu importe, je suis ravie de pouvoir retourner et écrire. Juste une petite note - comme toujours, ces expériences sont les miennes et celles des mes amis. Les critères sont l’ambiance du café, si les boissons et la nourriture goutent bien, et s’il y a la possibilité de pouvoir étudier. Cafe Aunja – Rue Sherbrooke - 4/5 Il s'agit d'un magasin persan vraiment mignon, situé à quelques pas de notre faculté. Il est vrai que vous devrez remonter la colline une fois que vous aurez terminé et que vous devrez retourner au Chancellor Day Hall... Je pense que cela vaut la peine de faire cette randonnée. Quand j'y suis allée avec mon ami, j'ai commandé un London Fog persan et un petit-déjeuner persan classique avec une omelette, des légumes, des pommes de terre et des fruits. L'esthétique générale de cet endroit
est magnifique. Au départ, lorsque vous entrez dans la boutique, vous avez l'impression qu'elle sera petite, mais elle est assez grande et peut être très fréquentée. Le seul reproche que j'ai à faire est que cet endroit peut être très fréquenté le weekend, ce qui peut rendre plus difficile l'étude ou le service. Je suppose que cet endroit ne peut s'empêcher d'être si bon et populaire! Leaves House – Rue de La Montagne – 3.5/5 Ce café est plus proche d'Eaton. Il a été plus difficile pour moi de le localiser, étant donné qu'il y a beaucoup de constructions dans cette zone. Cependant, quand j'y suis arrivé, il était vraiment bien décoré. Cet endroit propose des produits laitiers à base de plantes c'est vraiment bien si vous êtes végétalien ou si vous avez des restrictions alimentaires. L'employé à l'accueil m'a donné d'excellentes recommandations et j'ai pris un très bon latte au noisette et un thé matcha pour ma deuxième boisson.
décalée. Il y a beaucoup de tables pour travailler cependant ! Dans l'ensemble, un endroit vraiment agréable, si vous voulez changer de rythme. Cafe Castel – Rue Peel - 5000000/5 (pour l’art) Je sais que dans ma dernière revue, j’ai déjà parler de ce café. Mais depuis la dernière fois que j’ai rendue visite, je pense qu’il y a eu un changement dans les travailleurs. On y a maintenant le plaisir d’avoir de l’art sur nos lattes. Je pense qu'ils sont incroyablement adorables et qu'ils illuminent nos jours sombres. Voilà quelques exemples de nos boissons :
Je pense que cet endroit est probablement plus beau en été. Les plantes de la boutique avaient l'air un peu tristes et l'esthétique générale était légèrement 5
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https://mcgill.zoom.us/meeting/register/t ZIscuiuqzkqHNL4G35Wj2bLGdJnDnvLbfnu
Opening remarks by Professor Frédéric Mégret and by Simon Filiatrault, co-president of ILADA
About the series
QUID NOVI • 15 FEB 2022
The Dialogues on Indigenous Peoples’ territories: stories of resilience series is an initiative to start conversations on Indigenous Peoples, their realities, endeavours, and positive contributions on issues of global concern. The objective will involve students, scholars, the faculty, civil society, and the larger public in meaningful discussions to foster theoretical and practical engagement to advance Indigenous Peoples’ rights. The dialogues are coordinated by McGill Doctoral Candidate Luisa Castaneda-Quintana, in collaboration with the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and the Indigenous Law Association / Association du Droit Autochtone (ILADA).
About the speaker Anne Nuorgam, Sámi people, Chair, The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) Anne Nuorgam is a long-term Sámi politician and a lawyer who holds a Master of Law degree and is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Lapland. She has been a member of the Sámi Parliament of Finland since 2000. Ms. Nuorgam is the Chair of Veahčanjárga Fishery. She has been working on reconciliation issues and now works as the Head of the Sámi Council’s Human Rights Unit. Ms. Nuorgam is the Chair of the UNPFII, elected in 2019 during the 18th session, and is currently conducting her second mandate.
For more information luisa.castanedaquintana@mail.mcgill.ca
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LAW SCHOOL’S TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACT For Good and Bad?
Sofia Watt Sjöström | 1L
Law school feels transformative. For me, seven months have elapsed – hardly any time at all, in the span of a life. However, as I wrote in my last article, I feel like another version of myself. I read more efficiently, write more concisely, and see legal dimensions everywhere. Putting the pieces of my legal education together, I find I have a greater understanding for the way society works. I see the wheels turning behind the stage: actors, issues, and events, I hardly knew existed before. I feel enlightened – especially, I’ll hasten to add, regarding my own ignorance, as there’s swathes of knowledge left to uncover. Yet I sometimes wonder if this transformation has downsides. Wrapped up in a process of constant change, how can I stay true to myself? How do we, as future jurists, avoid becoming the kinds of lawyers that people hate? I’ll start with the first question. I brought lots of ambitions with me to law school. I’ve always wanted to be an author. I promised myself in taking on this degree, that I wasn’t letting that go. It was just going to have to sit on the backburner for a few years, whilst I pursued my other goal: justice. Without legal training to inform it, this goal was nothing but raw material. How do I stay true to something like that? Now, my old ambitions feel understandably vague. Yet I sometimes admonish myself. I spent so many years determined to write, writing stories and books, convinced I’d someday be a novelist. Those dreams may seem naïve and outdated, now – but, what an insult to my past self! I was utterly devoted to writing fiction. I don’t think I could’ve envisaged myself now, two or three years later, wrapped up in an entirely different kind of literature. I’m not sure I even understood that this literature existed. But, as Virginia Woolf says in The Waves, “I am made and remade continually”. The fact that I still remember that quote – and continue to read novels, albeit far fewer, in my free time – suggests that maybe I haven’t changed so drastically, after all. It can feel like I’ve lost things, or chosen a different route, but I’m not sure that’s true. I don’t really write stories anymore, but I still write – for instance, for the Quid. And someday, even if it’s not for a decade or so, I hope to stumble upon the story that gets me to write fiction again – the story, if I may, for my great novel. Ultimately, law school and these backburner dreams can be reconciled. It’s not a zero-sum game: multiple interests can self-inform and complement each other, rather than detract.
However, I don’t just want to retain my ambitions, but also my values. Before I started Law School, a mentor asked me, “So, you’re going to sell your soul to the Devil?” Obviously, this conclusion was drastic, and could not be further from my aims. Nevertheless, this comment illustrates how some people think about law. To some extent, they might have a point. Even legal scholars raise concerns about the values inculcated by the legal profession.1 We read and talk about this in class – but presumably, being aware of potential elitism does not protect us from its reach. Admissions clearly works hard to ensure the diversity of our student body. It hardly resembles the white, male, hetero, middle-class elite which could be expected in a different time and place. Furthermore, we are confronted with critical perspectives on law at nearly every turn. Yet I still wonder to what extent law school impacts me (or is about to impact me) in normative, and perhaps surreptitious ways. After all, certain understandings are inevitably associated with values. For instance, I came in the pursuit of justice. That hasn’t changed. However, what justice means to me now, is surely different than it was seven months ago. I believe this is due to valuable nuance and depth. There might be limits, too. For example, there might be limits to seeing both sides, when one side feels radically aggrieved. There might be limits to saying, “It depends”, when only one option works for some people. I hope these vague examples illustrate that even some key law student critical perspectives, ie. seeing both sides and saying, “It depends”, may not be value neutral. So, yes, even apparently procedural learning could surreptitiously impart normative substance. Is that the end of the world? Probably not. Will it cause problems? I guess it depends. Please reach out to me if you have similar reservations or ponderings! Since I’m only in 1L, this article might be a tad pre-emptive – but I figure there could be value in putting down these thoughts and starting a discussion, which I then continue later on.
1 I’m thinking for example about Andrew Petter, “Immaculate Deception: The Charter’s Hidden Agenda” (1987), 45 Advocate (Vancouver) 857 at 861—863, which we read recently in class. The fact that it written in the 1980s kind of illustrates my next point.
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Vol 43 ● No 12
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