Law Commons^™

Virtual Justice: A Complex Portrait Of Canadian Self-Represented Litigant Experiences With Virtual Hearings, Jennifer Leitch, Dayna Cornwall, David Lundgren

National Self Represented Litigants Project

“Virtual Justice: A complex portrait of Canadian self-represented litigant experiences with virtual hearings” is the result of a year-long project generously funded through a grant from the McLachlin Fund, with the goal of understanding the experiences of Canadian self-represented litigants (SRLs) with virtual hearings since the onset of the pandemic, when such processes began to dramatically increase and become much more common.

Using a survey and focus groups, we gathered data from many SRLs with experiences across jurisdictions and types of legal matter. The results reflect the fact that SRLs’ experiences with virtual hearings are, in fact, quite varied. Approximately …

Tracking The Trends Of The Self-Represented Litigant Phenomenon: Data From The National Self-Represented Litigants Project, 2021-2023, Keerthi Chintapalli

National Self Represented Litigants Project

Our latest Self-Represented Litigant (SRL) Intake Report was written by NSRLP Research Assistant Keerthi Chintapalli, with guidance and editing from Executive Director Jennifer Leitch, and Project Manager Dayna Cornwall.

This report collates and analyzes data from Intake Forms completed by SRLs between July 1, 2021, and September 30, 2023, with a total of 268 respondents.

As with previous intake reports published by the NSRLP, the data tracks the core demographics prevalent within the SRL population (gender, income, education, age, ethnicity, language, etc.). The results remain largely consistent with Julie Macfarlane’s original SRL Study (2013), with our previous Intake Reports ( …

Cbdc+: Why Cbdc Proposals Need To Become More Comprehensive To Succeed, Muharem Kianieff

Law Publications

The innovation that is associated with developing a digital currency has provided for a unique opportunity to reconsider how consumers can access payment mechanisms and conduct retail banking following the emergence of new fintech technologies. As such, this is a prescient time for policy makers to reconsider financial reform efforts to leverage new technological developments as a means of making the payments system more efficient.

This paper considers some of the challenges facing Central Banks as they attempt to navigate these pressing challenges. In particular, the paper will assess the relative prospects for success for some of the more popular …

Voices And Visions Of The Future: The Stories Of Self-Represented Litigants Who Are Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence, Madhurie Dhanrajh

National Self Represented Litigants Project

This paper will focus on SRLs who are survivors of IPV and their experiences in family court in Ontario. Section 2 will begin by providing a background about IPV and SRLs in Ontario, narrowing down the focus of this paper to those in family court while explaining alternatives in criminal court. Section 3 will focus on the Woman, centring the experiences of survivors who self-represent. Who they are and why they self-represent are crucial questions to answer before making recommendations on how to improve their situation. Section 4, entitled the Court, will explore the actual court process and how difficult …

Inaccessible Justice: A Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Into The Demographics, Socioeconomics, And Experiences Of Self Represented Litigants, David Lundgren

National Self Represented Litigants Project

This paper centres around a more realistic characterization of who self-represented litigants are and the issues they face. For various social, economic, or geographic reasons, self represented litigants tend to have unmet legal needs, increasing the cost of already burdensome and cumbersome judicial proceedings. These result from an overall lack of legal resources and assistance, low incomes, low education, and low digital literacy rates, often leading to misunderstandings of social and legal needs and court processes. The disadvantaged position of those self-representing leads to power imbalances in the courtroom that reduces their access to justice. Further, the conflation between behaviours …

Everybody To Count For One? Inclusion And Exclusion In Welfare-Consequentialist Public Policy, Noel Semple

Law Publications

Which individuals should count in a welfare-consequentialist analysis of public policy? Some answers to this question are parochial, and others are more inclusive. The most inclusive possible answer is 'everybody to count for one.' In other words, all individuals who are capable of having welfare - including foreigners, the unborn, and non-human animals - should be weighed equally. This article argues that 'who should count' is a question that requires a two-level answer. On the first level, a specification of welfare-consequentialism serves as an ethical ideal, a claim about the attributes that the ideal policy would have. 'Everybody to count …

Locating And Situating Justice Pal: Twail, International Criminal Tribunals, And Judicial Powers, Sujith Xavier

Law Publications

This paper brings forward Justice Pal's dissenting opinion at the Tokyo Tribunal to add to Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) literature on international criminal law and the rules of evidence and procedure. It is part of a TWAIL effort to scrutinize the everyday practices of international prosecutions through procedural and evidentiary rules. By locating and situating Justice Pal's reasoning within the broader academic literature on dissents in international criminal law, it is possible to illustrate how and why Justice Pal's views were obscured as a relevant dissent. From this vantage point, this paper pursues Justice Pal's legacy as …

Examen Du Service D’Accompagnement Du Tribunal De La Sécurité Sociale : Accès À La Justice Administrative Pour Les Communautés Marginalisées, Laverne Jacobs, Sule Tomkinson

Law Publications

Ce rapport présente les constatations, l'analyse et les recommandations d'une étude menée sur le service d’accompagnement du Tribunal fédéral de la sécurité sociale (service d’accompagnement du TSS). Le service d’accompagnement du TSS a été créé en 2019, pour veiller à la bonne information des appelants sans représentation professionnelle ainsi qu’à leur participation sereine aux audiences. L'étude examine l'utilisation du service d’accompagnement pour le Régime de pensions du Canada – Invalidité (RPC – Invalidité) entendue par la Division générale de la sécurité du revenu du Tribunal de la sécurité sociale du Canada.

Cette recherche porte sur l'accès à la justice administrative …

Examining The Social Security Tribunal’S Navigator Service: Access To Administrative Justice For Marginalized Communities, Laverne Jacobs, Sule Tomkinson

Law Publications

An accessible MS Word version of this document is available for download at the bottom of this screen under "Additional files."

This report provides the findings, analysis and recommendations of a research study conducted on the federal Social Security Tribunal’s Navigator Service (SST Navigator Service). The SST Navigator Service was established in 2019 for tribunal users without a professional representative. The study examines the use of the Navigator Service for Canada Pension Plan–Disability (CPP–Disability) appeals heard by the Income Security - General Division of the Social Security Tribunal.

This research study focuses on access to administrative justice on the …

A Modern Copyright Framework For Artificial Intelligence: Ip Scholars' Joint Submission To The Canadian Government Consultation, Pascale Chapdelaine, Carys J. Craig, Bita Amani, Sara Bannerman, Céline Castets-Renard, Lucie Guibault, Gregory R. Hagen, Cameron J. Hutchison, Ariel Katz, Alexandra Mogyoros, Graham J. Reynolds, Anthony D. Rosborough, Teresa Scassa, Myra Tawfik

Law Publications

In response to the Canadian government consultation process on the modernization of the copyright framework launched in the summer 2021, we hereby present our analysis and recommendations concerning the interaction between copyright and artificial intelligence (AI). The recommendations herein reflect the shared opinion of the intellectual property scholars who are signatories to this brief. They are informed by many combined decades of study, teaching, and practice in Canadian and international intellectual property law.

In what follows, we explain:
- The importance of approaching the questions raised in the consultation with a firm commitment to maintaining the appropriate balance of rights …

Study Of The Underrepresentation Of Women And Women-Identifying Ip- Rights Holders, Company Founders And Senior Leadership: Final Report To Innovation Asset Collective, Myra Tawfik, Heather Pratt

Law Publications

In 2018 the Government of Canada (Industry, Science and Economic Development Canada) launched its National IP Strategy with a view to helping “Canadian businesses, creators, entrepreneurs and innovators understand, protect and access intellectual property (IP)” 1 Among its many policy initiatives, it identified the underrepresentation of women and womenidentifying2 and Indigenous entrepreneurs in the IP system as areas of concern.3 Encouraging greater success for these and other excluded groups necessarily means facilitating greater participation in generating, protecting and strategically leveraging their IP. In 2020, the Innovation Asset Collective (IAC), which was established pursuant to the National IP Strategy, issued a …

Struggling For Accommodation: Barriers To Accessibility Faced By Cognitively Disabled Self-Represented Litigants, Shannon Meikle, Silvia Battaglia,, Julie Macfarlane

National Self Represented Litigants Project

This Report examines the experiences of cognitively disabled self-represented litigants (SRLs) who have requested accommodations for their cognitive disabilities.

Cognitively disabled SRLs have increasingly reached out to the NSRLP detailing their frustrations with the accessibility of legal proceedings and the barriers they face in requesting accommodations for their disabilities. In response, we have sought to clarify the challenges faced by these individuals in order to make specific recommendations to Canadian Courts. A secondary goal of the study was to begin a preliminary investigation into the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on cognitively disabled SRLs’ ability to secure accommodations.

The 10 …

Tracking The Trends Of The Self-Represented Litigant Phenomenon: Data From The National Self-Represented Litigants Project, 2019-2021, Julie Macfarlane, Charlotte Sullivan

National Self Represented Litigants Project

The last report covering data collected by the National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP) (information shared by self-represented litigants between January 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019) was published in January 2020, a mere two months before courts across Canada were left scrambling to adapt to a new reality: the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly eighteen months later—after thousands of virtual hearings, new protocols, and public health challenges that both improved and destabilized access to justice in myriad different ways—the NSRLP is bringing forward its findings collected from SRLs from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2021, from a total of 279 respondents

The Ila Study Group On The Role Of Cities In International Law City Report: Windsor, Christopher Waters

Law Publications

Windsor, Ontario is a border city. Windsor sits opposite Detroit, Michigan on the Detroit River, along the Canada-US boundary. Although this is a city report on Windsor, it is impossible to describe the border experience without the centrality of Detroit to Windsor’s self-perception or role in city diplomacy. The border region is integrated economically, culturally and through interpersonal relations. Despite these ties and the obvious potential for transnational sensibility, neither Windsor - nor its big cousin across the Detroit River - has sought a prominent role as international actors. The governance links between the cities are low-key and informal.

Windsor's Cycling History, Christopher Waters

Law Publications

There are several themes which recur in this account. The first is that Windsor has had a lengthy and ongoing cycling presence. Repeatedly there have been efforts to marginalize cycling -and indeed write cycling out of the transportation history of Canada’s “motor city”- but Windsor’s engagement with cycling has been significant and unbroken. Engagement with cycling racing has come close to falling off at times but cycling for utilitarian and recreational reasons never has. Another (near) constant in Windsor’s cycling history is unique to the City’s co-location with Detroit; Windsor’s cycling history has often been a cross-border cycling history. Excitingly, …

Contested Sovereignties: States, Media Platforms, Peoples, And The Regulation Of Media Content And Big Data In The Networked Society, Pascale Chapdelaine, Jaqueline Mcleod Rogers

Law Publications

This article examines the legal and normative foundations of media content regulation in the borderless networked society. We explore the extent to which internet undertakings should be subject to state regulation, in light of Canada’s ongoing debates and legislative reform. We bring a cross-disciplinary perspective (from the subject fields of law; communications studies, in particular McLuhan’s now classic probes; international relations; and technology studies) to enable both policy and language analysis. We apply the concept of sovereignty to states (national cultural and digital sovereignty), media platforms (transnational sovereignty), and citizens (autonomy and personal data sovereignty) to examine the competing dynamics …

Where Is Canada In The South Caucasus?, Christopher Waters

Law Publications

Canada had minimal presence or interest in Georgia—or the other countries of the South Caucasus, Armenia and Azerbaijan—in the waning days of the 20th century. Although having recognized all three countries after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, no Canadian embassies were established in the region, high-level diplomatic visits were rare, and economic or cultural outreach was minimal.

The Annotated Accessible Canada Act - Complete Text, Laverne Jacobs, Martin Anderson, Rachel Rohr, Tom Perry

Law Publications

An accessible MS Word version of this document as well as related tables are available for download at the bottom of this screen under "Additional files".

The Act to ensure a barrier-free Canada, S.C. 2019, c. 10, which is commonly known as the Accessible Canada Act (ACA) came into force on July 11, 2019. It is Canada’s first piece of federal legislation focusing on accessibility for persons with disabilities.

As a piece of federal legislation, the ACA regulates accessibility for those sectors of the economy that fall under federal jurisdiction pursuant to s. 91 of the Constitution Act …

Fair Dealing For The Purpose Of Education: York University V The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, Pascale Chapdelaine

Law Publications

In York University v The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (2020), the Federal Court of Appeal was confronted with two issues at the heart of ongoing debates in Canadian copyright law. First, whether tariffs of copyright collective societies are mandatory. Second, and the main focus of this case comment, how should the fair dealing doctrine be interpreted with respect to the purpose of education. The Federal Court of Appeal upheld the Federal Court decision that York University Fair dealing Guidelines did not meet the fair dealing requirements in copyright law. This case comment highlights how the Federal Court and Federal Court …

Pintea V Johns: An Updated Commentary, Anjanee Naidu, Julie Macfarlane

National Self Represented Litigants Project

Almost 4 years have passed since the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its judgment in Pintea v. Johns. The National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP) published a report in October 2018 which examined the first 18 months of caselaw following this landmark decision. The 2018 report examined the courts’ application of Pintea, cases that distinguished Pintea, and the limitations on the Pintea decisions. Since 2018, the Westlaw database shows that there have been an additional 65 cases citing Pintea. This updated report aims to clarify the limitations on Pintea, and will also examine broad trends in how the courts have both …

Good Enough For Government Work? Life-Evaluation And Public Policy, Noel Semple

Law Publications

A life-evaluation question asks a person to quantify his or her overall satisfaction with life, at the time when the question is asked. If public policy seeks to make individuals’ lives better, does it follow that changes in aggregate life-evaluations track policy success? This paper argues that life-evaluation is a practical and philosophically sound way to measure and predict welfare for the purpose of analyzing policy options. This is illustrated by the successful argument for expanding state-funded mental health services in the United Kingdom. However, life-evaluations sometimes fail to adequately measure individual welfare. Policy analysts therefore must sometimes inquire into …

Indigenous Environmental Rights And Sustainable Development: Lessons From Totonicapán In Guatemala, Patricia Galvao-Ferreira, Mario Mancilla

Law Publications

The chapter argues that in order to contribute to a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of the many nuances of the social dimension of sustainable development, IEL scholars should engage more systematically with emerging national and international research on Indigenous alternative perspectives on environmental governance. The approach highlighted here is distinct from existing discussions related to environmental justice and Indigenous peoples, which highlights the disproportionate environmental impacts Indigenous peoples suffer as a racialized social group, because of their close cultural and existential interaction with the environment. The aim is to move from treating Indigenous peoples as victims of environmental racism, to …

Climate Change Class Actions In Canada, Jasminka Kalajdzic

Law Publications

Climate justice activists are increasingly looking to litigation to produce the policy changes that have eluded them in the political process. Without a codified right to a clean environment, litigants in jurisdictions like Canada must use a human rights framework to advance their cause. Recent successes in Charter class actions suggest that it is now possible to pursue constitutional damages for climate change harms. As Canadian advocates join with their international counterparts in deploying a litigation strategy, Canada's robust class action procedure may be a useful addition in the pursuit of collective climate justice. This article proceeds in four parts. …

A Modern Copyright Framework For The Internet Of Things (Iot): Intellectual Property Scholars' Joint Submission To The Canadian Government Consultation, Pascale Chapdelaine, Anthony D. Rosborough, Aaron Perzanowski, Bita Amani, Sara Bannerman, Carys J. Craig, Lucie Guibault, Cameron J. Hutchison, Ariel Katz, Alexandra Mogyoros, Graham J. Reynolds, Teresa Scassa, Myra Tawfik

Law Publications

In response to the Canadian government consultation process on the modernization of the copyright framework launched in the summer 2021, we hereby present our analysis and recommendations concerning the interaction between copyright and the Internet of Things (IoT). The recommendations herein reflect the shared opinion of the intellectual property scholars who are signatories to this brief. They are informed by many combined decades of study, teaching, and practice in Canadian, US, and international intellectual property law.

In what follows, we explain:

•The importance of approaching the questions raised in the consultation with a firm commitment to maintaining the appropriate balance …

The Annotated Accessible Canada Act - Excerpt, Laverne Jacobs, Martin Anderson, Rachel Rohr, Tom Perry

Law Publications

An accessible MS Word version of this document is available for download at the bottom of this screen under "Additional files".

The Act to ensure a barrier-free Canada, S.C. 2019, c. 10, which is commonly known as the Accessible Canada Act (ACA) came into force on July 11, 2019. It is Canada’s first piece of federal legislation focusing on accessibility for persons with disabilities.

As a piece of federal legislation, the ACA regulates accessibility for those sectors of the economy that fall under federal jurisdiction pursuant to s. 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867. This includes …

The State Giveth And Taketh Away: Public Sector Labour Law, The Legitimacy Of The Legislative Override Power And Constitutional Freedom Of Association In Canada, Claire Mumme

Law Publications

This article investigates the role of courts and legislatures in the design and enforcement of labour laws in the context of public sector employment. It does so by focusing on government employers’ legislative ability to temporarily override public sector labour rights, or to displace outcomes achieved under their processes. This issue is analysed through a case study of Canada, a country which offers constitutional protections for freedom of association, but which is also constructing a highly deferential approach to the constitutional review of override statutes. As a result of this deference, governments have been afforded significant leeway in the use …

Algorithmic Personalized Pricing, Pascale Chapdelaine

Law Publications

Price is an essential term at the heart of supplier-consumer transactions and relationships increasingly taking place in “micro-marketplace chambers,” where points of comparison with similar relevant products may be difficult to discern and time-consuming to make. This article critically reviews recent legal and economic academic literature, policy reports on algorithmic personalized pricing (i.e. setting prices according to consumers’ personal characteristics to target their willingness to pay), as well as recent developments in privacy regulation, competition law, and policy discourse, to derive the guiding norms that should inform the regulation of this practice, predominantly from a consumer protection perspective. Looking more …

Welfare-Consequentialism: A Vaccine For Populism?, Noel Semple

Law Publications

This article is about two ideologies. Welfare-consequentialism holds that government should adopt the policies that can rationally be expected to maximise aggregate welfare. Populism holds that society is divided into a pure people and a corrupt elite, and asserts that public policy should express the general will of the people. The responses of world governments to the coronavirus pandemic have clearly illustrated the contrast between these ideologies, and the danger that populist government poses to human wellbeing. The article argues that welfare-consequentialism offers a vaccine for populism. First, it rebuts populism’s claims about who government is for and what it …

Access Without Fear: A Report On The Implications Of An Awf Policy In Windsor, Ontario For Frontline Service Workers, Gemma Smyth, Rawan Hussein, Erli Bogdani, Zara Mercer, Taiwo Onabolu, Mbonisi Zikhali

Law Publications

This report is aimed at people working in, directing or otherwise administering services to persons without status. It summarises the barriers and challenges that frontline service workers reported when attempting to support persons without status as well as recommendations gleaned from interviews. While fundamental change to immigration policy would be required to fully respond to the needs of persons without status, the researchers took a “harm reduction” approach, focusing on what agencies and policy makers might do to improve services without a restrictive legal paradigm. In sum, we found strong support from frontline service workers for an AWF policy. While …

Healthcare Avoidance Due To Anticipated Discrimination Among Transgender People: A Call To Create Trans-Affirmative Environments, Luisa Kcomt, Kevin M. Gorey, Betty Jo Barrett, Sean Esteban Mccabe

Social Work Publications

Transgender people encounter interpersonal and structural barriers to healthcare access that contribute to their postponement or avoidance of healthcare, which can lead to poor physical and mental health outcomes. Using the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, this study examined avoidance of healthcare due to anticipated discrimination among transgender adults aged 25 to 64 (N ¼ 19,157). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to test whether gender identity/expression, socio-demographic, and transgender-specific factors were associated with healthcare avoidance. Almost one-quarter of the sample (22.8%) avoided healthcare due to anticipated discrimination. Transgender men had increased odds of healthcare avoidance (AOR ¼ 1.32, 95% CI …