The COVID-19 situation is changing every day. Although I have moved from my regular office to my home office in North Vancouver for the time being, I remain fully able to advise and represent my clients, thanks to some neat cloud technology (Clio, Sync, and a few others), and the telephone. If your business has been affected by COVID-19 and you need legal advice, give me a call – I may be able to help.
A few days ago, I posted a few thoughts on Twitter about what the Federal Government and the big banks are doing to support small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The short answer is “a little, but probably not enough”. You can find the Twitter thread here. Below is a slightly edited version.
Years ago, there was a dry cleaner in Cook Street Village in Victoria, on the corner of Cook and McKenzie. It may (or may not) have had a big neon sign like the picture above. Today, the dry cleaner is gone, but the plume of contamination that it left behind is still being cleaned up.
For proceedings in the British Columbia Supreme Court, examinations for discovery typically happen somewhere in B.C. That’s not a requirement though – if the parties agree, an examination can be conducted just about anywhere in the world. But what happens when the person who has to be examined doesn’t live in B.C. and doesn’t necessarily want to travel to B.C. to be examined?
Earlier this year, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (the FBI) asked a federal court in the United States for an order requiring Apple Inc. to “assist” the FBI in hacking the iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernadino shooters.
In essence, the FBI was asking Apple to build what is often called a “backdoor” so that law enforcement agencies can bypass the standard security features on an electronic device and directly access its contents.
My friend and law school colleague Professor Katie Sykes is teaching a fantastic new course at Thompson Rivers University called “L21C – The Law Firm for the 21st Century”. Part of the course is a blog where Professor Sykes, her students, and a variety of others discuss how the legal profession is changing. I contributed a “guest post” this morning – you can read it by clicking here.
In late May, I read this on the website of a cycling magazine:
You should ride your bike for 30 minutes every day. If you’re too busy for that, then you should ride for an hour.
Since I love cycling, and since I was too busy in April and May to ride for half an hour every day, I decided that I needed to get out and ride a bit more. Vancouver’s excellent summer weather and the Tour de France in July provided some additional motivation – not that I really needed any. I’ll get back to posting about law and dispute resolution in August! September! October!
You may recall that last November, the BC Supreme Court ruled in favour of my client, New Nadina Explorations Limited, in a case that involved the interpretation of the phrase “land under cultivation.” Following that decision, the landowner appealed, and this week, the BC Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.
About a year ago, I wrote this piece about Canada’s new anti-spam legislation, often referred to as “CASL.” I mentioned that the new law has strict “unsubscribe” requirements, and that the fines associated with violating the legislation could be as high as $10 million for businesses. It appears we now have our first two reported penalties under CASL – courtesy of a popular dating website, Plenty of Fish (POF), as well as a lesser known company called Compu-Finder.
Earlier this week, Mr. Justice McEwan of the British Columbia Supreme Court released his decision in the case of Community Association of New Yaletown v. Vancouver (City), a case involving a rezoning application, a public hearing, and a land swap deal between the City of Vancouver and Brenhill Developments.
The result of the case is striking: two bylaws quashed, a development permit revoked, and new public hearings ordered. On the ground, there is an active construction site that no longer has a valid development permit, and as for the agreement between Brenhill and the City? That’s a separate (and probably even more complicated) topic for another day.
