government

IP strategy is a start but misses the mark on trademarks

Back in April, the federal government committed $85.3 million over five years “to help Canadian businesses, creators, entrepreneurs and innovators understand, protect and access intellectual property through a comprehensive IP Strategy.”

Liberal criminal justice reforms a bold betrayal

The legislation, Bill C-75, was billed as a silver bullet to unclog our courts and bring about a “cultural shift” in the justice system. The changes may be bold, but in this case the proposed reforms will likely result in more delays and more unfair trials.

Liberals’ summer jobs program controversy on reproductive rights overblown

Religious organizations and editorial writers have sown confusion about new eligibility criteria for organizations that want to hire students under the Canada Summer Jobs program.

Trudeau’s Aga Khan vacation, get ready for Duffy part 2

It could be a House of Cards political thriller: A high-ranking elected official and his family are wined and dined by a rich and powerful foreign agent who does business with the government.

My predictions for federal justice reform in 2018

It is always dangerous to prophesize, particularly, as an old Danish proverb warns, about the future. Unfortunately, the temptation to make an educated guess about the future is irresistible.

Federal tax reform debates suffer from the Rashomon effect

The film Rashomon uses a plot device that involves various characters providing subjective, alternative, self-serving and contradictory versions of the same incident. One can see the theoretical application of this plot device to the multi-varied perception of the liberal government’s changes to the taxation of Canadian controlled private corporations.

Sounding the privacy alarm

Should the police be able to track who you call or text and where you are located throughout the day even when you are not suspected of any crime? Most people would not hesitate, I suspect, to say no.

Feds playing the class warfare card is a political miscalculation

It’s disappointing to see Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau engage in a subtle form of “class warfare” against professionals and small-business people given the proposed tax changes that would detrimentally affect lawyers, doctors, farmers and other small-business people who run their businesses through corporations. So, let’s be a bit bold and provocative in the definitions department and call these people “job creators.”

Waiting for action as federal government makes no move to address mandatory minimums

Canadians were told that reforming the justice system was a priority for Jody Wilson-Raybould and the Trudeau government. We were told that evidence-based policy is the new order of business when it comes to crime and punishment. Both Trudeau and Wilson-Raybould identified the use of mandatory minimum sentences and constraints on judicial discretion as priority areas for reform. And then there was no action.

Feds’ proposed private corporation tax changes are an attack on lawyers and business

In 2016, the federal government eliminated ways to maximize the small business deduction. Earlier this year, the government took aim at tax deferral opportunities afforded to certain professionals, including lawyers, by proposing to eliminate billed-basis accounting.

Show me the (laundered) money

Our June issue of Canadian Lawyer has a money theme. We publish our annual Legal Fees Survey in this issue, which we hope will help lawyers and law firms better understand how their fees compare to their competition. Often, lawyers make these business decisions based on little to no data, and our survey is meant to help address that.

Suing leviathans, a.k.a. taxpayers

In case you haven’t noticed, there is a public law litigation boom in Canada currently underway. Hardly a week goes by without a news story indicating some government or public institution is either being sued or has settled a big-ticket piece of litigation.

Reforming CASL: Time to lighten up