University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog

Plagiarism off campus

As a warning to all of you out there with at this point still unpublished but available writing (like theses and dissertations) the following message was posted to a Canadian History list-serv:

Dr. Ken Paulsen was in Nova Scotia last week on vacation and by chance in a book store found a new book titled Grass Roots of Lunenburg: Cultural Change, Adaptation, and Continuity by Roger Demone. When Ken took a closer look at the book, he was horrified to discover that the contents were for the most part his own 1996 doctoral dissertation, word for word. He contacted the printer, a vanity press in the USA, and through them Demone and, after legal advice, he requested that the ISBN be withdrawn and that ALL copies including electronic be collected and destroyed. Roger has handed over about 2/3rd of the print run.

As you may know, Dr. Paulsen has generously deposited copies of his dissertation at the South Shore Genealogical Society in Lunenburg, Archives & Records Management in Halifax and other NS locations. He even gave a copy
to Demone sometime ago when he was a history teacher who requested it for use in the classroom.

If you respect the work of Ken Paulsen (and the laws of Canada and the United States!) and have purchased a copy of _Grass Roots of Lunenburg_, I urge you to do the right thing and send the book to Ken (contact info through his webpage).

Deborah Trask
Manager
Mahone Bay Settlers Museum

Alas, what happened to Ken here is not unique. Some of the popular history of the Canadian West published in the 1970s was largely cribbed and lifted from a student's graduate work. And sometimes the original authors don't succeed in getting items pulled or their work acknowledged.

The Israeli people have spoken

The people of Israel have spoken again, electing the hoopoe as their national bird in honour of the country's 6oth birthday celebrations. President Shimon Peres announced the results of the polls today, crowning the bird in an official ceremony (you can see the bird's crown in the picture).

The national bird selection process was sponsored by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. The hoopoe is not an endangered species, perhaps due to the conservation measures announced in Leviticus 11, where the hoopoe is included in a list of unholy birds, which are not to be eaten, together with the vulture, the heron, and the bat (!)

The Gettysburg Address, in PowerPoint

Having swapped a few frustrated emails with me yesterday over my refusal to use PowerPoint for an upcoming CLE presentation in Vancouver (I don't like it, and I won't use it), the good-natured folks at CLE (who are still not going to get a PowerPoint presentation from me) sent me the Gettysburg Address in PowerPoint. 

Closing of Canadian Minds

Ah that bastion of leftist fascism - York University now seeks to ban student groups based on what they advocate, because there is no room at York for divergent views!

Lurn English - Morans!

Priceless pic - via Gawker.

Politics Explained

FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.

FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.

DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.

LIBERTARIAN/ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

(Source: Steve Jackson)

Swami says...

Detroit in a 7 game classic.

Handgun or Gas Card?

According to this story, a car dealership in Missouri is running a "Buy a Car, Get a Handgun or  Gas Card" promotion. Car sales are up, and every buyer has chosen the handgun, "except one guy from Canada and one old guy."

Here's the kicker - the owner of the dealership says this was inspired by Obama's "Midwest clinging to guns and bibles" gaffe. I disagree. It is inspired by the special brand of freedom that exists in countries like ours.

My new haircut - Ron Paul Verson

For those of you familiar with the "My New Haircut" video, the Ron Paul spoof is quite funny. For those of you who haven't watched the original one, here is the original "My New Haircut" (warning: lots of foul and vulgar language):

Here is the Ron Paul version (warning: lots of foul and vulgar language):

Even polygamists have rights

even in Texas - so rules a Texas Appellate Court (Via Volokh). Over at Volokh, Eugene discusses why the case isn't necessarily over, putting aside an appeal by the state to its Supreme Court.

Dog Sniffs and the Supremes

By James Stribopoulos (originally posted at The Court )

On May 1st the Supreme Court of Canada released judgments in a pair of cases involving the use of drug sniffing dogs by police: R. v. Kang-Brown, 2008 SCC 18 and R. v. A.M., 2008 SCC 19. These decisions received considerable media attention, mostly for what they had to say about the constitutionality of police employing drug sniffing dogs. Lost in the media coverage, which was confused by the sheer length of the Court's opinions and the fact that the justices issued four separate sets of reasons in each case, was a larger controversy regarding the role of the Supreme Court in the Charter era when it comes to the creation of new police powers. Before exploring that disagreement, it is helpful to have a more definite sense of what the SCC held with respect to the use of drug sniffing dogs. Dogs "Search" When they Sniff for Narcotics Most importantly, all nine justices (essentially) agreed that when a police dog trained to sniff out narcotics focuses its olfactory powers on an individual's knapsack or luggage, the target's reasonable privacy expectations are encroached upon. In other words, this constitutes a "search" for s. 8 Charter purposes, a conclusion that triggers the "reasonableness" requirements of the guarantee. This conclusion may seem obvious to many readers. After all, if the dog isn't "searching" when it is "sniffing" at someone's bag what is the point of the sniff? Amazingly, however, the answer did not seem entirely clear cut as these two cases made their way before the SCC. This was because the United States Supreme Court long ago decided that dog sniffs do not constitute a "search" for Fourth Amendment purposes. In United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 707 (1983) the USSC came to this conclusion because, as Justice O'Connor explained for the majority:

...the sniff discloses only the presence or absence of narcotics, a contraband item. Thus, despite the fact that the sniff tells the authorities something about the contents of the luggage, the information obtained is limited. This limited disclosure also ensures that the owner of the property is not subjected to the embarrassment and inconvenience entailed in less discriminate and more intrusive investigative methods. In these respects, the canine sniff is sui generis. We are aware of no other investigative procedure that is so limited both in the manner in which the information is obtained and in the content of the information revealed by the procedure. Therefore, we conclude that the particular course of investigation that the agents intended to pursue here -- exposure of respondent's luggage, which was located in a public place, to a trained canine -- did not constitute a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.

Given this, there was concern that our top court might come to the same conclusion.

Friday Poetry: Letter to a friend searching for the meaning of life

...they went in search of "God"
tethered to centuries of false hopes
they took up residence in that ancient abyss
shallower than the mounds of will
protruding from their souls
forgetting only
that the stench of decaying friends
is much stronger than defiance

refrain: man's quest for meaning
often reveals the lie that the lier was told by that other lier

and then there was the search party
wondering whose side they were on
they who had consumed entrails of pigs
had puffed on the power of the rod
are we not men too, they ask
do we not want to be the men we are, they moan
can we not know if we are the men we are, they cry
will not knowing the men we are mean we know the men we are, they say
and so forth till it opiates their senses
then comes release, tension, nightmares, and booze
and an unrelenting new day

add refrain here.

Judicial Salaries

Should judicial salaries go up further? Apparently, they don't according to a new study that shows that 70% of judges see an increase in their salaries once they are appointed to the bench.

Libertarian Party Convention

If you are in the Edmonton area this coming weekend, I would recommend attending the Libertarain Party convention. The party will be selecting its leader, but more importantly (from my perspective), there will be a great set of speakers (excluding yours truly) who will talk on a variety of subjects from free trade to drug legaliztion to secuirty and liberty.  The complete agenda is now up and you can access it here.

Pinker on Dignity

I could not resist posting a link to this essay from my new favorite philosopher, Steven Pinker. A must read, if only to see him take on Kass. The arguments canvassed by Pinker should be familiar to anyone who follows our work on the dignity discourse in the law and ethics of biomedicine (I can hit you up with a reading list if you so wish). My favorite paragraph from the piece:

"First, dignity is relative. One doesn't have to be a scientific or moral relativist to notice that ascriptions of dignity vary radically with the time, place, and beholder. In olden days, a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking. We chuckle at the photographs of Victorians in starched collars and wool suits hiking in the woods on a sweltering day, or at the Brahmins and patriarchs of countless societies who consider it beneath their dignity to pick up a dish or play with a child. Thorstein Veblen wrote of a French king who considered it beneath his dignity to move his throne back from the fireplace, and one night roasted to death when his attendant failed to show up. Kass finds other people licking an ice-cream cone to be shamefully undignified; I have no problem with it."

Arthur Kroeger RIP

Back in the day, the Federal civil service attracted men and women of high clibre and amazing intellect. One such person, Arthur Kroeger passed away. I had the pleasure of having lunch with him over 15 years ago when he presented the Hanson lecture here at the University. Those in Alberta will also know that he was from Hannah, AB and was a UofA alumni, before going off to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship.

His brother Henry Kroeger was an MLA in the Alberta Legislature from 1979 to 1987 when he passed away. The by-election for his riding was hotly contested, because the Western Canada Concept  party was expected to win in protest of the ruling Tories and dissatisfaction with the Federal Tories (recall this is when the Reform party is starting). Ultimately the riding was won by Shirley McClellan, who went on to become the Deputy Premier of Alberta.

With his passing away and Simon Reisman's passing away about two months ago, two of our country's greatest civil servants are no longer with us.

Poetry: Tales of Rebirth, First Stanza

Never see yourself through others’ eyes
Elena used to say
but she lived alone with six grey-skinned cats
and everyone called her a witch

then one day
on the day the saviour went to heaven
and there was merriment in the village
she put on her old straw hat
waded through the perfumery of chicken stew and starch
to take her place in a new order

the wincers winced
the holy barfed
the fearful feared…

Brown the New Swami

I have become the Hillary Clinton of playoff hockey picks (the first and second rounds must be included) to Russ's Obama (sorry Russ, this analogy must be very hard for you) who scored 4-4 in the last round (the only round that counts). Eric is Mike Dukakis (but he is not even in the race....exactly!)

I am 9-3; Russ is 8-4; and Eric is 7-5 but who's counting (oh yeah, I am). The overall swami predicts

P is for Pittsburgh

D is for Detroit

(uncharacteristically unadventurous picks)

Gentlemen?

iPhone comes to Canada

Warning: may contain foul language.

Shameless Plug

Did you know that Canada has a Libertarian Party! Well they are having their convention in less than two weeks here in Edmonton on May 17th. They will also be having a Freedom Fair, where I will be speaking with Lorne Gunter on the question of Liberty v. Security.