University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog

J.J. (Hamish) Gow, 1918-2009

I was saddened to learn yesterday of the passing of former Professor, British Columbia County Court Justice and British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Hamish Gow.  He was once extolled by the late, great Professor Terry Wuester as "the full-meal deal" - meaning, that Justice Gow had managed to build a legal career that embraced all branches of the profession:  practicing, judicial, and academic.  He remained active well into his 80's (in fact, I appeared before him when he sat as an arbitrator on a matter around 7 years ago).  He was perceptive, had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the common law, pithy in his expression, generous in his counsel to young lawyers and an uncommon gentleman.  (He also delivered absolutely the best Ode to a Haggis I have ever seen).

One non-legal but I think significant biographical note about Justice Hamish Gow:  he was captured at Dunkirk, and spent tne ensuing five years as a P.O.W.  He also attempted numerous escapes, only to find himself in even less happy circumstances each time.  In a pensive moment, he once told me that he would not have survived the prison camps were it not for the Red Cross.

Gus am bris an la ...

Gender-neutral Language (or even ideas) in Judicial Opinion

Consider this passage from Justice La Forest's dissenting judgment in Dagg v. Canada (Minister of Finance) (he is commenting on possible reasons why it may not be good policy to allow access to government records about employees' office visits during non-work hours).

"Consider the case of an employee, physically abused by her spouse, who is permitted by management to work after normal working hours in order to avoid detection and harassment. Would this individual consider the disclosure of her sign-in logs to be innocuous?"

Thoughts?

My (law) alma mater

George Mason University elected a drag-queen as the homecoming queen. From the state that used to ban inter-racial marriages, Virginia, is sure changing.

Oklahoma Gun Statute Upheld

What happens when you mix the second amendment, the takings clause, and the Occuptaional Health and Safety Act? You get this case from the Tenth Circuit that upheld the right of Oklahoma citizens to keep and bear arms to and from work. Employers were not happy that their employees were storing their guns in their parked vehicles. I am not sure where I stand on this - after all, isn't it the right of a private property owner to keep whoever they want off their property. Then again, the state mandates all sorts of restrictions on property owners. The Tenth Circuit took the latter view, and upheld the statute.

More Lawyers beware

The economy isn't sparing our Province, and so with that in mind, here is a cautionary tale from south of the border: clients will sue their lawyers and apparently the suits are getting nastier.  And if that wasn't bad enough, it looks like there is a correlation between your success as a lawyer and your level of depression.

Lawyers beware

A lawyer apparently assisted his client to engage in what is now turning out to be mortgage fraud. His excuse that he didn't think what he was doing wasn't criminal didn't help him either.  Those who followed the Conrad Black trial should recall that one of the four convicted was Hollinger's lawyer who simply prepared the documents that later led to Black's conviction. This trend of convicting lawyers is on the rise in the US, so don't be shocked if we start seeing more of these up here.

Cool bulbs = more GHGs

Terry O'Neill reports this story about how the new lightbulbs that the state has mandated we all use actually cause more greenhouse gases.

More baseball Updates

Roberto Alomar's current girlfriend refutes the allegations made by his ex-girlefriend. Also a judge dismisses the bulk of Roger Clemens case against his accuser (via Bashman).

Baseball roundup

Miguel Tejada pleads guilty to charges he lied to Congress when testifying about steroid use. Because, of course, Congress has nothing better to do than to solve the problem of steroids in baseball. Roger Clemens may also be facing a fate similar to Tejada and become another victim of a legislative body acting as an activist court.

Finally, I have no idea what to make of this story regarding Roberto Alomar, except that he was great second baseman, though quite unprofessional at times. (h/t Drudge)

Autism vaccine linked rejected

So says the Court of Federal Claims in the United States. The court hears cases where claims are being made against the U.S. federal government.  I am not sure if this will end the debate.  This story about how a researcher who tried to show such a link faked the data may also end the discussion, but I also doubt it. (h/t Point of Law)

Innis Christie

Innis Christie, a former Professor of Law and Dean at Dalhousie Law School, died earlier this week in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Professor Christie was a respected and accomplished scholar, mediator-arbitrator, and public servant. I am fortunate to say that he was also my teacher. Fate placed me in his small group for first-year contracts and, after I stopped being terrified, I learned to love his inquisitive style, mildly gruff manner, and deep and infectious enthusiasms for whatever it was he happened to be teaching. I happily followed Professor Christie into Labour Law in second year, and Professional Responsibility in third. He was the very best of law teachers: he encouraged, but never coddled; he challenged, but always to instill that most crucial of virtues for the legal mind – to think. I suspect I would not be teaching today if not for him. I wish I could thank him for that.

New AB human rights commissioner named

Looks like the Alberta government has just released the name of the new chief of our Human Rights and Citizenship Commission: David Blair Mason, Q.C., a graduate of the University of Alberta's law faculty.  

Here's the government's media release and the Sheldon Chumir Foundation's thoughtful, recently released report on Alberta's human rights regime, entitled Toward Equal Opportunity for all Albertans.  

Miley in Trouble again

I know she is only 16, but she can't stay out of trouble. At this rate, only Hillary Duff has a clean record.

Dark Knight is Dark

We interrup the not-so continuous legal content on this blog to bring this vulgar profanity laced tirade by Christian Bale! (h/t Drudge) The culture of entitlement is unbelievable. After all, do I go off on students who walk in late to my class. Wait a second, that hasn't happened yet. Ok - never mind.