As a law student I’ve had the opportunity to read my fair share of judgments over the last two years. For the most part they tend to be relatively juicy as they have been picked out by my professors as seminal cases in Canadian jurisprudence and therefore at the very least are worth reading for the precedent that they set. Other cases are read for critical reasons in order to hone our analytic skills. 

One thing that most of these cases have in common is that although they are generally written well from a legal point of view, they tend to be quite lengthy (thank heavens for headnotes) and generally dry. Although judges are hired not necessarily for their writing but for their decision making and reasoning skills, would it really hurt judges to spice up their (sometimes extremely) lengthy judgments with some wit or creativity?

I know I know, the law is meant to be predictable, and any word that a judge writes could possibly be argued as precedent for future cases and therefore judges must be careful and precise in their language. I’d just like to see a bit more of a happy medium. I’d like to propose that judges, at the very least, in reciting the facts of a case keep the reader’s sanity in mind and write them with a little panache. In reciting the law, sure, go ahead with ensuring that the correct precedent is set with clear, precise, language, but perhaps if judges had a bit more fun writing their judgments, they could at least gain a bit more favour with their clerks and the public.

This post is inspired by Justice O’Donnell of the Ontario Court of Justice whose hilarious decision (R v Duncan, 2013 ONCJ 160.) [1] and even more humorous footnotes put a serious smile on my face - a first for reading a case about a routine traffic stop. 

The judgment begins:

““You should get out of town”, the man said.

And so began the journey that resulted in my path intersecting with Matthew Duncan’s path.  And thence to these reasons, with a slight detour through territory that might have confused Lewis Carroll.”

One notable quote from the judgment: 

It has been said that, given enough time, ten thousand monkeys with typewriters [2] would probably eventually replicate the collected works of William Shakespeare.  Sadly, when human beings are let loose with computers and internet access, their work product does not necessarily compare favourably to the aforementioned monkeys with typewriters.

Although the law being decided in the case is routine and boring, it nonetheless makes for a riveting read because of Justice O’Donnell’s flair, wit, and incredibly satisfying writing style.

Here’s hoping this becomes a trend and judges make my chosen career path slightly more interesting.

——-

[1] The judgment can be accessed for free on CanLII at: http://canlii.ca/t/fwsm0

[2] The learned Justice added this footnote to the word “typewriters”: 

For readers under the age of thirty or so, the “typewriter” was a mechanical device used for creating documents that pre-dated the computer and lacked some of the computer’s more annoying characteristics, in particular the computer’s facilitation of “cutting and pasting”, which is undoubtedly one of the four horsemen of the modern apocalypse and which has cost many trees their lives and many lawyers and judges their eyesight.

So I had this super long totally awesome post all ready to go about my family’s trip to California over Winter Break and it got deleted right as I was about to post it. So here goes attempt number two with all the same photos and probably slightly less witty commentary.

After a long semester of work it was really great that the family decided to endeavour (more on that later) down to California. It was my sister’s first time on the West coast and my first time to this great state. We went to San Fransisco and Los Angeles with a stop off in Anaheim in between (not really between though).

San Fransisco is incredibly beautiful and really a city that is rich in culture. We did everything from riding the cable car from Union Square to Fisherman’s Wharf (though it isn’t really a wharf because there is no river - as I discussed in a post a wrote this summer in London), to seeing the majestic redwoods of Muir Forest.

Spending the afternoon on Alcatraz island was particularly interesting. I didn’t know much about its history aside from what I knew from watching the fantastic Sean Connery and Nick Cage movie, The Rock. The Island was originally a fortress protecting the bay and was later occupied by Native Americans (though even some of them for whatever reason call themselves Indians… that seems odd to me as we don’t use the term in Canada to refer to people of Aboriginal descent…).

The Golden Gate bridge was especially beautiful and we were lucky that it wasn’t so foggy that we could not see it - rather, we had just the right amount of fog to make pictures look pretty!

As I said above, the Muir Forest was fantastic. As we were hiking around, a Redwood tree fell only a few hundred meters ahead of us and when we got there the path was completely impassable as a result - those trees are huge. However, we were able to see into the tree and see that indeed the wood is red! It was quite the sight and the park rangers were very glad no one was injured - apparently this is quite a rare event to have a tree fall in a forest and people actually there to hear it.

As we left San Fransisco we headed to heaven aka Cupertino for a quick stop by Apple HQ.

We then drove down to the Montarea Aquarium which was super neat and a really great photography challenge.

Following the aquarium, we drove down 17 Mile Drive through Route 1 all the way to LA (quite the drive). Since it was raining outside and gross, I didn’t take too many photos unfortunately.

We then visited the happiest place on earth, Disneyland! Here’s the inside of Splash Mountain because the parents weren’t willing to go on it leaving my sister and I to do all the ‘thrill’ rides.

We also went on holiday themed it’s a small world multiple times which was slightly less annoying because jingle bells and deck the halls were also mixed into the normal song. I also got a disney cast member to admit that indeed the song does get annoying after hearing it a million times while working on the ride. Victory! Finally, we saw the wonderfully cheery disney parade - here’s my sister’s favourite character:

After Disney we went to LA in ernest - we visited all the normal Hollywood sites like the Chinese theater, walk of fame, and the sign. We also went to Warner Brothers studio to visit Leonard Sheldon and Pennys’ apartments. Unfortunately, they weren’t there because the apartment was missing a wall - how strange. It was replaced by film cameras. 

Honestly though, it was very interesting learning how shows are filmed and that dramas are filmed totally differently from sitcoms. We visited all the famous towns in America that are featured on tons of TV shows and films, all without even leaving the lot!

Finally we went to the California Science Center to visit the newly arrived Space shuttle Endeavour! It was really great seeing such a cool artifact of humanity alongside Gemini, Mercury, and Apollo craft.

Guess what this part is:

Yep, a tiny part of the massive engine!

The last highlight of our couple weeks in California was a bit of beach time. Unfortunately it was a bit too cold to go in the water - only dad was brave enough to lose feeling in his feet. I just decided to stay out and take pictures of pretty things.

Well that’s all for my second time around blogging this trip. Here’s hoping that the post posts. Back to school tomorrow for another semester!

This semester I have been treated to an amazing array of fantastic speakers from all sorts of different fields - moreso than ever before.

After attending my sixth talk this semester it became clear how lucky I was to be in the presence of such fantastic minds.

In chronological order, the following people have inspired me in some way shape or form this semester:

Alan Young

Chief Justice McLachlin

Christopher Browning

Dr. Kang (developer of Western’s Phase II Trial HIV/AIDS vaccine)

Bill Nye (The Science Guy)

Senator Romeo Dallaire (Ret. General)

Unfortunately I’ve been a bit too busy to write up my experiences hearing Dr. Browning, Dr. Kang, Bill Nye or Senator Dallaire, however I must say that each of them really inspired me to continue my studies, curiosity and learning about a wide variety of topics.

Dr. Browning wrote one of the most important books about the perpetrators of the Holocaust called “Ordinary Men”. The title implies what his thesis is and what he wrote is widely regarded amongst Holocaust historians as correct. His speech about collective memories of Holocaust Survivors was very interesting. I was lucky that I was able to get Dr. Browning to sign my copy of Ordinary Men in person. I will certainly treasure the book now even more.

Dr. Kang is a Western science professor who is developing a vaccine for HIV and Hep. C. His take home message is that hard work is the key to success and his story of how he came on a boat from Korea really made us all realize how lucky we are. I also realized how stupid I was as much of his talk about the technical intricacies of this vaccine were a bit over my head.

Bill Nye spoke about his obsession with sundials (one of his is on a mars rover) and how we need to fight climate change. Bill spoke about many ideas that I already had read about it Jeremy Rifkin’s ”The Third Industrial Revolution” so it was nice to see Bill Nye onboard with exactly the same vision. I was able to ask Bill during the Q & A period about his favourite memories from “The Science Guy” show. He asked what my favourite memory was and we discussed the enormity of space for a few seconds.

Romeo Dallaire spoke about child soldiers and about how we can move towards saving the world - specifically failed states in turmoil not by throwing money at them but by getting involved in NGO’s and working on the ground. These are wars of attrition but Senator Dallaire believes that within a couple hundred years we will be able to bring peace and prosperity to the entire world and ensure that everyone will have equal rights as humans. It was an honour to shake his hand after his speech and welcome him to the law school.

A few weeks ago I was asked, as a member of the Distinguished Speakers Committee, to introduce Chief Justice Mclachlin of the Supreme Court of Canada. Since then, I have been struggling as to how to introduce her adequately beyond just her biography. Anyways, I will talk less about me and more about her. Luckily I was only given 2 minutes or so to introduce her and then the Chief Justice took the podium.

Chief Justice Mclachlin spoke about the Supreme Court, how it operates, and how the judges work together. After reading “The Presidents Club” this summer, I felt as though the Chief Justice was giving us an inside view into the Supreme Court in a similar fashion.

The highlight of the talk for me was the opportunity to ask Chief Justice Mclachlin questions. She got some questions she couldn’t really answer as a sitting justice, and a few non-law students asked questions that were a bit out of left field, but Chief Justice Mclachlin took it all on good stride and stood as an excellent example of what a Supreme Court Justice should stand for - calm, strong, confident, and most of all, funny! She answered all the questions that she could with candour. I personally asked her if she had any advice for a law student just as she had asked Justice McIntire when he retired from the court. That isn’t to say that I’m joining the Supreme Court any time soon but I just wanted to hear what she would advise a young law student as the Chief Justice. Anyways, she answered that finding and maintaining a passion for the work that you do is the most important thing and I couldn’t agree with her more. Such great advice.

It is such an honour being in the presence of arguably the most important person in the profession that I intend to enter in a few years and am currently studying towards. I read things that she (or her clerks on her behalf) has written week-in-week-out. 

As a member of the Distinguished Speaker Series Committee, I have the privilege of welcoming many important speakers to Western Law. Our first speaker of the year was Professor Alan Young, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Professor Young is a criminal and constitutional lawyer who as a self professed “constitutional demolition man” has challenged consentual criminal laws (such as marijuana, prostitution, etc) on Charter of Rights and Freedoms grounds.

Professor Young is most famous for his role as defence counsel in the Bedford Case (Bedford v Canada, 2012 ONCA 186). I attended an intimate fireside chat with him as well as his talk to a packed Moot Court Room at Western Law. In this case, parts of Canada’s prostitution laws were challenged on the grounds that they infringe on the section 7 rights of individuals: namely, their rights to security of their person. In case my readers don’t want to read the entire 374 paragraph court of appeal decision, I will quickly summarize some of what Professor Young said:

Prostitution isn’t illegal in Canada, however many activities that are directly related to it are. The three provisions of the criminal code that were challenged were that it is illegal to communicate (solicit), that you are unable to make money off others prostituting themselves (aimed at pimps but also affects prostitutes who want to hire security guards), and probably most importantly, the law makes it illegal to operate ‘bawdy houses’. Professor Young successfully argued at the Ontario Court of Appeal that sex workers are more secure and safe when they operate out of their own controlled environment - like home field advantage in sports and disallowing them to do so makes a legal activity that they are doing (sex work) more hazardous therefore infringing their right to security of their person. The body guard argument went the same way and although that section of the criminal code wasn’t struck down, new words were read into the provision allowing for body guards but still disallowing pimps to the code. At the Court of Appeal, Professor Young did not win the solicitation argument, however he seemed confident that he could win it as the Crown has appealed the case to the Supreme Court.

Anyways, I thought it was extremely interesting meeting Professor Young, hearing about how important timing is for charter challenges. As the common law evolves and more cases come on charter challenges, more room is created for these challenges in certain areas. I am eager to hear what the Supreme Court has to say when they hear the case in the coming years. It looks as though the defence has a very strong case here - especially on the bawdy house provision which is, according to Professor Young, the most important issue. The government could always just turn around and criminalize all sex work thereby invalidating the entire case, but as long as prostitution is legal in Canada, it seems as though a section 7 challenge is appropriate here and would not be saved under the Oakes Test for Section 1.

There and Back Again

As promised, here is the final post of my summer travels. It has been one crazy adventure spending nearly 2.5 months abroad. I thought I’d just post some highlights and keep it short instead of going on a long sappy jog down memory lane. I had a great time everywhere I visited and met so many amazing people along the way who made the trip all the more special. All that being said, it is nice to be back in Toronto for a little bit before school begins.

Eurotrip City Awards:

Best Party:

Barcelona & Tel Aviv

Most Naturally Beautiful:

Interlaken

Most Unique:

Venice

Best History: 

Bayeaux, Normandy

Most Ancient:

Rome & Athens (Duh)

Most Ornate:

Vatican City

Most Old-Style Beautiful:

Prague

Best Food:

All of Italy!

Best Adventure:

Interlaken

Latest Nights:

Barcelona

Earliest Mornings:

Interlaken

Least to do:

Frankfurt

Best Beer:

Munich (Honourable Mention to Vienna)

Cheapest:

Prague

Most Expensive:

Paris

Best Atmosphere:

London 2012 Olympics

Most Quaint:

York

Best Music:

Liverpool

Best Church

Impossible to say but probably Barcelona or the Vatican.

As you can see, I have no favourites. Every city is unique and special in its own way. I loved each and every place I went to.

I started this post with a Tolkein Quote and will end with Dorothy:

There is no place like home.

Trip Counter:

Days: 65

Cities: 37

Countries: 14

Planes: 7

Trains: 27+

Automobiles (cabs & busses): Drove my first Standard car on the wrong side!

Bikes: 1

Castles / Palaces: 10

Pantheons: 2

Churches: Scores

Plays: 4

Beaches: 4

Shwarmas: 6

Gelatos: 10

Books Read: The Social Animal - David Brooks, The Presidents Club - Nancy Gibbs & Michael Duffy, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling, Decision Points - George W. Bush (44%)

I don’t know if I’d ever be able to live here in Barcelona. It is as if it’s a completely different time zone from the rest of Europe… everything is SO late here. My first night in Barcelona had me getting up from dinner at 1:00 am and a night ending at 5:00 am is not unusual. How crazy is that? 

On Thursday, I went to the Batllo house, one of Gaudi’s residential buildings. It was absolutely stunning and it is true, there are no straight lines in the entire building.

I’ve been taking Barcelona slowly as I have ample time here to sightsee. I’m now staying at Hostel One Paralelo which is a bit more of a party place than BCG, but still pretty chill as well.

Over the past few days I have taken in the Montjuic Park (which includes the 1992 Olympic park and stadium and the Montjuic Castle), Gaudi’s Batilo house, the Sagrada Famillia, the Boqueria Market, and the Gothic area of the city.

Friday I took a free walking tour of the Gothic area, saw the cathedral and the weird animal gargoyles there - including a grasshopper, “elephant” and unicorn gargoyle - none of which looked very demonic. 

We also saw the palace where Christopher Columbus reported back on his adventure to “India” to the king of Spain.

After dropping by the Columbus statute (who is pointing at Libya instead of the New World), I headed to Chabad for shabbat dinner. The services were interesting (different tradition than mine and less singing than i’m used to) and dinner was yummy!

On Saturday I spent the day walking around Montjuic marking my second Olympic Park and stadium of the summer. It’s amazing how much has changed in 20 years of the olympics. The Barcelona 1992 site is tiny! The stadium is small, and the amount of room for the crowds is claustrophobic in comparison to what London2012 had. I was actually quite surprised at how much has changed - I guess the Olympics are much more public and more people are coming to them than in 1992? 

On Sunday I did what every good Jewish boy should do… I went to church. However, this was not just any church. This summer I have been in countless churches, cathedrals, basilicas, etc. Most of them have been incredibly ornate, busy, and overwhelming inasmuch as they are jam packed full of ‘stuff’. 

Sunday I went to the Sangrada Famillia, Gaudi’s masterpiece. I had been told by many people that it may not be worth it to go in, the outside is the best part. I respectfully disagree. I think the outside is too busy - in a different way from all the other cathedrals I’ve seen. 

The inside, however, is breathtaking though. It is not full of ‘stuff’ - graves, altars, etc. It is a large, open space with beautiful simple pillars that stretch up and split like trees before reaching the ceiling. Gaudi’s natural inspiration for his work really shows in his design. Everything feels ‘right’ if that makes sense and instead of a sense of being overwhelmed by the amount of gold that the Church jammed into a church, in this case I felt in awe of nature and of simple beauty.

On my final day in Barcelona I went up to Park Guell (Gaudi’s Park) which has the famed Gaudi Bench, an overview of the entire city, and the Gingerbread Houses.

I’m off to visit my sister in Tel Aviv for the day tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll make it back to the Shuk ha’Carmel and spend some time on the beach. My next post will probably wrap up the whole summer and be posted from back home in Toronto. It’s been fun!

Trip Counter:

Days: 63

Cities: 37

Countries: 14

Planes: 5

Trains: 26

Automobiles (cabs & busses): Drove my first Standard car on the wrong side!

Bikes: 1

Castles / Palaces: 10

Pantheons: 2

Churches: Scores

Plays: 4

Beaches: 4

Books Read: The Social Animal - David Brooks, The Presidents Club - Nancy Gibbs & Michael Duffy, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling, Decision Points - George W. Bush (44%)

I can’t believe that I’ve finally made it to my last country of the trip. Today I took the day, did not sight see and just took in Catalonian (EDIT) culture. That being said, it was an extremely busy day anyways.

I am staying at the Barcelona Central Garden Hostel - highly recommended! The location is great and staff are fantastic. Today I first wend up to the Gracia neighbourhood. They are having a week-long neighbourhood party unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Back at home in Toronto my neighbourhood has a carnival every spring for one evening and it’s a lot of fun, but this festival is 1000 times better. They really went all out - decorating 11 streets with various themes.

They have a Rubic’s Cube street (for my sister):

And my personal favourite, the Star Wars Street!

After spending the morning in the Gracia area, we walked all the way across town down to the waterfront where we went to the Boqueria Market for lunch. The market felt really like home for me - Although we have no such thing in Toronto, I still felt comfortable there after spending a lot of time in Shuks in Israel. I even spotted a Kosher vegetarian place there for lunch which was cool, though I had already eaten elsewhere anyways.

After a long walk back to the hostel past the Cathedral (didn’t go in… too many cathedrals blending together), I took a traditional Spanish afternoon Siesta.

I then had a quick dinner at Tapa Tapa, a tapas restaurant near the hostel and went back up to the Gracia neighbourhood festival for the highlight of the night.

I have always seen pictures of spanish people forming human towers. Tonight, I witnessed the Castellos in person! 

This is a 7 layered tower of people! How cool and scary that they let really young (looks like a 5 year old) children climb to the very top. Apparently some died a few years ago so now the young children wear helmets… took them long enough to decide that. Anyways, it was super scary to watch but also such a cool sport. The tower appeared to be about 3 stories high.

Anyways, I also wanted to shout out to the staff of Ramah Canada - congrats on another fun and safe summer. I’m sad that I wasn’t able to make it up to camp at least for a visit for the first time since 1995… 1996-2011I spent at least a few hours in camp each sumer.

Trip Counter:

Days: 59

Cities: 37

Countries: 14

Planes: 5

Trains: 26

Automobiles (cabs & busses): Drove my first Standard car on the wrong side!

Bikes: 1

Castles / Palaces: 9

Pantheons: 2

Churches: Scores

Plays: 4

Beaches: 4

Books Read: The Social Animal - David Brooks, The Presidents Club - Nancy Gibbs & Michael Duffy, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Read almost the whole thing today), Decision Points - George W. Bush (35%)

I’ve spent 3 days in Nice and I guess I should get down to blogging about my experiences here.

Nice is a beautiful city on the French Riviera. The beach is extremely rocky so I didn’t actually swim in Nice itself… but it was a great place to walk near and look at - spent a couple nights down on the beach relaxing with people I’ve met.

On my first full day in Nice I decided to head off to Monaco - my 13th country of the summer.

In Monaco (which i found out, is pronounced with an emphasis on the second syllable, not the first) I saw the Prince’s palace, the changing of the guard at the palace (which begins at 11:55 am every day), and walked around the Monaco grand prix track to the Monte Carlo Casino.

The palace was pretty nice, though not as ornate as Buckingham or other places that I’ve been. It was slightly more practical in some ways. Just as is buckingham, it too is in constant use.

The highlight of my time in Monaco certainly was the casino and the surrounding area. I am no car expert, though I did take a seminar course in undergrad entitled history of the automobile. The cars that were parked in front of the Monte Carlo Casino were absolutely insane. I was speaking to one of the valet parking attendants there and it became clear that Bentlys are so common that no one even pays attention to them. I probably saw about 10 Rolls-Royces, there were two Lamborghini parked next to each other, one of which was called the Aventador and is worth almost $400,000.

After spending an hour or so car spotting (countless Bentlys, 2 Aston Martins, 10 Rolls-Royces, 4 Ferraris, 3 Lamborghinis, 2 cars that looked insanely cool whose brand I haven’t even heard of, and innumerable other luxury automobiles of every make and brand.

I also had the opportunity to go into the casino and look around - it really was beautiful inside. Much better than the cramped casinos of north america which take advantage of every square inch of floor space - the Monte Carlo is sparse and provides ample room between tables and machines.

Yesterday I spent the day on the beach. Not the beach in Nice itself but the one in VilleFrance which is a 5 minute, 2 stop, train ride away. The beach’s “rocks” were much more like sand and way better to walk on in bare feet. I finally got some colour back as I had lost a lot of my tan as a result of my time in rainy England.

As I post this I have arrived in Barcelona (country #14) - the last real stop of my trip. I am here until August 20 when I fly to Tel Aviv overnight to visit my sister for a day… then back home to Toronto on the 22nd.

Trip Counter:

Days: 58

Cities: 37

Countries: 14

Planes: 5

Trains: 26

Automobiles (cabs & busses): Drove my first Standard car on the wrong side!

Bikes: 1

Castles / Palaces: 9

Pantheons: 2

Churches: Scores

Plays: 4

Beaches: 4

Books Read: The Social Animal - David Brooks, The Presidents Club - Nancy Gibbs & Michael Duffy, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Read almost the whole thing today), Decision Points - George W. Bush (35%)