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September 5, 2011

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Litigation Support Our cost effective service scans and indexes your documents into a quickly searchable database. Call us today, we can help! TF: 1.888.781.9083 www.docudavit.com $4.00 • Vol. 22, No. 27 ntitled-2 1 7/7/11 9:10:05 AM Inside This Issue 3 E-disclosure Covering Ontario's Legal Scene titled-10 1 September 5, 2011 11-08-31 2:53 P 6 Bilingual Furor 9 Focus On Class Actions Quote of the week "The provinces have their own areas of constitutional authority that include the courts and they respond negatively when there's a threat to their autonomy." — Robert Bell, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, see Back, page 12 renovated offi ce in the city's Courthouse Square in April, they fi gured they'd be work- ing at that location for years to come. Th eir new offi ce ended up lasting just four months, however, following the tornado that struck the town on Aug. 21 and subsequent rains that left it badly damaged. "Our new offi ces survived the tornado only to be badly damaged by the torrential rains that blew through Goderich three days later," says Heather Ross, senior counsel at the fi rm and a bencher with the Law Society of Upper Canada. Due to safety precautions, all 18 members Goderich firms pick up the pieces W BY RAVI AMARNATH For Law Times hen lawyers at the Ross Firm Professional Corp. in Goderich, Ont., moved into their newly of the fi rm were prevented from re-entering the offi ce for a week, which meant they couldn't recover computers, equipment, fi les or furniture. "We did not think to include tornado in our business plan," says Ross. "But we had taken important steps to pre- pare for the possibility of our law practice being interrupted or harmed in some way." One of the key measures the fi rm had tak- en prior to the renovation of its offi ces was to review its insurance coverage. It enabled em- ployees to continue to receive their pay im- mediately after the storm. "We beefed up our insurance coverage to ensure that we were protected in a comprehensive way, not just for property damage but for all important Advanced planning helps local lawyers recover from storm Lawyers at the newly renovated Ross Firm, on the second floor of the centre building, have relocated in order to resume operations following damage from the storm in Goderich. business interruption insurance and payroll coverage," says Ross. Disaster planning was an important theme during the American Bar Association's annual meetings in Toronto last month. "Even if you believe that you live where cataclysmic events don't occur, all lawyers and law fi rms are at risk of disaster disrupt- ing their practice," said ABA past president Stephen Zack shortly before the event. Being prepared for unexpected practice disruptions is something the Canadian Bar Association has been addressing as well. "Whether the power is out or you are [physi- cally] kept out of your offi ce, it's the same re- sult," says Robert Patzelt, past CBA national treasurer who also fi nished a recent stint as chairman of the Canadian Corporate Coun- sel Association. "You have to fi gure out what to do to stay in business or get back to busi- ness quickly." See Storm's, page 5 Is gov't shy of security certificates? T BY SHANNON KARI For Law Times he controversial national security certifi cate process has been the subject of Security certificates 'were a pro- paganda tool,' says Rocco Galati. several lengthy court proceedings, including a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2007 that found aspects of it to be unconstitutional. Th at decision resulted in an amended Immigration and Refu- gee Protection Act and the cre- ation of so-called special advocates who could attend the in camera portions of the proceedings. But while the federal govern- ment has responded vigorously to every court challenge of the scheme, it appears to be a de- portation tool that it may only rarely use again. Th e government has used the certifi cates, which allege that a non-citizen is inadmissible for reasons of national security, against six people in the decade since the Sept. 11 terrorist at- tacks. (While the proceedings involving Mahmoud Jabballah and Mohamed Mahjoub are ongoing in the Federal Court, offi cials issued the initial cer- tifi cates against the two men in 1999 and 2000). Of the six cases, four of the certifi cates contained allegations of links to terrorist groups. Th e other two involved an alleged Russian spy who agreed to be deported and Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, who was removed in 2005. In contrast, the government issued certifi cates against 21 people between 1991 and 2001. Critics of the process say it's not surprising that the federal government hasn't issued any new certifi cates since the amend- ments came into eff ect in 2008. "Security certifi cates attract notoriety and they engage judg- es," notes Audrey Macklin, a law professor at the University of To- ronto who has written extensively about the process. Earlier this year, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney publicly criticized the judiciary and ac- cused it of undermining the federal government's immigration policy. After a Canadian Security Intelli- gence Service document was leaked to the media this summer with al- legations against two men that had See Adjudicator, page 5 Click here to subscribe today to LAW TIMES ADR Connect: Find an ADR Professional 416-487-4447 • admin@adrontario.ca Untitled-2 1 Gold Standard LT Digital version.indd 1 6/25/10 12:59:47 PM Mediators Arbitrators www.adrontario.ca/findapro.cfm www.lawtimesnews.com 5/20/11 1:11:30 PM Photo: Dominique Milburn

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