Law Times

Page 20 April 10, 2017 • lAw Times www.lawtimesnews.com GLOBAL INSURANCE LAW NETWORK LAUNCHED Canada's Blaney McMurtry LLP is one of the founders of a new, multi-jurisdiction legal network launched last month by law firms from North America and Europe. The Insurance Law Global network, which will provide a global service to insurance cli- ents, also includes founding law firms Weightmans from the U.K., LC Rodrigo Abogados of Spain and Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin of the U.S. "We are very proud to be a founding member of the Insurance Law Global network, an organization created to meet the increas- ingly diverse needs of the global insurance industry and to foster col- laboration and knowledge sharing across multiple jurisdictions," said Maria Scarfo, managing partner of Blaney McMurtry in Toronto, in a press release. Collectively, ILG has bases in 30 cities across six countries. CCA COMMUNITY BUILDER AWARD WINNER ANNOUNCED The Canadian Bar Associa- tion's Canadian Corporate Counsel Association an- nounces that the respective in-house teams of George Weston Ltd. and the Pro Bono Ontario's ID Clinic for the Homeless are the co-winners of the 2017 CCCA Community Builder Award. The Community Builder Award recognizes pro bono, community or corporate social responsibility efforts. The award was presented during the CCCA 2017 Agents of Change national conference in Toronto on April 3 along with various other CCCA awards. CRAIG CARTER RECEIVES OBA'S DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD Craig Carter, a lawyer in Fasken Martineau LLP's To- ronto office, will receive the Ontario Bar Association's Award for Distingished Ser- vice at a ceremony on April 26. Carter is engaged in a com- mercial real estate practice and has acted as counsel in real es- tate issues and the standards of practice in real estate matters. According to the firm, he is ex- tensively involved in continuing legal education for the legal pro- fession, is a co-editor and pub- lished author and has chaired many programs for the OBA. The OBA says its Award for Distinguished Service recog- nizes exceptional career contri- butions and/or career achieve- ments by members of the OBA to the legal profession in Ontar- io, to jurisprudence in Ontario or Canada, to the law or develop- ment of the law in Ontario or a significant law-related benefit to the residents of Ontario. YES, I AGREE 6 % 94 % NO, I DO NOT AGREE LAW TIMES POLL Law Times reported recently that Ontario lawyers say a bill that would give enhanced pow- ers to American border officers working at Canadian airports would likely result in a great deal of uncertainty for their work and their clients. Readers were asked if they supported Bill C-23. About six per cent of re- spondents said yes, they did not see an issue with giving Amer- ican border officers who work on Canadian soil the power to detain Canadians travelling to the United States. However, 94 per cent said no, they thought changes proposed in the bill would cause problems, especially in addition to the in- creased climate of uncertainty at the border. LT u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story BURGLAR MAKES OFF WITH STUFFED ANIMALS LONDON — A British burglar who stole 18 stuffed animals including lions, a giraffe and a snarling chimpanzee in a top hat and tie has received a suspended jail sentence, police said April 5. According to Reuters, the loot, which includ- ed a stuffed rhinoceros, a crocodile, a sloth, a ze- bra, a penguin and a pink f lamingo, belonged to a licensed taxidermy company, police said. Jason Hopwood, 47, had pleaded guilty to burglary and fraudulent use of a registration plate. He was sentenced to 21 months in jail, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 200 hours of community service work, reports Reuters. The animals were stolen in March last year from a warehouse in Wimbledon, south- west London. After receiving an anonymous tip-off, police found an abandoned van in Essex, east of Lon- don, with all 18 animals inside and sticky patch- es where fake number plates had been attached. Hopwood was subsequently identified as the van's owner. "Cataloguing and exhibiting the stolen items was a truly unique and memorable experience, and this is certainly an investigation which will stay with me for years to come," said Detective Constable Stuart Goss of London's Metropolitan Police, according to Reuters. COMPANY HAS US$5.7 BILLION WORTH OF BEEF WITH MEDIA REPORT CHICAGO — ABC Broadcasting has lost a last- ditch bid before South Dakota's highest court to avoid a trial in a beef producer's US$5.7-billion defamation case over reports about a product that critics call "pink slime." Reuters reports that the order signed recent- ly by state Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson denied ABC's petition to appeal a recent ruling letting plaintiff Beef Products Inc. take its case to a jury. In February, Judge Cheryle Gering of the Union County Circuit Court in Elk Point, S.D., said ABC, a unit of Walt Disney Co, and its reporter Jim Avila must defend against claims that they damaged BPI by referring in a series of reports to BPI's "lean finely textured beef " product as "pink slime." Gering did not rule on the case's merits, nor did the Supreme Court, according to Reuters. ABC declined to comment, while BPI said in a statement that it looked forward to holding the defendants accountable. The case is sched- uled to go to trial on June 5 and could last eight weeks, reports Reuters. Lean, finely textured beef is made from beef chunks, including trimmings and exposed to tiny bursts of ammonium hydroxide to kill bacteria. At the time of the ABC News broad- casts, few Americans realized the product was a mainstay of fast-food burgers, school lunch tacos and homemade meatloaf. BPI said ABC's reports in March and April 2012 implied that the South Dakota-based company's product was not safe, not nutritious and not even meat. The network has called BPI's lawsuit an attempt to chill media coverage of the industry and inhibit free speech. BPI has claimed up to US$1.9 billion of damages, which could be tripled to US$5.7 billion under South Dakota's Agricultural Food Products Dispar- agement Act, says Reuters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has called BPI's product safe. But some retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc, stopped sell- ing ground beef containing it after the ABC reports, according to Reuters. Several other defendants were previously dismissed from the case, including a former Agriculture Depart- ment microbiologist said to have coined the term "pink slime" in a 2002 email. LT Maria Scarfo said her firm is proud to be part of a new international network focused on insurance law. YOUR INSTANT CONNECTION TO CANADA'S LEGAL NETWORK • an up-to-date alphabetical listing • contact information • legal and government contact information ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY! Call 1.800.387.5164 or visit www.carswell.com for a 30-day no-risk evaluation CANADIAN LAW LIST 2017 Hardbound • Published February each year • L7798-5933 • On subscription $174* • One time purchase $194* Multiple copy discounts available * Plus shipping/handling and applicable taxes Untitled-7 1 2017-04-03 4:06 PM "... and ... ... so... ... 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