Law Times

Page 16 January 8, 2018 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com NEW GENERAL COUNSEL Randall Hofley has been named general counsel and se- nior enforcement adviser at the Competition Bureau Legal Services. Hof ley, a partner at Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP's Competition, Antitrust & Foreign Investment group, will join CBLS for a two-year term. He will remain a partner at Blakes, but he will be on leave un- der the government of Canada's Interchange Program. "This is an outstanding achievement for Randall and a great opportunity for all in- volved," said Brock Gibson, chairman of Blakes. "Business regulation is increasingly important in Canada and around the world. Randall's appointment will allow him to benefit from the Bureau's expertise in this regard, while bringing his years of experience and judgment to the post." In 2005-06, Randall served as special counsel to the Commission- er of Competition. ORDER OF CANADA Two former Supreme Court of Canada justices have received the Companion of the Order of Canada. Thomas Cromwell and Louis LeBel were named Dec. 29 by Governor General of Canada Julie Payette, along with 123 other new appoint- ments to the Order of Canada, including three other lawyers. Cromwell joined the Ottawa office of Borden Ladner Ger- vais LLP as counsel in February 2017 following his retirement from the SCC, where he served as a justice from December 2008 to September 2016. LeBel retired from the SCC in 2014 after 14 years. Following his retirement, he joined Langlois lawyers LLP in May 2015 as legal counsel in the firm's Que- bec and Montreal offices. He has also been resident judge at the Faculty of Law at Laval Uni- versity. Dale H. Lastman, chair- man of Goodmans LLP, was also named a member of the Order of Canada for his contri- butions to the growth of the Ca- nadian sports industry and for his volunteer work in support of health initiatives and LGBTQ communities. Lastman prac- tises corporate, commercial and securities law. He is a director of Maple Leaf Sports & En- tertainment Ltd. and serves as an alternate governor for the National Hockey League and National Basketball Associa- tion and as a governor of the To- ronto Argonauts of the Cana- dian Football League. BLG ANNUAL REPORT Borden Ladner Ger- vais LLP recently released its annual report, predicting the biggest legal issues businesses will face in 2018. The report, Top 10 Legal Risks for Business in 2018, offers Canadian business- es "deeper insight into the key trends and regulatory changes that will have legal implications in the year ahead." 12 % NO, I DO NOT AGREE YES, I AGREE 88 % LAW TIMES POLL A ruling in the Ontario Supe- rior Court has reaffirmed that a lawyer does not hold a duty of care to non-client parties who have their own lawyer in a com- mercial transaction. Readers were asked if they agreed with this finding. About 88 per cent said yes, lawyers should not have to hold a duty of care in this type of transaction. Another 12 per cent said no, this finding is prob- lematic. LT u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story Randall Hofley will be joining the Competition Bureau Legal Services, as general counsel and senior enforcement adviser. PARTYGOERS ARRESTED OVER OUNCE OF WEED Early on the morning of Dec. 31, 2017, police in the Atlanta suburb of Cartersville arrested 70 people at a house party because no one would claim ownership of a stash of marijuana that totalled less than an ounce, according to a re- port in The Cartersville Daily Tribune. Cartersville police responded to a "shots fired" call around 2:18 a.m. on New Year's Eve at a "Christmas Lingerie Party" and soon found the marijuana. Jail records acquired by the Daily Tribune showed that 63 of the 70 arrestees had all been processed with a single count of marijuana possession under one ounce. Some of the arrestees were released 48 hours after their New Year's Eve arrests. MONKEY BUTT STOPS TRAFFIC A driver in China who was rear-ended in the middle of traffic said she slammed on the brakes after seeing a red light — which turned out to be the blushing butt of an escaped circus monkey perched on a light pole, according to Malaysia's sinchew.com. The driver of the sedan was approaching an intersection in Zunyi City, located in China's Guizhou Province. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until a f lash of red on the traffic light pole caught the driver's eye. Ref lexively, she slammed on her brakes, causing another sedan following close behind to crash into her car's back bumper. Upon exiting their cars after the minor ac- cident, the drivers discovered a golden monkey sitting with its rosy-red butt directed toward oncoming vehicles. Police investigating the accident determined that the monkey had lately escaped from a cir- cus nearby. The circus's manager, happy to have found the missing simian, gladly covered the cost of repairing both drivers' lightly damaged vehi- cles, according to the website. HACKED SEX ROBOTS Sex robots could be hijacked by hackers and used to cause harm or even kill people, a cy- bersecurity expert has warned, reports News- week. Artificial intelligence researchers have con- sistently warned of the security risks posed by internet-connected robots, with hundreds re- cently calling on governments to ban weapon- ized robots. The latest warning comes from a cybersecu- rity expert who made the prophecy to several U.K. newspapers. "Hackers can hack into a robot or a ro- botic device and have full control of the con- nections, arms, legs and other attached tools like in some cases knives or welding devices," Nicholas Patterson, a cybersecurity lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, told the Star. "Often these robots can be upwards of 200 pounds and very strong. Once a robot is hacked, the hacker has full control and can is- sue instructions to the robot," he said. "The last thing you want is for a hacker to have control over one of these robots. Once hacked they could absolutely be used to per- form physical actions for an advantageous sce- nario or to cause damage." Researchers have already discovered securi- ty f laws with Bluetooth-enabled sex toys, which hackers could control from remote locations. In November, experts wrote a commentary for the scientific journal Nature that outlined a scenario in which rogue artificial intelligence hijacked a brain-computer interface. In such a situation, a person's thoughts, de- cisions and emotions could be taken over by AI and manipulated against the person's will. A hypothetical example of how such a sce- nario might play out, according to the authors of the piece, would be if a paralyzed man us- ing a brain-computer interface took a dislike to someone. That could be misinterpreted as a command to harm that person even if no direct order is given. LT "The office party this year was a bit of a downer." 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