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PAGE 12 FOCUS September 14, 2009 • Law timeS High-tech web sites raise human rights concerns A BY GLENN KAUTH Law Times s a long-running Charter challenge over the acces- sibility of government web sites makes its way through the court, eff orts to add enriched content to federal online services are raising accessibility concerns. "Th e problem is we could be leading the world in this. It could be a good news story," says Jutta Treviranus, the director of the Adaptive Technology Re- source Centre at the University of Toronto. Still, she argues, of- fi cials haven't "created a positive Subscribe to Law Times Why pay extra for your legal news? Cutting-edge legal affairs, news and commentary for just 37¢ a day! Make the time for Law Times and keep up with all the developments in Ontario's legal scene. Subscribe today and receive: • Unlimited access to the Law Times digital editions and to our digital edition archives...FREE • Canadian Legal Newswire, a weekly e-newsletter from the editors of Law Times and Canadian Lawyer...FREE 1-800-265-8381 www.mckellar.com www.mckellar.com $3.55 • Vol. 20, No. 13 Covering Ontario's Legal Scene BY ROBERT TODD Law Times dicial Council's decision to call for his ouster, saying he was compelled to resign due to his pending retire- ment, despite finding aspects of the council's report "troublesome." Cosgrove tells Law Times in an interview that once the CJC issued its recommendation to the justice minister, "My options were pretty narrow." While he believes he could have appealed an earlier committee report at F ormer Ontario Superior Court justice Paul Cosgrove has spo- ken out on the Canadian Ju- month after the CJC issued a final re- port stating that his actions in a late- Cosgrove people in public office, and they were given little weight, according to the decision." Cosgrove's final criticism is the CJC's determination that the issue of public confidence was central to its decision. He suggests that it remains unclear what evidence is required to make such a determination. inquiry the Federal Court, he says a decision was un- likely before his mandatory retire- ment took hold in December. resigned earlier this given rise for us to challenge," he says. "The problem with that is, of course I'm retired — manda- tory retirement in December of this year. And the process, for ex- ample, dealing with the constitu- tional issue, took three years." He says he did not want to "So, all of those issues may have Financial Matters Former Superior Court justice Paul Cosgrove tells Law Times that his pending mandatory retirement compelled him to resign from the bench rather than battle a call for his ouster. 1990s murder trial led to the conclusion that he "failed in the execution of the duties of his judi- cial office and that public confidence in his abil- ity to discharge those duties in future has been irrevocably lost." The decision made him only the second federal judge to meet such a fate. But the former judge says parts of the CJC's the senior regional judges in Ottawa since I've been here for the last 24 years, all wrote very positive recommendations, and they also were aware of the trial," says Cosgrove. "So to say that these letters, the people had final report could have been challenged. The council did not use a set of 32 letters of with 20,000 pages of evidence likely put forth. The 74-year-old former judge, who will gamble and let the matter play out before Parliament, where an un- precedented joint resolution would have been required to finalize his ouster. Doing so may have proved cumbersome, suggests Cosgrove, no knowledge of what was going on was not accurate." Cosgrove also suggests the council should support written by judges and retired judges, law- yers, and members of the public when coming to its decision, saying they were irrelevant, he notes. "Personally, I found that difficult because, for example, there were my supervising judges, have used the letters from community mem- bers when considering whether he had lost the public's confidence. "It would seem to me that it's logical to test collect an annual pension of about $170,000, says that before the decision he was reason- ably confident that the council would not call for his dismissal. Independent counsel Earl Cherniak, a partner at Lerners LLP, had previ- ously told the council such a stern punishment was not necessary. "It was shock and disappointment," Cos- what the public's demeanour is; you ask people who are knowledgeable in the public," he says. "And there were a number of letters from 9 Focus On ADR/ Mediation TitlePLUS title insurance and you, together we have all the tools TitlePLUS title insurance and you, together we have all the tools. April 20, 2009 3 Fight Over Fees 6 Inside This Issue Quote of the week grove says of his reaction to the final decision. He says he has been dealing with the fall- out by responding to media inquiries, and See Cosgrove, page 4 BY TIM NAUMETZ For Law Times OTTAWA — The possible closure of McCarthy Tétrault LLP's high- profile office in the nation's capital is unrelated to dire economic cir- cumstances that have hit home for some Canadian law firms, a senior McCarthys partner says. zation we review our business plans on an ongoing basis," Boake tells Law Times when asked of the Ot- tawa office closure possibility. She adds the firm wants to meet the needs of its clients, and that each of its offices have a practice and focus which aligns with McCarthys' over- all strategy. "So it's in that context "Yeah, I guess, like any organi- staff, remains undecided. "It's really just a question of the fact that we are in discussion with lawyers there as part of an overall strategic review," she tells Law Times. "These discussions have been decisions" because of a drop in busi- ness due to the economy, letting go less than 20 of its 650 lawyers across the country. She would not give the specific number or other details. Gowling Lafleur Henderson going on for a while and are not related to the economy," she says. "I would call it a strategic review. Our firm really focuses on integrat- The financial crisis that has hit directly New York and London, being financial centres of the world, and the financial institutions based there, has not hit to the same degree in Canada, primarily because of the strength of the financial institutions in Canada. McCarthys' Ottawa contingent is a "strategic review" based on the firm's national business plan, and the role played by all of its six loca- tions across Canada, says Barbara Boake, national leader, profession- als, at McCarthy Tétrault. Consideration of the future of that we're currently reviewing the Ottawa office, but no decision has been made to close it," she says. Boake would not divulge fur- ther details and said the fate of the office, along with the employ- ment of its seven partners, two associates, and 11 administrative ed practices; we have offices right across the country. We have a very diversified practice geographically and our overall strategy is to inte- grate those practices and develop client teams on a firm-wide basis." Boake, however, confirmed Mc- Carthys has taken "difficult staffing "It is now incumbent on sports federations in selection disputes to show they had the proper criteria set up and that it was properly applied . . . The onus is now on the organiza- tion not the athlete. It wasn't quite as clear a few years ago." LLP also confirmed to Law Times the firm released staff last week. But Gowlings chairman and CEO Scott Jolliffe said the shakeup did not involve partners or associ- ates. Jolliffe says the firm is shifting toward a "pod" model where law- yers and associates share a smaller number of secretaries, but he would not say how many were affected. The move not only economizes, but also creates a team atmosphere among secretaries that is useful for mentoring and sharing workloads. Sources in the legal community say McCarthy Tétrault's Ottawa re- view may be related to a management See Ottawa, page 4 WHICH DIRECTION IS BEST FOR YOU? RainMaker Group 110 Yonge Street, Suite 1101 Toronto, Ontario M5C 1T4 www.lawtimesnews.com Tel: 416-863-9543 Fax: 416-863-9757 www.rainmakergroup.ca culture of accessibility within the web-development world." Treviranus is concerned about moves by some federal govern- ment departments to make their web sites more interactive so Ca- nadians can get additional gov- ernment services online rather than going in to an offi ce. People can now get infor- mation about their income tax returns through the "epass" sys- tem using a password, for ex- ample. Th e revamped web sites are much more useful than the old static ones but, Treviranus notes, they are more technically challenging to set up. Th e problem is that the more q Send me 1 year of Law Times for only $135.00 (Total with GST: $141.75) Name: __________________________________________________________________________ Company: _______________________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________________________ City: ____________________________ Prov: _______________ Postal Code: __________________ Tel: ( ) _______________________ Fax: ( ) ______________________ Email: ____________________________________________________________________________ q Payment enclosed q Charge my: q Visa q Mastercard q American Express Card #: __________________________________ Expiry Date: ___ / ___ (mm/yy) Signature (required): ________________________________________________ Date: ________________ 240 Edward St. Aurora, ON. L4G 3S9 Tel: (905) 727-0077 Fax: (905) 841-4357 Mail or fax this form to Law Times advanced web sites aren't neces- sarily accessible to people with disabilities even though, as Trea- sury Board of Canada Secretariat spokesman Robert Makichuk points out, "the government of Canada is committed to ensur- ing the accessibility of its web sites to Canadians." He says the government has updated the "common look and feel standards" for its web sites that include guidelines on accessibility. Still, Treviranus argues the LT_1-4sub.indd 1 12/16/09 11:04:45 AM revamped versions are breaking those rules because webmasters haven't received instructions on how to make the new appli- cations available to people with disabilities. "Someone who is blind can- not use the epass system," she says, because the screen readers blind people use are so far incom- patible with the log-in function. "Th at's basically the gateway into these interactive web sites." Th e question of web site ac- cessibility isn't a new one but is something lawyers say is an increasingly common human rights issue. In one case, Toronto resident The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), Canada's foremost civil liberties watchdog, is expanding and seeking an additional staff lawyer. The successful applicant is a lawyer or legal professional who has experience and knowledge of fundamental rights and liber- ties; has advocacy and public speaking skills; policy and research experience; teaching or similar experience. Volunteer coordina- tion or other leadership and management experience helpful; excellent communication and writing skills required. Languages in addition to English benefi cial. Salary is commensurate with experience. Only candidates selected for interview will be contacted. Donna Jodhan has been battling the federal government for years over her inability to apply for gov- ernment jobs online. In 2004, Jodhan, who is blind, says the government re- fused to allow her to write an exam as part of her application, a move that prompted her to fi le a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against Statistics Canada. After eff orts to negotiate a so- lution with the government failed, she launched a Charter challenge to force offi cials to improve acces- sibility. Her case is ongoing with a trial date still to be set. Treviranus, who will appear as an expert witness at the trial, says the case is an important one. Th e web site, she says, "is somewhat accessible. But if you can [only] get halfway to applying for a job . . . it doesn't really help." Gil Zvulony, a Toronto Inter- E-mail, fax or post letter of application with resume no later than noon on Wednesday, 30 September 2009 To: Danielle McLaughlin, Director of Education & Administration, CCLA 506-360 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON, M5S 1X1 Fax 416-861-1291, e-mail mail@ccla.org CdnCivilLib_LT_Sep14_09.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 9/10/09 9:22:36 AM net lawyer, says making web sites accessible is fairly easy. "From my web-design knowl- edge, it's going to be very diffi cult to argue undue hardship because a lot of the technical solutions are really sort of basic things that would actually make a web site readable to search engines." When it comes to accessibil- says. As well, ity for the blind, who use screen readers in order to hear online content, "the idea is to make sure that everything on your web site is available in text- based form," he says. "Essentially, it's making text readable. So you might have an image, and within that image, there's text embedded." For people who are deaf, ac- cessible web sites should add captions to any audio content, Treviranus for people who can't move a mouse, they should be able to control content through a keyboard as an alternative. One of the earlier cases on In- ternet accessibility surfaced years ago when an Australian man took IBM to task over the Sydney Or- ganising Committee for the Olympic Games' web site. Ac- cording to Treviranus, the com- pany argued at the time that changing the web page would be too diffi cult, a claim that didn't stand up to scrutiny. "From a technical perspec- tive, it was defi nitely possible to have made it accessible," says Tre- viranus, who was also an expert witness in that case. Since then, similar cases have arisen in Canada, but often the parties have settled, she says. "It's a human rights issue. Th e web is becoming a way to get ac- cess to all sorts of things." As a result, Zvulony tells cli- ents to consider accessibility from the early stages. "My advice is if you're going to build a web site, have these issues in mind beforehand," he says. But for Treviranus, the cur- rent issues with the federal government are a worry. Still, Treasury Board's Makichuk says the government is working on fi xing the epass system, which is managed by a private company under the stewardship of the Public Works department. Th e Treasury Board "is work- ing with [Public Works] to evalu- ate ways to improve fl exibility and accessibility of the epass service in the most cost-effi cient manner," he wrote in an e-mail. At the provincial level, Trevi- ranus believes the prospects are much better given current eff orts to create new communications standards that include web sites under the Accessibility for Ontar- ians With Disabilities Act. Proposed standards went to the government in July and should be fi nalized within a year, she says. With the amendments, services such as changing an ad- dress on a driver's licence should become accessible. Municipali- ties will have to follow the same rules, Treviranus points out. Her hope is that the same changes will take place federal- ly, particularly as she considers Canada in many ways to be a leader on research into web site accessibility. "Th ere are many more re- sources available on this topic, and people are becoming more aware of what it requires. When you scan the web, there are many more web sites that adhere to accessibility standards," she says. LT www .lawtimesnews.com Includes a FREE digital edition! 'Shock and disappointment' Cosgrove says 'life goes on' after the bench Future uncertain for McCarthys' Ottawa office

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