Law Times

Page 20 November 21, 2016 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com SABA HONOURS CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN LAW The South Asian Bar Asso- ciation of Toronto honoured the Canadian Association of Muslim Women in Law with its 2016 Diversity Award. CAMWL received the award at the SABA awards dinner on Nov. 15. The association looks to ad- vance the legal rights of Muslim women and other marginalized groups. "A lot of times there are gaps and people don't realize these gaps exist, but we do because they exist to us," says co-founder Sharifa Khan. Khan says the group advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession and looks to provide mentorship and camara- derie to Muslim women who are lawyers or law students. The associa- tion, which has 86 members, was founded in 2013. Khan says there is an increasing number of Muslim women be- coming lawyers. "We wanted to create a space where we could express our own opinions on legal issues and also just provide a space for other mem- bers, particularly providing support for each other in the legal profes- sion," says Khan. BOOSTING DIVERSITY ON BOARDS Stikeman Elliott LLP is look- ing to increase the number of women on boards. The law firm has launched a new Board Diversity Initia- tive, which is looking to reach out to clients to discuss gender diversity on boards. "We thought this would be a great way to add an external facet to our Women's Initiative, by bringing our clients into some of the things we're doing from a thought leadership perspec- tive," says Ramandeep Grewal, counsel with Stikeman Elliott, who has helped lead the initiative. The firm plans to host a num- ber of events and roundtables on the topic, starting in January, and to engage businesses on practical options to advance the issue in the future. LSUC RETAINS BLANEY MCMURTRY Blaney McMurtry LLP is set to defend the Law Society of Upper Canada against a com- plaint at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. Toronto lawyer Selwyn Pi- eters filed the complaint alleg- ing that a security guard dis- criminated against him when he was entering the law society building. Pieters, who is black, said he was stopped by the secu- rity guard while giving an intern a tour of the building in July. LSUC chief executive offi- cer Robert Lapper met with Pi- eters and his intern and assured them the incident would be in- vestigated. But Pieters was not satisfied with the law society's reaction and filed the complaint. 25 % NO, I DO NOT AGREE YES, I AGREE 75 % LAW TIMES POLL A recent Law Times story ex- plored how businesses are cre- ating workplace investigation strategies in response to new sexual harassment legislation. Readers were asked if their law firms have a strategy. Roughly 75 per cent said yes, their workplace has a strategy in place and they recommend clients create one. The remaining 25 per cent said no, their workplace does not have a strategy in place, and while it's an important idea, it is simply too resource-intensive at this point. LT u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story "Relax! I've got title insurance." 'FATTY KIM THE THIRD' BLOCKED IN CHINA BEIJING — Chinese websites have again blocked searches for "Fatty Kim the Third" as many Chi- nese mockingly call North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with China's foreign ministry saying it did not approve of ridiculing foreign leaders, reports Reuters. Chinese Internet users began reporting re- cently that searches on the Twitter-like microb- logging site Weibo and search engine Baidu for the expression returned no results, the normal sign that something is being blocked despite its wide usage, according to Reuters. The term — which refers to the weight of Kim, his father and grandfather — was last blocked in September after neighbouring North Korea's latest nuclear test. Kim is unpopular in China because of his country's repeated nuclear and missile tests. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said reports the government had banned the search term "did not accord with the facts," according to Reuters. "What I want to stress is that China has al- ways dedicated itself to constructing a rational, cultured and healthy environment for public opinion," Geng told a daily news briefing. China "does not approve of insulting or ridi- culing language to address any country's lead- er," he added. Both Baidu Inc and Sina Corp, which owns Weibo, declined to comment, while China's In- ternet regulator did not respond to a request for comment, said Reuters. IS CHINA READING YOUR TEXTS? WASHINGTON – U.S. security contractors have discovered a secret feature on some An- droid phones: a back door that sends all your text messages to China every 72 hours. The preinstalled software monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in text messages. U.S. authorities say it is not clear whether this represents secretive data mining for advertising purposes or a Chinese government effort to collect intelligence, re- ports the New York Times. International customers and users of dispos- able or prepaid phones are the people most af- fected by the software. But the scope is unclear. The Chinese company that wrote the software, Shanghai Adups Technology Co., says its code runs on more than 700 million phones, cars and other smart devices, according to the newspaper. Kryptowire, the security firm that discovered the vulnerability, said the Adups software trans- mitted the full contents of text messages, contact lists, call logs, location information and other data to a Chinese server. The code comes preinstalled on phones and the surveillance is not disclosed to users, according to the New York Times. Adups intentionally designed the software to help a Chinese phone manufacturer monitor user behaviour, but that version of the software was not intended for U.S. phones, the company said. "This is a private company that made a mis- take," said Lily Lim, a lawyer in Palo Alto, Calif., who represents Adups, according to the New York Times. RACING STAR FREEZES PET BULLDOG'S SPERM MONACO — Lewis Hamilton's pet bulldog Roscoe, who occasionally accompanies the tri- ple Formula One world champion to races, has had his sperm frozen to ensure he can have pup- pies in future, according to Reuters. The British-born racing superstar revealed the news on an Instagram account (roscoelo- vescoco) set up in his pets' names. "Roscoe in great spirits. Due to some com- plications, we had to have him snipped," Hamil- ton wrote. "However, since he's the best looking bulldog I decided to freeze his sperm so that in time to come I could have his pups. He is the best pedigree. Both mum and father were champion show dogs so it's great his gene will live on." LT Sharifa Khan is a co-founder of the Canadian Association of Muslim Women in Law, which received an award from the South Asian Bar Association of Toronto. Fresh Canadian legal news and analysis every day Get More Online CanadianLawyerMag.com | LawTimesNews.com | LegalFeeds.ca WebFiller_LT_Nov21_16.indd 1 2016-11-16 3:32 PM

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