Law Times

Page 16 December 5, 2016 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com PROVINCIAL JUDICIAL COMMITTEES TO TRACK DIVERSITY DATA The provincial government is set to introduce a number of chan- ges to the way Ontario chooses its judges in an attempt to boost diversity on the bench. Attorney General Yasir Naqvi recently announced chan- ges to the way Ontario's Judicial Appointments Advisory Com- mittee functions, which will in- clude giving judicial applicants the opportunity to self-identify as indigenous or a member of a min- ority group. The committee will be required to keep track of this data for appli- cants and appointees and will release it to the public. "This is important because without this information the com- mittee won't know who's applying," Naqvi said in remarks at a Round table of Diversity Associations event. "We also know that people want more information about who their judges are and where they come from." The province is also planning to have the committee reach out to diverse lawyers through information sessions that will be held through associations and law schools. The sessions will "provide crucial nuts and bolts information" such as resumé and application building, what an interview would be like and what the committee looks for in candidates. Naqvi said he plans to make the same changes to the way justices of the peace are selected next year. OSC APPOINTS SECURITIES LAWYER COMMISSIONER The Ontario Securities Com- mission has appointed Philip Anisman to serve as a commis- sioner on the regulator's board of directors. Anisman, who is a former Osgoode Hall Law School professor, has decades of experi- ence practising securities and corporate law. He has written ex- tensively about securities law and has appeared before all levels of court in Ontario, including the Supreme Court of Canada. TLA RESPONDS TO LSUC REPORT ON RACIALIZED LICENSEES The Toronto Lawyers Asso- ciation has voiced its support for the Law Society of Upper Canada's report on the challen- ges faced by racialized licensees. The report — "Working Together for Change: Strategies to Address Issues of Systemic Racism in the Legal Professions" — identified widespread barriers faced by racialized licensees and introduced some new require- ments for licensees and firms to promote inclusion. In a letter to the law society, TLA president Stephen Mull- ings endorsed the report saying it is important that the regulator ensure law firms work toward eliminating systemic racism and penalize the ones that fail to take the necessary steps. 14 % NO, I DO NOT AGREE YES, I AGREE 86 % LAW TIMES POLL Law Times recently reported that an Ontario court ordered the province's Ministry of the Attorney General to release a set of draft guidelines for pros- ecuting HIV non-disclosure cases. Readers were asked if they agree with the decision. More than 86 per cent said yes, it is important for the Crown to be open and transparent about the way it prosecutes these cases, so people understand the application of the law. The remaining 14 per cent said no, the Crown does not have to release this information, and the ministry has a right to keep this information internal, for use among employees. LT u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story "In my experience, when two law firms specializing in robotics and drone law merge without doing sufficient due diligence, sometimes that happens." BREWERY SUED FOR 'MENAGE A TROIS' SAN FRANCISCO — Sutter Home Winery Inc is suing Shmaltz Brewing Co, accusing it of in- fringing its "Menage a Trois" trademark by sell- ing a 12-pack of its beers with the "MANNAge a Trois" name, reports Reuters. Shmaltz uses MANNAge a Trois for the sale of its Hop Manna, Hop Mania and Hop Mom- ma India pale ales. But Sutter Home called the name "confus- ingly similar" to Menage a Trois, which it said it began using in 1997 and trademarked in 2006, according to Reuters. Sutter Home said it has sold more than $1 billion of Menage a Trois red, white, rose and sparkling wine since 2009, including more than 32 million bottles worth in excess of $193 mil- lion last year, and it spends millions to promote it, Reuters reports. "Plaintiff owns extremely valuable goodwill in its Menage a Trois mark and the mark has extraordinary financial value," and Shmaltz should not "unjustly benefit from such asso- ciation," Sutter Home said in its complaint, ac- cording to Reuters. The lawsuit seeks triple and punitive dam- ages, and a name change. It was filed in San Francisco federal court. SEXTING BAN PROPOSED IN U.K. LONDON — Britain's health secretary says those under 18 should be prevented by social media companies from texting sexually explicit images, according to The Guardian. Giving evidence to the Commons health committee on suicide prevention efforts, Jer- emy Hunt also called for a crackdown on cy- berbullying by the technology industry via the introduction of software that can detect when it is happening, reports The Guardian. "There is a lot of evidence that the technol- ogy industry, if they put their mind to it, can do really smart things," Hunt said, according to The Guardian. "For example, I just ask myself the simple question as to why it is that you can't prevent the texting of sexually explicit images by people under the age of 18, if that's a lock that parents choose to put on a mobile phone contract. Because there is technology that can identify sexually explicit pictures and prevent it being transmitted." Hunt also said social media platforms should be able to identify cyberbullying by word pat- tern recognition and "prevent it happening," reports The Guardian. POLICE CAMS GET HUMAN 'WILDLIFE' GARDNER, Kansas — Police looking for a mountain lion discovered a different kind of wildlife in this supposedly sleepy town of 19,000. "In an effort to determine if there was a pos- sibly dangerous animal in the area we deployed two trail cameras to check for activity in the area," the department said in a Facebook post, according to Global News. "We are glad to re- port that over the time they were up we did not see a mountain lion. "We were however surprised by some of the images that the cameras did take," the statement continued. The cameras did capture images of a skunk, raccoon, a coyote and town residents dressed as Santa Claus, pigs and gorillas — or possibly a yeti, reports Global News. "We have included a few of these images for your review. We now have another different concern. We are attempting to identify some of the wildlife and activity in these images," police wrote. "We would like to sincerely thank the per- sons responsible as it made our day when we pulled up what we expected to be hundreds of pictures of coyotes, foxes and raccoons," police said on Facebook. LT Yasir Naqvi has announced changes to the way Ontario's Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee functions. A DAILY BLOG OF CANADIAN LEGAL NEWS LEGALFEEDS.CA FEEDS LEGAL POWERED BY FEEDS LEGAL FEEDS LEGAL Untitled-6 1 2016-11-29 3:28 PM

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