Ultra Vires Vol 5 Issue 6 2004 Mar

Page 1

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO FACULTY O F LAW

u tra vires ~ 5TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

VOLUME 5 ISSU E 6

_

MARCH 23 , 2004

WWW. ULTRAVIRES. CA

Enterprise.Legal Services shut down by Faculty "Shocked" directors decry lack of student consultation BY SIMREN DESAI 1\fter auditing the operations of Enterprise Legal Senices (EU.,), the Facultv of L!w announcc:J 111 early :\larch that th~ studentrun business law clinic for low-income entrepreneurs will close. Opened in 1994 by U of T law students, with review counsel supplied by BLtkc Cassels & Graydon LLP, the clinic's mand<ttc prevented it from ever beconung constituted under Legal Aid Ontano as a legal aid clinic, unlike the other climes where students receive creclit for participation. The liability implications of the clinic's status, a shortage of funcling, and a lack of control over programs for academic credit, were cited by the Faculty as the main CL":lsons for closure. In a memo from ,\cting Dean Brian Langille anti Assistant Dean of Career Sen·ices Bonnie Goldberg, dated ,\larch 7, 2004, EJ.S volunteus <tnd review counsel were informed that 1-.I .S would "cease formal oper.ttlons" at the end of the academic year. The memo noted that the decision to close the clinic had bcctt difficult, "given tts importance to tl1e student body and its value to the Faculty as a practical business law clinical expenence." ~onethcless, "la)s the clinic is currently constituted, the Faculty has no effective and credible Wa)' tO prO\'lde and monitor the quality of work at ELS or the work for which students receh·e academic creclit." The lerter \\ ent on to note that despite Blake~· gen~rosiry, the ftrm has "a much greater role m the curriculum component of the law school and much greater mteracrion with students than is permitted in other clinics anti programs within the faculty."

While the clinic's student directors could not dtspute the Faculty's reasons for closure, they felt that the tlecision came down too suddenly. when they were informed of it at a meeting with Langille. Goldberg, and Assistant Dean Lois Chiang in mid· February. "\'\'e received an email [before the meeting); from the way the letter was worded I thought we were gomg to get more money. ]magine my surprise when we were tolu it was going to be shut down. I could hardly contain my shock during the meet-

PLEASE SEE "FACULTY" ON PAGE 6

Law Ball 2004

Boys and th e ties that bind at Law Ball, this p ast M ar. 13.

P/J(J/o tvl•rfc{Y q/ Bfmina Butt.

Lome Sossin new associate dean Appointment comes in wake of controversial Duggan tenure BY BEN ARKIN Professor !..orne Sossin is set to take over the position of Associate Dean, JD Program, from Professor Tony D uggan, potentially marking the entl of a pcncxl of tense relations between students and the administration. Acting Dt.-an Brian Langille said that he was pleased to make the announcement since "Professor Sossin has the overwhelming support of ~tudents, staff and facull): I am confident tl1at he will do a terrific job." 'Ibe associate dL-an is responsible for dealing '"ith ~tuuents' academic difficulties b)~ for example, making disciplinary decisions. considering appeals of grades, or hearing applications to defer exams. Duggan is also responsible for such faculty matters as teaching allocations, acad~mic progmm development. and participanon in \'arious committees.

Duggan has lx:en at the centre of tension between students and the administration on a number of occasions thts past year. At a firstyt:ar academtc onentation sesston in late Oct. 2003, a student expressetl concern about not yet having started to prepare case briefs. Duggan responded, "There are still job openings available at McDonald's." Although the remark was met with laughter, many students were takm aback. Ros Sipos (1), in attendance at the ~ession, said, "I think it was meant to sound hke a joke, but there was an underlying harshness to it." Duggan later apologized to the ~tudent. Although Dllgbtan would not comment directly on this particular remark. he did suggest that it might have been exaggerated in the context of the 11..'11SC atmosphere. "It was felt by the faculty that the topic reaUy made students very eJg)~" he said. "They were fac-

ing their first assignments and were not very familiar with the requirements of law school [The session! wa~ dc::.igned to be constructive but for whatever rt.":Json it came through the other w-ay around." He saitl that the ~cssion would not hkcly be held in the future.

PLEASE SEE "SOSSIN" ON PAGE 9

UVINDEX • • • • •

MOOTING, P7 POll RESULTS, P12 EXCHANGE, P14 CHIEF'S FAREWELL, P17 CROSSWORD, P26


UllRA VIRES

NEWS

2

23 MARCH 2004

NEWS

FROM PI LUAR TO POST

New SLS executive set to move on key issues

Faculty of Law caught by tuition freeze

Valledictorian re-vote prompted by student backlash BY HILARYBOOK t u hcd

BYANDREW PlWAR

CORIU.C1 10N In ". cCTcC'i compro tnt t\ld Ill f I(Ult\ rcfttton•)up " ndrC\\ PJII r, I h 10, 2004, Hugh \\ tlh \\ 1 mcorrtl.d) tdenuficd a the prC1ildc:nt of the ).a\\ ~tudent ' !\ ocrauon .u the L Ill\ r 11\ of ( l•ar\ \\ alh 1 111 fact th(' pr(' td('nt of the I 1\\ Students' \ octau n at the l nt\cn;rn of \lhcrhl L \ regret the error ('

I

t

In

1

3

fi•r the ne

1 1\\0 }ear

Canadian Law School Tuition Fees Schoo'l UofA

usc

1999/00

4300 *3000 *4800

2000/01

4547 *3000 *4800

2001/02

4689 *3000 *4800

2002/03

4859 5000 4944

2003/04

2004105

2005/06

7169 7000 7752 8346 6000 5697 4126 5806 12000 8899 8961

8575 9000 10500

10500 10663

14000 12000 12856

5649 10500 9255

**6649

**7649

Inc rwnour of the parrul hftmg of the frcczt Slilrted ''hen a diSUJSSJOn paper '' luch suggested a fi, e percent hike 111 tu111on for dereh'llUted faculnes made n \\'a} to the lqronlo Jtar. Accord1ng ro J.mda Chun e 10, pokcsperson for the MmJStl) of J'rnmmg. Colleges and Unl\ crsiues, the suggcsuon to allo\\ mcrease \\'liS qwckly reJeCted h) both the flonournblc fal) Ann Chamber and b) Premier lcGuinty. Ch1ancs1o cxpbmed that the go,ern mcnt mtcnds to \\ ork \\1th umvcrsuy admlmstt11t011i and other stakchoi1IC'n 0\er the next t'oi."O year11 to de:~ clop 2 f;tah\e fund \n~ IIU-atcr.y ·n,e thmnc 11\'ccch ell\\ d fo t 5899 Saskatchewan e•t;,l•l~ hmcm of ''11 long rcrm plan rha I I 16000 14000 UofT cn~urcs tl1c qu;~IIIJ and •l:CCS~Ji ulliJ of hrgher educauon for gcnerauon s ro come." /n dcl·d, Chi.Jf'H' w men tioned th,u the " p u h uf rhcgm<."mmcn r on·r rlw long run is to rtduce fees, anJ to t•nsurc th;ll postsecondary c:duc~tion IS affordable a nc.l accc:ssthle." 'J'he Ministry expects that una These tuitoo numbers were collected from websrtes of each law school and by contacting individual admissions offiCes. All ftgures reprevcrsntcs wtll know thetr funding snuauon sent first-year tu1tion rates for a Canad1an citizen in an LL.B.-equivalent program of study. Fagures for McGtll refer to non-Quebec res dents. for the commg )Car by June, after the • Approximate. provmaal budget. ·ntis has been the stan•• Minimum fagure. Actual tuition has not been finaliZed dard tuneltnc tn prCVJous ) cars. Hut what will the tUIUOn frec:;-c mc:m for dcrcl,tUUtcd faculue that had been count mg on tutuon tn ·rca cs before the dec uon' Acung Dean Bmn Langille notes that the hudge1 dctads at the urmcr II) gcncrall) (and at the law school h) cxtcn BY ANDREW PI WAR \.aucu motion whach 8tatec.l the F.tculty m J.muar} 10 dtscu s the finano:.~l sitttttlon, swn) nrc lughl~ conJectural at thts pornt C,ouncd's oppouuon to tumon mcrcasc:s at md rob ternunauons and otl1cr a•ts \\ere Th1s 1~ d~ to the changeable nature o f l·arlter tht!! month, students and faculty rhc present urn 'I he monon earned hy n announced 10 nud l·ehrullry. fundmg calculauons C'Wcrthcless, th c:: at 0 goode f Iall I..a~ • chool responded to \Ute of ll 3, wtth e.ght ah tcnuon'l. In rcspon e to the dean's tu1uon propo Unt\er uy ha adopted a stance ha cd or1 Dean Patnck 1onahan's propo al to The: day's protests \\ere organLZed by the a~ the Student Caucus pn·parcd an ..alrt rna hkcl) gmttnmental policy, and IS proceed mcrc:ase tumon to $15,000 a year b) 2007 Osgoodc l...'lw ACU\"'Sts' A socuuon (OI.AA), tnc budget" from the lllw school budget figmg tn the face of a twuon frcczc for th c:: 2008 by stagmg 2 d:~y of protest. and supponec.l by the Student Caucus. •tne ures, suggesung a combmauon or )inured nat t\lo'O }elUS. Accordtngly, the UnJ\emt y On Monday, March 8, a number of chool agreed to aud10 record all lectures dur- twuon mere-a cs and expanded enrollment has tmpo cd budgcUI) con tnlntS (indud 0 node students bo}cotted thetr dassc::s and 111 • "Quit School fur n l);ay," so student to bndge the financaal gap. At the l•acult) m a 1\\'0 percent cutback tht }car) auned attended 11 l'olculty Council meeting nt lunch, could attend the protest \\1thout hamtg to CoUJtctl mceung, the Student Caucus also atunposmg mtntrrul cuts mer the next 1\\o 'llihcrc: the dean' propo al uere discussed. mlS the nuterUI CO\ ered m lectures. rntsed concern that the fmdtngs of the )Clln.. The atm cern lObe tO deiJy Urge r As nuny a 40 students \\TIC: on hand uitcn 'l'hc \Ole of the f·nculty Councilts not Acccs 1b1ht) Study of the Counctl o f cut rn the hope that the prm'tnce's funchng the J acuity Counal adopted 2 tudent umding on the dean, \\ho puns to conunue Ontano Law Deans and the Law Society of \\'lth hts proposal for n twuon hil.e when Upper Canada \\111 not be available wml York's Board of Gmernors mttt m June. June. Both the dean and the fllcult) haYe , 'l\\'0 rnudcnt from Student Caucus ha\e cxprcs cd their comrrutmC'nl to the suney hccn gmranteed the nghtto make reprcscn 111 the pa t, nnd (,oldbbtt felt that thtS comt.atton 10 the Board v.hcn the dean tables nutment ma) ha\e S\\'ll)Cd a number of fachr propoul ult} members to back the studcnt motiOn. Accord1ng to thtrd )car Student Caucu ·111c twtton at 0 goode lialll..a"' School member Jord:m <.oldhbu, the dean and the 1 current!} 12,000 per )C.U. The dean and studcnt ha\c been rn dulogue smcc the ~mdcnt Caucu ha\ e agreed to drnft a October, \lo hen the rcaluy of <) goode' JOint letter to the prm111caal gO\cmmcnt, blck financ1 I IIU.ltton became apparent a king for changes to the manner 111 \\ hach l'he dan held an open forum v.1th tudcnt U\\ c.hool arc funded

Calgary Dalhousie Manitoba McGill Moncton

4500

4500

4500

4500

UNB

Osgoode Ottawa Queen's

UVic Western Windsor

8000

8000

4684

5903

7084

8000

10000

12000

2896

2896

2751

10000 7792

3576

7000

9000

\ppro unatcl) 200 student paru 1pated m Ia t \\ttk' • tudcnt 'l..a\\ Soctery • l..'i) eiC'C uon 11~e nC\\ Sl~ \\'Ill hn\'t' man) farmlur filcc James lcChr} (I I) \\'111 t kc o\ cr frurn outgotng Prcstdcnt Robm lux (II 1), and James Rtdcrt (I) replaces J.mdSC) f I~ (II) a \ICc pre tdcnt Me< br) 'll 11 second )Cllr reprcscnh1U\c on h1cuh\ Cowtc.tl tlu ) car, nnd Rieken wa a first ) car tudcnt affairS rcpresc:ntntJ\ c. In addinon to lc br) and R1 ken, thl )Car' second )Car I acultl ( uunCJI Represent aU\ c , \a ron Peters. 1 nnq Rem tulia, \m} alyzyn, and Jcnmfer muh, \\ere all acclauncd a thrrd )t'llr mcrnbcn.. ltrst )Cllr 1-awlt) Counal mcmhc:rs You uf A ftah, inrgot 1-tnlC). and ndrcv. P1D1ar \\'lll he JOined h) :-:oah Gellner and Andrew llcnnigilr as St'Cond yc:tr rcprcscntatt\c.~ next ye:~r. 'I hl· nc\\' Studc:nr ,\tt;airs RepH'Sl'nl.lll\ <."5 :Jrt' Alon Fi~cmnan {1), Angelo Gcnttll• (1), Emily Rix (II), ,\lar.tnd;~ Cass Donnelly (II), Lind ey llatg (lll), and Jcnmfcr Jarlllcson (Ill). Haig and .Jarme on nrc hoth gomg on exchange." next }car. nnd \\'111 split the posnion. ext }car's I.S has man} rmport.mt items on it gcnda. lcCbry hcl.iC\cs that "past sond:tl~ ha\c lc.d to an cm'll'onmcnt tn the law school where there: IS dt tru 1 of the semor adnumstranon h) stuc.lcm anc.l srmt br distru t of student mothcs hy cn1or

adrnirustrlltton" lo r t e b bn e t, the ra uh\ tudent Jd.Uton hap. M bl) ill \\'Ork on promoung "more •pen d 100 nukmg tJ, the facull} a v.1t lc:, but 1 1 Jrm •memmcnt tnUJI pb, rok: ua bndg mg the gap bet ccn rudcnt \'01 c nd dttr lOll m:tkc:r Ill the rJ~aCWt\ and pcrhap Rl the UJUVCJ' II) le\ d \\ ell. ' Pilhar grco th t du rruuon h1p ~ 011(' of the kc) ts ucs ( cmg the 1.\ and 1 opu mr uc tim n t )ear J. u11l be blc t butld on prugres made tht \Or uh c.ung D n Bnan Langill Both Ptlliar nd (,clJner hdtc\e that mcmt mg the J cult, budget ccountahtht) 1 an unportilnt arcp m tht procc In terms of tudent affaars, Gentt.lc ) th t next )Cllr' SI.S rnu 1 orgamzc more creamc C'\ent , such as "cross profcs ton nl faculty pub naghts." Gentile nl o a)S c\ cnts that hnng students 1111d facuh) together nn· unportnnr in rmprm1ng facul I) srudt·nt rcbtton. haps, and cii<'S the sue C<55 of rlus )car's. rudcnt.s \ . l'rofs1rl\ta < hallcngc. New VIC<' Pre idcnt Rickert &a}S that ha,ing new C\Cnt i amponnnr, hut that 11 IS al5o Important to get fir r )ears · rmol~ed 111 Si.S e~cnts nght 8\\'ll). R1dcrr lso bdtc\CS urs 1mport2nt ru dar tf} the fundmg process for student or •am zatlflllS. 1'1u bcltcf 1 harcd h) II ag. \\ ho a)S hudgeung pohocs must he made more \1 thlc. 1 ht• dn;uon them ch cs lwc:une lh

orne of the neu l..S g:~ng (frum left): Alon Hizcnnum, You uf Aft b, ,Andrew l lcnnigM, Jr•mc· Rkkcrt, Mirnnda G -Dunnell , J mc11 McCiaf), rutd 'o h Gellner. Jlhoto f01111t(J Stmrrn Dmn subJeCt of oontrmcrt~y \\hen there V.'81 orne confu tun 0\cr the process u e<l h) Chief ltcturmng Officer lla.g to hort lr 1 nomme for \'ltlcdt ton;m, the John ilh Aw;ud for exrrucurncubr contnbuuon, tlte Alan Me\\ctt A\\ard for Tcachmg f'.Xccllence, nnd for the profcs or who de&. er the Hail & hrC\\c\1 !ipecch at r,radua non . I.S l'rcs1dcnt Rtx mdac:ued there would he n re \Otc f•n these honour. 11mcc the"< htrf Rct\lmtng < lrftccr made 11 ckn01\

50 c rrutl n:ccned to the ballot," hut that "there u

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atudc:nt nomme ." ltix mdlcated that

'otmr, u maW uccur by preferential b:illotmg to help nunage the luge number of notru n es. and he thanked ..I!'WCr)onC \loho took the un1e to apr a thcu belie£ that the c\ uons proccs '11.'1 not a transparent 11 could ha'lic been." Qnc of the dla\\c:nr,o b.cmr, ncx\ 'jOt'a

crrot m tr~nscnhmr, the n:.unca \rnn1 U>c '10

O practice

D theory

Osgoode students strike over tuition hike

You've studied t he law. Are you going to put it to good use making photocopies? Join a firm that derstands what summer students really want to do: work. We take you seriously, and give un you serious responsibilities. Write Deborah Glatter at 'dglatter@casselsbrock.com or check out www.casselsbrock.com/student.asp

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Sweet 'n lowdown

cb CASSELS BROCK o 2003 2~ Cassell Brock '

euc•wen LL~

Cane

SI'QC' al!CIIM Cll

1,. tr~t.,.. h of Ca

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LA W YE

S


NEWS

23 MARCH 2004

U ofT demonstrates competitive mooting prowess BY DAVID KHAN Once again, U ofT Law has prov~n itself \l worthy adversary at the competitin· moots. As the name implies, students who elected to participate in these moots, rather than the compulsory ones, competed for honours such as best team, best oralist, and best factum. Co· Chtef Justices of the Moot Court Committee, Sana I lalwani (III) and Alex \'an Kralingen (liT), headed the organiza non of the teams, while the student coaches worked wtth the mooters on an indtvidual bast~

"-otcd \'an Kralingen, "students typically moot m their second }'t'31', and giw back to tht· program b} serving as mentor/coach for the Jnext year's] team. Each moot has a facul ty advisor, but... the students arc really the driving force behind the program." \'an Kralmgen joined forces with Robin Reinerrson to coach the Jessup Moot team this year. The moot problem concerned the jurisdiction of the International Cnrmnal Court. The Jessup is hosted by a different law school each year-this year, it took place tn Vancouver, British Columbia, from Feb. II to 14. U of T Law-ably represented by te-am members Htlar} Book (II;, Kevin-Paul Den:au (II), Lanssa Ruderman (II), and '\!Cole Skuggedal (11)-won the Canadian national championship as well as the awards for Best Team l\Iemorials (!'acta), and Best Respondent ..\Iemorial (Facrum). Book also

placed 6th tn the indi,·idual oralist r:mkings, while '\tcole \Vas named Best Indi,·idual Oralist and Best Anglophone Oralist. The ,.,·inning team is off to Washington, D.C. from ..\larch 28 to Apr. 4 to compete in the Intcrnanonal Rounds of the Jessup competirion. The Wilson \foot is an annual competl tion honounng \fadame Justice Hertha \\ tlson, the first female JUstice w sit on the '->upreme Court of Canada. The Wilson focuses on equality issues raised by ,·arious provisions of the Ch,;rttr, including, but not limited lO, section 15. The moot is always held in the Federal Court Bmlding in Toronto, and this year concerned a minor's right to ,·ote, implicating sections 3 and 15 of the Cf,arltr. Audrey Ackah (II), '\adtne Harris (II), Ingrid Grant (IT), and Oscar Strawczynski (II), composed the team. I lavtng placed second behind L'BC for the last three years, U of T felt the pressure to rectify the situation. The team's dedica non paid off. After the irlitial round, U of T Law was second after McGill. In the final round, however, U of T mooted its way to the rop. The highlight of the competition was the final round before the distinguished panel of Justice Ian Binnie, Justice Kathryn Feldman, and Jeffrey Leon of Fasken \larnneau, during which an amusing interchange resulted when Grant quoted Binnie in dissent to Binrut, who expressed outrage and indignation that the opmion had been a dissent. The victors were coached by Eli PuUan (ll l)

Winning Jessup mooters: Nicole Skuggedal, Kevin-Paul Deveau, Robin Reinertson (coach), Larissa Ruderman, and Hilary Book. Pboto rollrlt!J of Robm Rtintrl.ron. and \nn Velez (III). The Laskin Moot on constitutional and admimstrative law is a national bilingual moot named after the former Chief Justice of Canada. It was also hosted by UBC and took place Feb. 26 to 28. This yt~.u:, the moot concerned the right of the public to express itself during a trial. \lore specifically, the moot dealt wtth the nghts of spectators supporting an t.ndividual accused of facilitating terrorist acti-,,f}·, and whether their rights were violated when they were expelled from a courtroom for wearing hcadbanus and buttons showing suppon for the. accused.

year, the topic IS an mternational child custody dispute, and invoh·es the I I ague Com.-ntioll 011 lht Rights of tbe CIJI!d. One of the tssucs t.n the case is whether the child in quesnon should be returned to 1oronto m light of the health threat posed by "SI Ds", a fictitious disease. 1be U of 'I tt:am was made up of John Adair (ll , Keuh Burkhardt (Ill), Michael hshbein 11), and Sorcha O'Carro\\ (H). The tc-.un, coachcu by f'~y :\lak (Ill), tcwc\\t."<.\ to Lovo\a Univcn;itv in Chicago for the ~\a:rcn \'t\ to '21\ moot. Ft,..hh<."1n n;countcd a m<.-m<)tO\\~\c

(\l.\0\c \rom one. o( the '<UI\ thr<~"- dunnv wh\ch he .-...\<.\, ..We <\on'\ want to w.o.c.n\'"-"" "'"" ()n the U of T \.a"' tcmn wc~c \)o.,">d d'\\\&l , .n '\"\c. .U\-a't {ot. \i ~n\.hCT"• 'Wo'\n n C<·~rn'"" (\\) (\'n:n..:.h ~\ooH!T), ~\\\ c \ h . m crn:U ~pc: moo.~ ,. \\unn'kct 11\ , \· c.l•t \fmlU' \\), unU

.Jcffi<;) Sh2fcr (11). Tht.') ranked fourrh !'l:Jr.;c m the f:1ctum caregor)~ anti rwo ol rht•

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I.sm ts the llonourablc l·rnnk \\ . Cnlhlgh:m ,\foor, ~nd u~rs cn.-:rtcd m mt'f11VCJ of Chie-f Jusrict• Call.rghan who w:1s the Jirsr chief iu:;cicc of tht• n:ozg-.mi?cd Ont:trio a:mrt sptt•m. The moot, in its tenth year. j,; llcl<l at< >sgoodt•

moore.rs placed among the cop 25 w:a/Jsr,;: Shafer was 6rh and .\Iarques Wl.lS u~t11 • Tht• ream was coached by Bernina Butt (Ill), /asr year's French mooter. Professor Ian l.ce was Hall. and enjoys rhe ongoing .'upporr of thl.' the facultv advisor. Butt enthused. '~\t the judiciary: All srudenrs ,,·err mencoccd by Laskin, th~re is a great emphasis on getring Court of Appeal for Ontano judges. ( ·hrcf to know Anglophone and Francophone Jaw Ju.~rice of the Superior Court lJearhcr :;mnh students from across the country. The moot ;md Chief Jusoce of Ontario Roy .\Ic.\lurtry is defmitely about more than winning, and .ts presided over the final roWJd. 'Ibe case chis vear was based on R 1: arguably less divisive t~an orhers:-~?d tn Tmling, which co~cerns section 8 of the that respect, it ts irlcredibly rewar~g. Charttr. constirutionalif}· of the warrantless 'Ibe G~lc \loot is the oldest naoonal comusc of an infrared camera mounted on a petiuon and usually c~ncerns a criminal plant to detect high levels of heat producand/ or Charier issue. It ts always held at the tion in a house (due to a marijuana gr_mv Court of Appeal for Ontario here in Toro~to. operation), and the usc of this information This year, the moot case was R ll l'\Jr;tf. ~vhich . exarmnes whether the accused's confessiOn to as evidenct: to apply for a search warrant of the murder of a ) oung boy made on the stand the premtses. Sixteen students competed in eight teams at his brother's trial is admissible to challenge of t\\ o on March 5 and 6. The top tl..'am was hts credibility at his own trial in which he SH·n llombach (II) and Brock .Jone~ (III). denied involvement in the killing. The top orali~ts were Gleb Bazov (II) tn fi~t L of r tt-am members were Daniel Bach place, _lone~ in ~econd, and Homba~h tn (II , '->tdney ,\[cLean (II), Ryan \torns_(ll), and I ·.lien Snow (II). After prclumnary third. The award for the best nppclbnt s facrounds against the t.;niversitr of Calgary tum went to ~yrannc .\lartin (II) & James and Universitr of Windsor, the team's hard \lcCiary (II), while Bazov and Oren B!ck (II) work got them into the final round. _At ~~~ W< Ill for writing the best re~pondent's tactum. The Securities ~loot, ~ponsored b) finah., the team mooted agamst L'Umvcrstte Da,ies Ward Phillips & Vincherg, _was du Quebec a..\tontrcal (UQ,\\1). The U of coached b) TreYor Ogle (III) and Scan '1' team ended up fourth overall out of 1(1 (111) was . · The facult\' . coach . • eawn schools, with the University of \ tctoria S Professor Douglas Harris. ~lelanle Adams coming first, UQA\1 second, and Western third. Bach won one of the three Dtckson (II), SteYe Penner (II), Ben Perri~ (II), and Lawrence Taylor (II) placed first tn the fac~1edals for best mdividual oralist. Coaches thts vear were Bill Thompson (II I) and tum categon, and third overall. Co ·lch Seaton said that as a result of the \laryili Yachnin (III). . . ·· . fT credit svstem for compeunve moots, U o " The '\jtagara ..\loot is a regional mo<~t m<l<)ters· arc "underpaid and O\ erworked. involvmg t.nternanonal law and ~pproXI ':-le;tton added that most other ~chools award matcly 15 American and Cana~1an. ~a~li more credits to competitive mooters. schools from the Great Lakes regiOn. l h1s


6

ULTRA VIRES

NEWS

Faculty insists ELS model unsustainable "ENTERPRISE" CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ing," rtcalled hh an Zargar (JI). one of the chmc's dm·e directors. Ryan l..a\-allee QI) was the only othl'f director present at the mct·tmg smcc D.wid Rosenfeld (Ill) was awa\' on ' tcation at the nmt·. 'lbt· dtrectors \\ere also dtsappointed hy thcir lack of input to the decision. \'\ben Professors Ian Lee and Douglas llarris conducted an audit of ELS <>n behalf of the I acull), ''(a)ll three directors \\ere mter \IC\\ed. HO\\C\Cr, \\C assumed that the ~tuJ\ was about makmg 'structural imprm ements.' I nC\ cr got an) indic:IUon thar the result of the s!Ud) could lead to a shutdown. c>thcr than that I can f,urJy ~ar th;u we had no mput into the deciSion-making pron·s~." s:ud Zargar. ' RoH•nfdd echoed this 'iew, noting that "lth( 1-acultyjrold us :tt the beginning of the year rlut there \\~Is concern o\'er the strucIUrt• of tht• cltnu.:. \\'c asked them to work on it w11h us. hut \H' were told that Blakes and the !•acuity were working on ir. .. we didn't han· any Input at all, critical input anyways; the dt•ci ion \\"liS JUst placed on us.'' f·urther, whrle full reasons were given by the Facull)•, 111 Hoscnfcld'~ opinion the precise c:tlculus behind the deci,ion remains unclear. "\\~e asked for a copy of the audit and they wouldn't give it w us," saitl Rosenfeld. Langille, on the contrary, felt that the process was open and ck-ar. \\Then concerns

were first exprcs ed to studt:nts and Blake~ 111 the fall, "Blah'S was herotc in re-vamping their supervision of the clinic. But it \\"liS maUl' ck'llr that this was a yuid. fix.'' l..ang!llt• sa1d that tlw audit clarified to the l•acult}' "how much work was being done, \\hat ~ort of work was heing done, and how it \\aS being dom•. '!bey put down on paper a lot of what people already knew ... ,\t the end of th( day, [the administrarion)mt·t as a group and went mer the audit.'' • l..mgilk insists that sntdcnts should he looking fon\'llrd: " t the mectmg \\ith srudents [m Februar} j, my scnH' was th:n L'\Cf\Onc in the room understood that thl~ \\'lls .not n sustatnahlc model, bur that this challenge cmueJ an opporruntty to mno \ltre." lie rnadt• tt ek~tr, howe,·cr, that srudents should not expect ~uch an initiatiw to come from the administration. ''There is no formal proct·ss mmlvmg facull)·. The thing ro remember IS that the clinic was starred by students. One of the things you don't do around here is ass1gn faculty ro jobs. There has to be a champion of the cause. If a pro fessor comes ro us and teUs us that he has a group of srudcnts tnterested, then things can h:tppcn." Langille abo emphasized the Facull)·'s budgetary considerations. saying that "!ijn a world in wh1ch we arc going to take a twopercent cut ami tuition freezes, we arc constrained." :-\oncthcless, he appt."ars committed to finding an alternate format for the

23 MARCH 2004

NEWS

7

UV Briefs

chnic. "\X'e arc rt-:tdy, wtlhng and able to introduced, the old clinic must be properly closed. Thts inn>h-es closing dozens of cur· respond to an} student mitiative," he s:u~. Goldberg suggested some poss1blc rc:ntly open client files. Blake~. who accord approadws, such as "lsjomething smaller; ing to Goldberg ''has been amazing," will mad>e something :11 the Faculty and run by play a largt· role in this process. It was fac~lt\, hkc !'\oah .Novogrodsky's new regrettable th;ll the clinic would haYc to Intcr~auonal !hunan Rights Clinic; maybe close, mused Goldberg, since obtaining as a Jj, ision of Downtown Legal Sen·ices." · Blakes for onsite reYiew counsel had been But before any new program can be "a revolutionary step."

Execs undaunted by low turnout MNEWW CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 t-'\t'CUII\c \\til be mcre1smg ~tttdt-nt p r octpatlon m ..,u; atfai~ \X1ult approxt match 200 ~ruJcnts \Oted m llus }Car':; elc·ct1 ms, o;econd .md third rear student aff:urs and third yt.tr J•acultv ( ounol n:prescntau,cs \\ere acdatmtd Current \ ICC Prestdcnt Haig Sil\ s that lack of snr dent participation tn elections ts an on· gomg pmblem. Attempts \Verc made to addres~ this 1 sue by pcrsonallv reaching out to srudcnts and cncourap;mg them to run, but Hatg thtnks that a more orgamzed c.tmpaign rna~ he nc<.essary for next

)Cat. ~lcCJary, hO\\C\Cr, bclte\eo; that the accl.muuons ma} simp)~ be a sign that s~ud<.:nts arc content wtth thctr cxisnng gm ernmcnt ( :ellncr agrees wtth thts '\ICW, but !'i:I}'S th.tt to the C.'(tcnt there h

srudc'lt path\, 11 IS attnbut,tblc to the ~I s• lad• ot po\\cr, and that thts must be ch.mged h\ mc.reascd rcspono;I\Cnes' <1nd transpan.nc\ on dtc p.trt of the faculty. In addmon to SI ~ del uons, Ben \rlun '~a:; acclaimed 1s the I 1\\ rcpresentati' e for the S \C: Board <,f Directors. fhe Board of Dtn:ctors steer~ !:-'A<. pohC\ \\llh rtspect to issues such as tlw health plan, \letropass, n1uahty, and ac.cessihilit\. \rkin's goals .uc to mcrco~sc ti~ betv.een Ia\\ student and the tudent bod} as a whole. In general, he wants to increase SAC invohemcnt m professiOnJl facult\ tssu~s. such as the tutuon debate. I .a\~ students also' otcd m clccoons for the GO\ errung Counul. Stefan • c.at, (wgmcenngJ and AndrC\v Puuo 'mt:dt Clltc) \\on the two scats for dtc constltuencr that includes Ia\\. l..a\\ student Na... ine Ar,gaf\\ al I) came 111 thtrd.

Splnlove lost? 1be fourth annual Student Public Interest etwork Legal Action Workshop (SPINLAW) conference for public interest legal 1ssues, this year entided ·~1 You Need is Law," rook place on March 12 and 13. Co Organizer Ken Stuebing was a little disappointed wtth the attendance, which was only "about 35 people OYer the course of the weekend," representing about an 80 percent decline from previous years. "There's been a bit of a loss of heart in the student body at the law school," Stuebing mused. "Outside SPI'\iL \W, there aren't roo many forums that holistically treat the issues we dealt with this year.'' Other than a decline in interest, Stuebing also noted that the small size of the organizing committee "weakened our abilil)• to network," and that Law Ball was a sigmficant conflict, "but the date was set to coincide with the Career Development Office's Publtc Interest Career Da/' on M:trch 12. SPINJ..A\X''s keynote address was delivered by David Lcpofsky, who provided lobbying tips based on ten years of experience wllh the Ontarians with Disabililiu Art. The second d:ty of the conference featured numerous issues in need of succe~sful lobbytng. Cynthia Wilkey, a staff la\\"}er at the Income Security AdYocacy Centre, and Kathy Laird, Director of Legal Services at the AdYocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, spoke on the criminalizarion of po\'crty and the structural flaws of Ontario's housing-

protection regime. The afternoon's agenda also covered topics such as the inability of transsexual persons to access either male or female shelters, inadequate food supplies in food banks, and ineffective environmental proceed..tngs. Despite the meagre attendance, Stuebing was happy with the quality of the speakers. "At the end of the day, notwithstanding the poor attendance, the conference was a success," he said. Looking forward, he asserted that "1f SPIN LAW happens agam next year, it will have to take a new form ... but these serious (public interest) issues aren't going away. '!bey will always be around, whether or not we choose to ignore them." • - Kirslm Agrtll

"How [is Canada) supposed to know that a chtld in Costa Rica has been abused by a Canadian when there's no one on the ground to lia~.se with the local officers?" he asked. T he Future Group is a non-profit organi zation that assists sex-trade victims.

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International Law Students Conference successful

Students help students cross borders

W-Five seeks law student's opinion

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The 11th annual Canadian International Law Students Conference \\"liS held at the U ofT Faculty of Law on March 6, 2004. "fbe event, jointly organized by students from Osgoode Hall and the U of T, featured Thts year, 43 students in first and second practirioners and acadenucs in the field of year applied for 15 faculty-funded mterna international Ia\\: Presentation topics ranged rional internships. Da\'id Lisson (II), StC\·e from cross-border transactions to "torture Penner (II), and Da,;d \X'ei (III), are opti· as tort". Conference participants enjoyed rnisnc that the Students Helping Students the e\'ent and pr:used the di\'ersil)' of topics Internship Program \\1ll increase the num- and excellent organization. ber of internships available to interested Over 100 people attended the e\·ent. students. Although respectable, turnout would have Llsson, Penner, and Wet. who are in been higher had the conference not conBenjamm Perrin (11) was interviewed for IF'- charge of the program, have issued a letter flicted with second-year moots and ftrstFit•c's \farch 6, 2004 feature on tounsts who to second years introducing the program ycar small-group papers. 1t w-as agreed th:tr sexually exploit children in Costa Rica. and askmg them to donate one day's pay tt would be preferable to hold the event earPerrin, ExccutiYe Director of The Future from thctr summer jobs. The rax·dcductible lier in the seme.<;ter in future )'L'ars. Group, spoke on the lack of enforcement of contributions will go towards funding addt· \'\'ith nine talks held during three umc Canada's extraterritorial laws against sex tiona! internships. Last year, the donations slots, participants had a hard time deciding tourism. of nine students were matched si.x times which presentations to attend. Some "It looks great on paper," commented O\er by external sources, and resulted in t.'Xprcsscd frustration at ha...i.ng to detcrmmc Perno; however, "[w]hafs needed now is three new intcrnshtps. the comcnt of a ta\k frnm its name. and some form of enforcement that's effective." Penner is hopeful that the program ..~\\\ wou\d ha"c. ap\'rcc\atcd more dcta\h \~ctorc Perrin suggested that enhanced commu· scrve as ,, legacy of our commh•ncnt to our hand. Q"cr.,\\.1.hc c<>nfcrcnc.c ....r.a a ~uc<.c s. ''"\O'fcd hy ancndc:cs nd "\"C""c'" ~,...,., fc\\o"' students." nicarion bet"\vccn Canada and countries that N.,.,, < .<llnor S1udcnt~ "'ho 'Wou\.1 h\<c \ n "U\'\"'~' t\'c sex tourists frcx1ucnt might be a II< \urion

Get ready for your next •

program should send an email shs.law@utoronto.ca by March 26.

LLP

I I

'\


9 23 MARCH 2004

NEWS

Sossin pledges transparency In light of all this, Sossm is cauoously optimisoc that he will be able to avoid such ten\ccording to Law Games Charr Scott ston with students. The Law Games incident, Kirkpatrick (II), in another Oct. 2003 inc1 · he said, was "a cautionar; talc on the premi· urn that ought to be put on not letting pracdent, students obtained an emailed commit tices turn into assumpoons and assumpoons ment from Dean Duggan that first· year stu turn inro misconceptions. I don't think l can dents, as m prev10us years, would be allowed go mto this position saying I'm not gomg to to attend Law Games without suffermg any make miStakes, but l'\'e learned from prC\10US penalty for missing part of the January Bridge Week. Ktrl-patrick said that Duggan later deans the importance of taking these cxpcri· denied makmg the comnutment, but was con- cnces and lt:arrung from them." '\!e,·crtheless, Sossin recognized that durtradicted when a copy of the email was pro· mg his assooate deanslup, he will ha\c to duced. \ compromise was struck, and students were allowed to attend Law Game~; make difficult and unpopular decisions. He maintained that his decisions -will not be however, those students were not permitted questioned so long as they are fair and transto wnte their long papers for this Bridge. parent. "I do not v1ew the posioon as adverAccording to Kirkpatnck, the compromise sarial . .. we are all community members with a was intended to "help Duggan save face." stake 111 fairness." Another conflict with Law Games con Students are confident that Sossin will be cerned second-year students returning from up to the challenge. According to Catherine winter break. Those enrolled in the compulso Oh QII), "He's a great professor and seems ry moot were surprised to find that the appelto take a great interest in students. I think lants' draft facta were due at the start of the these qualities will make him a very caring second week back. Law Games was scheduled and responsive dean." SLS President Robin to run into the weekend prior to the due elate. Rix Qll) was asked by Dean Langille to solicAt a compulsory moot preparation semiit comments from fellow SLS members on nar on Tuesday, Jan. 6, a student asked Sossin's appropriateness for the role. Rix said Duggan whether he was aware that over 100 that "the comments were universally posmve. srudents would be leaving for Halifax the Sossin was widely viewed as a supportive, very next day. Duggan simply replied that the responsiVe, and engaging professor and perdeadlines were listed in the course materials, son. I have no doubts that he'll continue to which could have been picked up by students be dus way in his new position." And a$ early as ~ ov. 2003. Dugg:m continues to emphatically deny that Kirkpatrick was qwck to note that in the Law Games kerfuffle, Sossin ''went to bat for us." he was ever approached by Kirkpamck or any "',,,m , who ....~n ~erve a three-year lcrm as o th er I .a"" Gam e..« organi>'c.."T p rior to Dec. 2('103.

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nculum. Rix believes many things should be addressed. ''Are Bridge Weeks and electives delivering what they should? Why ha,·en't tuition increases translated into smaller class es? Earlier this year the idea was raised o f let· ring upper years get credit for serving as tutorial leaders in firsf-year classes-why do n 't we pursue this?" Rix asked. ossin's new position also im·olves m o ving utto an office ne.~ to the dean's. "I left Osgoode where every office was exactly the same, cookie cutter fashion," he satd. "[The eclectic nature of the space] is o ne of m y fa,ourite aspects of the dO\vntown existen ce, but on clays when the sun is shining, it be nice not to have to crane m y neck around the attic to ~cc it." )"L"'.l.r cur·

associate dean, is a fairly recent addition to the Faculty of La'v. Sossin came to the Faculty in 2002 from Osgoode Hall Law School. Despite his short tenure at the Faculty, he has already received an award for excellence in teaching. Sossin's new position will require him to initially carry one fewer course so that he can focus on his position's mandate, and on community and institution building. His priorines include creating opportunities for faculty members and students to interact outside of the classroom, and inYesrigating the possibility of adding legal research and writing to the first year curriculum. Outgoing SLS President Robin Ri.'{ would a\!'o \1kc to sec changes to the fu:~t

'"'ill


+

FEATURES

10

ULTRA VIRES

with LL.M students Rodrigo Garcia, Martin Gilbert and Anthea Williams

From left: Martin Gilbert, Rodrigo Garcia, and Anthea Williams. Pboto collrttsy of }11da Strau.ti}n.rki. head to the Rockies, where he skied, boarded, and dc,·eloped a se,·crc distaste for Kokanee beer. Garcia has an "irrational thing for ova Scona," and is planning a trip out east at the end of the academic year. Similarly, Williams is hoping to follow the path of Anne of Green Gables with a visit to PEL 1\t the enc.l of the year, Garcia, Gilbert,

examinations to become a lawyer Williams expects to land back tn '\.ew Zealand. With a job crunch in Toronto, it is unclear how many of the LL:\f class will be staying here after wrapping up their srudies. But before httting the books, and before facing the CXlstenrial angst of graduation, these three are happy to be hanging out with their fellow LLJ\11!. \X'i1h a ~·.raJ r.tudcnt rrip to t lu.: Wt•l\... ., u

u. '-.h.-.u tt•.u t.lu.

and Willi<tffit; will be p•trtlng ways. Garc1a

f\.\un\H.;...t \ 11\

plans to return

J.LMs won't ler schoolmg tntcrfere with their educatton just yet.

MeXJco. Gilbert will head back ro Germany to finish his second set of to

There is a point to all this, folks DEAR HELMUT Feeling down? Health Enables legal Minds at the University of Toronto (HELMUT) offers advice Dear HELMUT, It's ;\larch and my life is just a big mixedup mess of papers and reading that's not getting done and exams looming in the dis· tance. I've signed on for a job I don't think I want and 1 don't even remember why l came here. What's the point of law school anyway? - Ftd lp Dear Fed Up, Some folks come to law school to make it onto Bay Street or \\all Street or the hon· our roll of Supreme Court clerks, and for them the point of law school is to open those doors. llopefully, those who have got· ten their wish arc feeling fired-up and pros· pcrous and lucky enough to burn through their remaining law school paces. But HELMUT is, guessing that maybe you haven't gotten quite what you envisioned. Or maybe you wanted something else from law school- to "do good" or to grapple with big ideas. Or maybe you came here not knowing what you wanted. And now you're nowhere you expected to be, you have a loan albatross the size of Big Bird around your neck, and you're feeling like you have lost control of this journey.

So what, for you, is the point of law school? Fed Up, think about the law. It CO\'crs just about e\·cry known field of human cndL-a\·our. l..a\\1·crs arc not just movie vil! Iains and the butt of snarky jokes. They are the people who write constitutions, defend people from death sentences, design systems of governance and gO\·ernment, and settle vicious disputes. They guide people through some of the most desperate times of their lives-abandonment by a spouse, fmancial ruin, landmg as a refugee, standing up to violence, facing the bottom of an addiction that's led to crime. They safeguard human right~ and uphold the rule of law. They really do. "So what?" you say. You're not going to be that kind of lawyer, your fate is sealed, you'\·e "sold out," you're a debt-laden drone, that's hfe. HEL;\IUT says lose the runnel vision. Damn right you took the job. That's the responsible adult thing to do when you owe people a lot of money and you need training. Life is a long·term enterprise-you don't get where you're going all at once. You're in an arocling job, not an end game. The}' may not keep you. You may not keep them So keep exploring, now and later. Follow your nose and make note of what interests you. Store it in the back of your mind. Take opporrunmes to meet people who practice it Learn Sneak out to OBA meetings of your dream practice group, or just one that sounds cooL

Oddsmakers put Abella on top BY TARIQ REMTULLA

BY JUDA STRAWCZVNSKI

f

11

Let the prognostications begin

Coffee talk ,\!though the bw school gets top marks from all three for Its ~upporrive LLM I'm seated with a .\fcxican, a German, and administration, life tn Canada has brought its surprises. All thn:e were mirially shocked :1 Kiwi who have: all upped nnd mon:d to spl·nd a \'car with us Canueb. .\leer by the numher of homeless people U\ing in Rodrigo Garda, Manin Gtlbcrt, and 'Ji>ronto. Thl·se would be the first of se\ er;\nthca \\"'illiams, three: of the: 60 l.l \1 stu· n! images that wouldn't ~quare with dents cnrollcd at the U of T tlus yc:ar. \X'e Cnnadian stcrl'Otypcs. "I carne here with posithe preconcc:p· ha\·e made the Fla\ ellc Dining R<xlm our nons of Canadians," says \\"'illiams. '~\nd O\\ n comfy little hangout, and in between sips of coffee, they let me in on the secret Cnnathans are niCl·, hut the systems here are inefficient." As an example, \\.illiams tells cerchrnllives of grad srudcnts. of her sorry attempt to get a telephone 'Ibe J.l.i\1 communit}' is an number. The phone company odd assortment of people needed to see a bank statement, thrown together for but her banker wanted to sec a a brtc:f. hn:tic phont· number. And so Williams }Car. Garcia encountered a Canadian Catch·22. made Ius way Garcia has also had his north from small culture shocks. "I ,\kxico City, came here thinking that where he was Canada is a happy world, both a high school bur in Toronto everyone seems reacher and a lawyer. so stressed." Coming from Mexico '1\\.·o to three times a \\·eek, he City, he has brought an intriguing outsider's would gi,·e a 7:00 a.m. class, and then head off to work. After five years of perspective: "Toronto is not that big a city. corporate Lm; he was ready for a break. But it has all the problems of a big city. It Gilbert is a "professional srudent" who has transportation problems. It's dirty." came to the Uni,·ersity of Toronto fresh ~r.tll, all three have enjoyed their time in out of law school in Germany. Rounding Toronto, and have been taking ad\·antage of out the tno is Williams, who, after working the chance to see the stghts. They have all two years as a government lawyer, and two made their way to Niagara Falls for the more in private practice, was ready to head mandatory photo opportunity. Having surfrom Wellington (offtciall.y renamed ~udd\e vived the tac\Unel;l; of Clifton Hill, a spot Harrll dunng the premiere of l-ord of tl1e rhar W'illiams descnbes as, "Unashamed ro be like Las \'egas," Gilbert managed to Rings) to "Jortl1 America.

FEATURES

23 MARCH 2004

And in a year, or three, or five, whenever you're no longer ha\·ing nightmares about the bank and you feel you know a thing or two, look around. The world 1s not meant to be boring, and law school is above all else a wonderful educanon in how the world works. So when it's your time to step out, remember you've got that tool, you've honed it, and you can take it anywhere you're brave enough to go. That's the pomt.

Nud to talk wilb I IELMUT? Put a quution in the Drar I IELMUT bo..-: I?J tbe mail.foldm. Or if )'Oil 'refulin.._P, doiJJII and sul:.ing adtice of the 111ore proftm'onal kind, Nnail dtar_!xlmut@bot· mailcom and 1-IEL\IUJ' {lltalth Enables l...rgal Mind! al {) ~( 7J ui/1protideyou with info about on and offcampui health ruo11rm. rour primq u.i/1 bt mprctrd.

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In June, Madam Justice Loutse Arbour will leave the Supreme Court of Canada to fill the. United Nations' top human rights post. Arbour jomed. the Supreme Court in 1999 after sernng as a war crimes prosecutor for tnbunals mto the Rwanda geno· cide and human nghrs abuses in Yugoslavia in the 1990s. She is known for an especially strong belief 111 the Charltr and was heralded by many as a potencial future chief justice. Prime Minister Paul Martin has the task of choosing Arbour's replacement. It ccr· tainly will not be an easy decision with so many qualified candidates standing in the wings. We at UV haYe dectded tO review the list of potential candidates to deter mine who has the best odds of being the next member of Canada's court of last resort. Tradition dictates that three judges are to come from Ontario, so it is very like· Iy that Arbour's replacement will be an Ontarian. Here's how the hst looks: Justice Rosalie Abella (5:1 odds): Abella has already had a ,·cry dtsnngutshed career on the bench. At the tender age of 29 she became the youngest judge in Canadian history. Abella, a human rights expert, is arguably the frontrunner to fill the vacant position. \'qith the departure of Arhour, only rwo women retnain on the ,___.--=~ Canada's highest court and so P;\1 _.\l;mjn will he han.l- prcssed to bjpass ,\bell.!. \\~ at l] ofT Law love Justice ~\bella bccauH', among other things, she's a very inspira· tiona! speaker. Justice Louise Charron (8:1): Charron, a Francophone Ontarian ratsed in Ottawa, is the other top contender. She has been n Judge for over 16 years and has served as a jusuce on the Court of Appeal for <)ntano smce 1995. Prior to her appointment to the bench, she was a criminal lawyer. While maybe no t a household name, she is still a force to reckon \\it h. Justice John Laskin (15:1): Laskin, son of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Bora Lasktn, ts abo a top contender. 1\lo doubt a qualified candidate (t.r., he can write well and has good genes), but from a law student's perspective, he should not be chosen. If Laskin Jr. got onto the SCC bench, the next generation of law students would surely confuse rhc two Laskins, and this situation would make law school n ·l·n harder. Thus, our advice is that, should he get appointed, he should change his sur· name-even one letter would do the trick to enable us to differentiate him from his dad. Justice Robert Sharpe (30:1): Dr. Sharpe dcfmitely lives up to his name. While not a favorite, he is still considered to have an outside chance. Sharpe currently sirs on the Court of Appeal for Ontario, and prior to this, sat on the Ontario Court of Justice, General Division Before embarking on his judicial career, Sharpe taught at U of T Law for a number of years and spent fi,·e years as dean when tuition was only four digits) Sharpe is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Bora Laskin and frank Iacobucci-from kingpin of the law school to justice of

Canada's top court. Some make it look so easy. Professor Kent Roach (70:1): Whtlc Coach Roach has never served on the bench, many argue he ii Canadian criminal and constirutional law (notwithstanding Peter H ogg). When you are publishing as many books a year as most other faculty members arc publishing articles, you obvi·

ously know a thing or two about the law. The fact that Roach recentl} co ·authored a book on former Supreme Court Chief Justice Brian Dickson should help hts chances. In compiling a book on one of Canada's preeminent justices, one would surely have to learn what it rakes to be a good Judge. Peter Mansbridge* (180:1): Canadians can't get enough news, and he is where they most often go for it. Anchor of CBC's nightly news program, Tht ~ational (for w-hat seems like an eternity), the ten· rime Gemini Award winner has his own mini cult following. He's loveable, he's huggable, and he speaks to issues Canadians most want to hear about. lie might not ha\·c any legal traimng~r much hau for that matter-hut no wornes, he's a fast learner. Shania Twain* (600:1): Twain, born in Wmdsor and raised in the small town of Timmms, is arguably the most popular country-music artist since Garth Brooks. In her own words, her "unique mustcal tal· ems transcend all genres," and her fans might eYen agree. Twain's success has not come easy and this is a testament to her abtlttv to persevere. Only one problem: She currently li\·es in S\\.1tzerland, and may not be willing to lea,·e the '\Ips for Ottawa. The skiing just ain't the same. Don Cherr-y* (1,500:1): While some

hate his guts, others (i.e., beer guzzlt-rs nauonwide) Jove him. The host of f lofk!l '-..tflhl in Canada, Cherry might not know a damn thing about being a judge, but who cares, really? He loves this country more than many of us, and would certainly add some spice to Canada's top court. Perhaps the downside to Cherry is the fact that every other week he manages to say some· thing derogatory. 1f he can curb the on·air rants, impro\·e his wardrobe, and.Iearn to appreciate Canada's diverSity, he might have a shot. Jean Chretien (50,000:1)· After 27 years m Parliament, and over a decade as Canada's top dog, Chretien might just be ready to begin a career as a judge. Unfortunately, hell will haYC to freeze over before the current prune minister would ever select his former boss for such an esteemed post. Chretien, however, may want to remind Marun that it was he who groomed him to be the next prime minis· ter. That should be worth something, no?

* Technically these indhiduah are not eligible candid~·tes since tn order to be selected to scn·e on the sec one has to ha,·e been a member of the bar for a minimum of ten years. That said, we all know that these rules can be worked around if need be.

choice '

'

At Ogilvy Renault, the

plurality of personalities and expertise is a true strength of the firm. Not only does it allow me to work with people who are different from me, but it allows the firm to serve the needs of different clients. '

'

Daniel Leduc dleduc@ogilvyrenault.com

OGILVY RENAULT

ogilvyrenault.com l'!ontd.t • on-

Qufbo< • Toron~o - . london (£n&lond)


12

OPINIONS 2004

ULTRA VIRES

Canada, while women were significantly more likely ro support the C\\ Democratic Party.

PINIONS Ultra VIres ' first annual opinion poll, Opinions 2004, was In most respects a great success. With an Impressive 247 respondents, the result for each question is representative of student opinions at the law school to within four percent, 19 times out of 20. Nonetheless, we learned a variety of lessons about polling. When surveying law students, either let them answer In essay form, or give them a lot of choices. We also learned never to lump British Columbians and Albertans together, and to make sure all demographics are represented on the ballot (sorry LLMs and International students!). Anally, we realized that almost nobody, conservatives and liberals alike, was happy with the selection of Conservative Party leadership candidates. The demographic breakdown of respondents was: male (50%), female (50%); 1.st year (34%). 2nd year (38%), 3rd year (26%), grad student (2%); BC/AB (22%), SK/MB (2%), ON (66%), QC (2%), Atl. (3%), other (5%). Perhaps our biggest Is mistake In the entire poll was putting Albertans and British Columblans Into the same category. While this tended to make B.C. respondents Irate, Albertans did not seem to even notice.

5

F 5% 30% 65% 1%

2004

1. Gay couples should:

85% 12% 3°/o

Be allowed to marry

Continue

to

Remain at current bcls

Be reduced Did not answer

Be allowed ro form 'ci\iJ unions' \\ith all the rights and obligations of married couples.

~ot

3. To military and security, Canada should:

rccd'Vc any additional rights

or ohllg.1tlon~.

\\irh 246 rcspondenrs, this topical question attracted the most interest out of all the questions. Inren:stingly, men and women answered this que!'.tion almost idenncally.

34%

Dedicate

more

money

and

re~ourccs

18% 45%

Dedicate less money and resources \1aintain current levels of funding and resources

3% Did not answer 2. Visible minorities should benefit from government"lbc main criticism of this quesnon was that lumped military and security issues mandated affirmative action ittogether. Some abo suggested that foreign aid and peacekeeping should have been (i.e., Recruitment quotas): 23o/o 36°/o 38% 4 °/o

l n admissions to universities. In universities and i.n the pnvate .ector. '\,euhcr of the above. Dtd not answer

,\lany people criucized this question for t:quating affirmative acnon with quotas. Others thought that the options were too narrow ~md ~hould have included the public ~en ic~. Some of the ten people who did not re:;pond mdtcatcd it was because they felt they dtd not have enough knowledge to do so. \\'omen showed stronger support for affirmauve action than men:

M F 23 22% 2 7 44% 45 31% 6 3%

unh·crsitics

urm~itb & the private sector !':either of the above Dtd not answer

Written-in comments: • "I am a vi iblc minority agamst quotas, but

treated as separate issues. Men showed significantly stronger support for Increased m ilitary spending than did women:

M F 40 29% 18 18% 39 52% 5 1%

more money less money mamtain current levels Did not answer

\Vrittcn m comments: • "Depends on what counts as 'security.' .\lore military? ~o. Economic assistance? Yes!" • "I have no idea. I don't know much about this.''

4. law faculty tuition fees should: 15% 24% 58% 3%

Continue to rise as scheduled by the Faculty Rcmam at current Je,·els Be reduced Did not answer

States, I would prefer: 62% 24% 8%

Gt.'Orgc

\\~

Bush

John Kerrv Ralph '\jader Did not answer

Many students felt that they did not have sufficient familiarity wuh the U.S. presidential candidates in order to answer this ques· rion. Others were uncertain whether to answer it as if they were \ merican or Canadian. :Notablv, there was no difference bcrween men and. women on this question.

\X'ntten·in comments: • "\nyonc but Bush." • "President Barlett." • "1:\.ot Bush." • ''\X'hcre is Edwards?"

6. The Gun Registry: 35o/o

l s tht. propt.r approach to the issue of gun control.

48%

Is a misguided approach to the Important issue of gun control.

10% 7%

Docs more harm than good Did not answer

Perhaps surprisingly, men were more likely to support the current gun-control program than women, but third·year studenrs were three times more hkcly to. oppose the gun registry than were firsr-year sn1dents:

1st 2nd 3rd

38 53 6 4

34 46 11 9

54% 19%

rise

Wntren-in comment: • "Depends on econormcs of school and what otht·r sources of funding there are."

6 0/0 /(

7. The solution to Canada's aboriginal crisis lies in:

17%

5. For President of the United I belie\ e that there should be equiry-based hiring that is reflecci,-e of demographics." • '~\ffirmacin• action, yes. Quotas would depend on the conrc.xr." • "Yes ro .A A, no to quotas."

33% 41 o/o 14% 11%

were also less likely to find the article defam awry. \\~rittcn

This contentious issue at the law school attracted 240 responses. ,\ much greater perc~magc of men supported continuing mcreases to tunion than did women, and many more women than men supported cuts to tuition. l'\'onethcless, the majority of both men and women \vere in favour of reduced tuition.

M 24 19 52

OPINIONS 2004

23 MARCH 2004

proper approach miS!,"Uided approach more harm than good Did nor answer

Written-in comments: • "They just mismanaged." • "But net·ds to he managed properly."

10%

Satisfaction of native land claims and sclf·gm·ernment. Programs for the integr:uion of nail\ t'S into Canadian society. Federally funded and controlled cduc.ltinn and mfrastructure programs on existing resen·es. Did nor answer

.\!any students were dissatisfied with this question because they felr the 1ssue was too complex to be addressed in the multiplechoice format Others were inclined to ptck all three options even though U\' attempted to make them mutually exclusive to some e.xtent \Vhtle support was lower among men than among \\:Omen, both sexes supported aboriginal self-governmenr by a maJonty. Written-in comment: • "All of the above."

8. The current immigration rate to Canada, equivalent to 0.8% of the population annually, is: 2% 49% 43% 6%

Too high Too low

M F 18 23 44 6 7

3

11% 29% 45% 7% 7% 2%

Conservative Party '\lew Democratic Party Liberal Parry of Canada Green Party of Canada Other / will not vote

9%

Was inappropriate; the articles defamed Jill 1\clson and gave this ind1vidual the negative attention he was seeking.

45%

Was appropriate; rhe articles were interesting and newsworthy, even if they may have been sensational.

17%

11. With regards to the Kyoto Protocol, Canada should: 66%

Fulfill its commitments whether or not the treaty comes inro force.

23%

fulfill its commitments only tf the tn:aty comes mto force.

5%

'\ot fulfill its commitments.

Did nor answer

10. UV's coverage of the Radical lawyer story:

31%

m comments: • "The '\anonal Post's cm·erage, on the other hand, was complt:tely uncalled for." • 'The) should ha,·e been ballsicr." • "Sorry, I didn't read it."

Was mappropnate; I couldn't care less abour Jill elson or the Radical. Dtd not answer

With 210 respondents, this question had the lowest response rate mamly because a num ber of respondents had not read the article. !':onetheless, a majority of participants con sidered UV's coverage appropriate. \'<.'omen

The 245 responses ro this question reflected the strong feeling among students on this issue. Women were significant!} more hkely to support unconditional adherence to 1-..yoto commitments. Written-m comment: • "But srill do something about tt."

12. If I were to choose the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, I would select: 35% 19%

Tony Clement Stephen Harper

24% 9% 12%

13

4%

Belinda Stronach none of the above Did not answer

With only 217 responses, this question was met with some apathy. \!any respondents felt that there ~tmpl) was not a strong can diclatc among the three. Others were gener ally umnreresred rn the Conscn·ati\-e lcadcrshtp race. \(en were significandv more likely to support Tony Clement, bur there were no other significant differences between the sexes. \\nncn-in commems: • "Bnng back Joe." • "'\ictther. ~bar is the choice really: a gcek, a radical nght winger who espouses funcla mcneal Christian \·alues, or a high·fl}ing soctalite." • "None of the above!" • " one of the above or Joe Clark." • "I don't care."

13. The ~~sponsorship scandal" has: 39% 48% 9°/o

Did nor answer

A number of respondents thought that they should ha,-e been able to inclic:lle that rhc1r opinion of the Liber.U governmenr had not changed because it was alread) low. \\'nttcn·in comments: • "1t's not that surprising that this went on."

14. On healthcare, Canada should: 26%

\llow comprehensive pm-ate delivery of sen·ices alongs1de the public sysrem.

48%

ot allow an expansion of printe healthcare.

23%

\ !low private delivery of all non life-saving procedures and ser vices.

4%

Did not answer

Perhaps surprisingly, women were more likely than men to support comprehensi\'e private healthcare.

Nor affecred my opinion of the federal Liberal governmenr.

\Vntten-in comments: • "It's more about access than how it gets Reduced my confidence in the done." Liberal government's ability to • "'lbe focus should be on fixing the public govern, but not fatally so. system. ln terms of pnvate healthcarc, cac.h Convinced me to vote a~ainst the province will do what it wants anyways." federal Liberal gm·emment in the next federal e\ecoon..

BlAKE, C.As as&

GRAmost i P

Just right Dtd not answer

Unlike women, rhe majority of the 117 men who answered this question were not in favour of increased immigration. l\.ionethelcs~. the majority of the 232 respondents did favour higher immigration.

Before you show us your resume, we thought we'd show you ours.

\'V'ritten·in comments: • " D epends on demand and our ability to integrate people." • "Too low, but shouldn't be increased until immigrants art• integrated into the economy properly. \X'c shouldn't bring in more people if we aren't going to recognise their professional credentials." • •vroo low for some groups and too high for other groups."

W W W . BLAKES . C 0 MIEN G Ll S HI ANNUAL REVIEW

9. In the next federal election, I am most likely to vote for: 15% 26% 45% 6% 7% 2%

BLAKE,

Consen·auve Party of Canada

CAssELs&

~cw Democratic Party

GRAYDON UP

l.iberal Party of Canada

joinblakes.com

BARRISTERS & SOLICITORS PATE NTS AND TRADE-MARK AGENTS

Green Party of Canada

<)ther I definitely will nor voce Did not an~\\cr

"len were s1gmtican tly more likely to support the n~sccnt Conservative Party of

MONTREAL

OTTAWA TORONTO CALGARY VANCOUVER

LONDON

BEIJING


14

ULTRA VIRES

EXCHANGES

EXCHANGES

23 MARCH 2004

To exchange or not to exchange: In praise of a Singaporean sojourn BY SHAUN lAUBMAN T hinking of escap mg the routine of another full ) t~r of bw school :u U of T Law? Or mort• ltkdy, has the weather made you vow not to spend another entire winter in Toronto? Well tht"n, an exchange may be the answer to all )OUr woes. llcn:'s an attempt to clarify any lmgering questions or doubts you may ha\ c. For starter., there is the popular conception that an exchange ain't nuthin' but a party, r'all. Likely. the trut h of this \-aries considet'llbly depending on where you do your exchange, so do your homC\\:ork if you seck a ~cmc,ter of sun, surf, and shots. A mini re,·olt was brewing here tn Smgapore when we fo und out just how much work the mand awry fi,·c courses involved. Considering you can get by with as few as thrct• re~:,tUiar courses at U o f T Law, this course load tramlated into working about twice as hard as we would ha,·e had to back home. That is, if we cared to. T his last bit is, of course:, the kc}: Pass/Fail (you may be famihar with this from Bridge Week and in tensive cour.;es) has a wonder ful way of rc:ducing what would appear w be an O\"erwhelming workload. A "C" has ne,·er felt so satisfying. Of course, the fact that you can do all your work at the beach also helps to relieve the pain. \\'h at about those in terested in an exchange for rhc learning opportunities (do

these people actually exist?)? ~o doubt, thert:':; a concern that norhing you learn m·e rscas w11l he applicable back home. J\ dmittcdly, I'm not exactly sure w hat those taking Singapore Fam1ly l ...1w are drawing from the course, but I'm ~urc it will benefit thc:m great!) in the Family Law module durmg Dar 1\ ds. Exchange students flock to courses :;uch a~ Ocean l.aw and Policy and Aviation La\\; \\ith little thought or concern about the rde\'ancc to their practice. Funny thing is, these arc turning out ro be rt.-ally intcrt·sting courses. Of course. if I really wanted to pl'llcticc in rhe aviaoon industry back in Canada, I would probably be bctrer served by taking Bankruptcy. If you do n't know anyone in your p referred destination, fear not about loneliness. It turns our, Canadians, or more specifically, Torontomans, are just lame. Having spent two·and·a·half years at the U o f T, I can count o n one hand (one finger actually!) the number of exchange students I \·e known. T hey do exist, we just neglect them. So, of course, concern \vas ri fe that I would be greeted tht. sam e way at the '\Tanonal University of Smgapore. Au contralCe, the students are mcrcdibly welcoming and gen· u.incly seem interested as you try to regale them \\ith stories of your "exotic" tra,·cls m·er the weekend to places th ey\·e been a hundred times. Speaking of which, if you're worried that you won't b e able to relate with your loved

ones while away and vice ,·ersa, fear no t. Sunply uke e\-cry a\-ailable opporruruty to rell them about your latest travels. A n exchange provides an excellent opportunity to rake entire weeks off to travel and to rhen sound cool by rd aying every minute derail of vour athentures to vour farnih; friend s, and. significant other. as they frt-eze in f lamilton. <)n a completdy unrelated note, have I mentionl'd yet that I recently traY· clled ro Mpnm:1r? Cool, eh? Finally, it's rc:asonablc ro have second thoughr s about m issing out on Law Games, I.aw Follie~. Law Ball, or any of the other "can't miss" cvenb at our schooL This is despite the f:1ct you\·c attended those e,·ents each of the past two years. Without the tn· um,·irare,law school migh t seem a complete failure. Fortuna tely~ you can experience sunilar events willie on exchange, where the familiar becomes altogether new and exciting. Take, for example, Law Ball. Here in Singapore, the main ar traction o f the Ball is when a number of fust·)·ear students take to the stage for a serious beaury contest to see who gets crowned as the Kmg and Queen of the Ball '\0\\ look to the person sitting next to you as you read this in Contracts. \\'ouldn't you like ro see him or her strutting and posing in evening wear or a s\\-imsuit? Other highlights of the event included Daniel Anthony tearing around the stage doing his best (or worst, or maybe they're the same) impersonation of Linkin Park. As

Life abroad in Toronto ''\'\'hat's that ac~.:ent you have? Is It lnsh or somcthingi'" " o, l'm actually (rom England." "Oh, cool, you're from London." (Usually follO\\ed hy an excited excla marion that X went to London once for a semester, or a holiday, has relatJ\ es there, ~omctlung abour the Queen. \nd that London ts JUSt ro cool). ~o. actuall) I'm from 1..1' erpool" "Oh." (Silence for a while.)

Shaun outside the Shwedagon Paya in Ya ngon, M yan mar. great as Law Ball at the U ofT can be, it just can't measure up to that kind of entertainment. So, go on exchange. You'll learn a lot both m and out o f the classroom. You'll meet lots of mtcresting people and gain a wealth of new experience~. You'll also get asked to contribute to U\~ \\'hat more could you want?

Confessions of an Australian mind: What I learned on exchange in Australia BY RONAN LEVY For those of you who haven't had the sin· cen; pleasure of meeting me: H ello! I'm Ronan Levy. I'm a third-year student at this

BY JAMES REMPEL

until early September that our prof ts asked to teach the cour~c. Sept. 19-0c t. 31: I am introduced to serious table tcnms. I didn't know that there were ping-pong coaches, but there is one guy who played for the Trinidad national team. Fmd I am workmg harder at school than I would have at the U of T. Part of it is a steep learning curve because of the older library technology, like card catalogues. ,\!so, more courses seem to have papers. ~bny of the studcnb here arc quae inrensc, and for all that is said about U ofT I~tw and competitivcnc:ss, students at the Univer~ity of the West InJJcs seem out · wardly more competitiVe, belying the stereotype of relaxed C;~ribbL-an attitudes. The hhrary is \cry concerned about stu dents St('llling reserve .reading material to gain an ad\'llntage m·er their clas~matcs. I place last tn a residence cooking compt-ti· ttnn. \\'e manage to have fi,·c lectures in Corporate Finance. Bomb scares, rniscella -

wonderful F aculty o f our~. 1 love it h e re. 1 re.\11~ ciQ.JW9~sc)UPQ<j,h tllatlJ tjpp,l;Ued to myself (an<.! o thers) that 1f I <.ltJn"r go away on exchange for part o f my tlllr<.l year,

well, I just m ay go p ostal. Fortunately, the good people at U of T's In ternational ~tudl'nt Exchange Office (ISXO) deemed me a worthy candidate to be an ambassador of our school to the University of ;\lclbourne, Australia. . So, off I went to ;\lelbourne. From the end of July, until just before the starr of 2004, 1 got to hang out in Australia and do some cool shit. It was probably one of the most enlightening expenences of my life (and I encourage everyone reading this art!·

James chilling with his classmates in B a rbados. Colourful buildings dot the landscap e. neous cancellations intervene. Oct. 31: The Corporate Finance prof is appointed attorney general of Trinidad. Quite an honour, but nobody expects to sec him again O c t. 31-Nov. 21: ~obody ~ees him. N ov. 21: I-e un that Rastafarianism has been subJected to great discrimination in the Caribbean. For example, some islands had laws that prohibited the entry of people with Jrcadlocked hair. I had always assumed the Caribbean was proud of its most famous culrural export. Less than half the material in the Corporate FinanceS} !Iabus has been taught, leading ro a class revolution (no, the class didn't try to overthrow capitalism), the dean agrees to cancel the t.-xam, and w~ get a paper as~1gned instead. The paper is sup· posed to be on the last topic, on which the de n p om1scs to lecture next week. Nov. 24: The Jean announces lectures tor rhursday and Friday.

Nov. 25: Sandy. palm·lined beaches are old hat to Caribbt.-an students, so most of my friends don't go down there much. But l begin to realize that I won'r be here much longer and starr scheduling bt.-ach trip~. The closest one is less than a ten ·minute walk from the U nivcrsit). It's usually em pry dur ing the week, so I can twist m y toes in the warm surge \\-;Ih our distraction. l lowe\"er, a lot of them arc full of unap petizingly white, flabby bod1es--irnages of m any of us in 20 years. Dean cancl'is the Corporate Finance lectures, the prof promises to come back on hiday. The Jean assures us that the prime mini~ter of Trinidad has gtvcn permission tor ou1 prof to come back and lecture. ~0\. 26: The Friday lecture i~ c-ancelled. Jt1c pnf promist·s a marathon sesston on "·turd; . N o\. 27: \'\'ell, he finally :;hows up. But on!} f( about an hour. t\nd he was upset that we had gom·n the: exam cancelled-

15

BY HAOlE POSENER

Corporate Finance finagling: A journal of Barbadian sun and stud Sept. 12: One of the f1rst things I notice is the o ,·erwhelming presence of slavery m Bajan discourse. It seldom seems to be brought up directly but al\\--ays manages to be menuoncd. ~ ly residence block performs a l'kit to Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" for a res bontlmg week, and I am symbolically walked over in the end as the slaves claim thctr freedom . Today is the first class of Corporate F inance. It is being offered this semester as an emergency ftll in. A bunch of other classes h ave been cancelled because the administration apparently forgot that the profs for the classes arc actually on sabbatical. It isn't

apparently we should h a, ·e trusted him to come. Ironic.1lly, I talked to some people recently who did Corporate Finance back here at the U ofT, and we still learned more than they did. Dec. 5-22: Exams. The nmes of all the exams arc published in adv·ance, of course, so we know when they arc, but unfortunately not where they arc. T his handy information isn't posred until som e unstated time before the start of the exam, in one case about fi\c minutes. "li> make th ings more challenging, the exam roo m identifiers are written in a code, 10 which no one gi\"es us the key. T he .tdmmist ration also removes all office staff and other UmVl"1'SIIY employees from the vicinit} who mtght unsportingly tell the students where to go. Fortunately, U\\'1 Barbados IS a small campus, so we are able to run around to the different bu.ildin~:,rs and check tht· codes, wluch nrc posted on the doors. J\ !itt le btt like nn exam scavenger hunt.

clc to get the hell out of Dodge at some point over the next couple years of your life and live abroad . But someone has already written an article about this). And so wJ.th U\' doing a wh ole section on excha n ge~

and such , l tho u ght 1'd offer you

1\.Qm~~~ht aboW what an exchange to ,\lclbo urne is a U abo ut, and h o w H has

taken me one step closer to Buddha. Ilere are some of the th ings 1 learned: Rea ding , Studying a nd Attending Class Waste of Tim e: Indeed folks, you may not believe it. But it's true. All those classes you attend, and hours you spend reading insanely verbose cases about legal theory is a giant waste of time. This is somcthtng I learned in Australia, where I did a trulr minimal amount of work, attended classes on a highly irregular basis, and still walked a\\-ay with two "B"s and two "D"s (one "D" which was later

=

J.iH•rpoo~ as } never nrc of boring an}'· one \\ ho will listen, is not only the home of the Beatlcs, but, if you go back a decade or so, boasted fantastic football teams, .u1d even further back, at ItS indus trial rc' olution, Ia} claim to ports ''here the l'itanic was built. It 1s also fondly thought of as the "armpit'' of England, contams two cathedrals, and has been nominated European Capital of Culture for 2008. Some Thoughts on How Toronto Differs from Liverpool: 1 he lack of graffiti: An enure Tl C sta uon can be coated in tPod ad\ ernsements and rcmatn like that for more than a fe\\ hours · in fact, for \\ eeks on end. l•urthcrmorc, no one has even tried to touch the l'tranr;e ha~s co'i cnnr; the

RO \'

\ionr.. On the othe1: hand, m

Lh :.pc ol, gr-.1ffin Js C\cr~~~crc--on toJ let doors, public buildings, and the- lube. .... f:t} he we don't haw sufficient methods o f otherwise expressmg our fechngs. 1\la} be there is more respect for proper!) here Maybe spray cans are cheaper m the

UK. In I.i\·crpool, -;qwrrcls rematn in the park. There is no such thing as a dead

upgraded to a "C"). And here is the best part: These grades don't show up on my transcnpt! " She'll be Right": I'm not entirely sure what these words mean-as near as I can tell, it means something along the lines of "don't worry" or "hakuna matata"-but .Australians say it a lot, and it seems to be somewhat of a national m antra down there. To be fair, most .Melbournians don't use the expression "she'll be right" roo often. It is more of a Queensland kind of thing. You're more likely to hear .\!elbournians say something along the lines of "no worries, mate." This philosophy on life is what, I think, makes most Australians well-rounded people. They have n.-ally mastered the art of eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep, and eight hours of play per day. Of course, this m ay also explain why my grades were so stcl lar . .. Drinkin g Day Befo re Yo ur Exam Good Strategy: .\felbournc is host to one of the.: world's largest horse races/ drunk fe..,ts. It occurs early in October (their spring, wh1ch is right before final exam season there, and a day before my lnsoh·ency exam) and I00,000 people get all dressed, turn up. and pet absolutely trashed (includ ing Pans and '\.ikkie Hilton). How could I

sqwrrcl. People ne\ er really seem to be ruslung 111 Toronto. Thmgs ~>ecm to nm at a little bit of a slo\\-cr pace than m the maJor l•nghsh ClUes. l'm not quite sure why this Is, bur I certatnl) seem to ha' e more ume to think here than J did in England. In Toronto, cars always stop and \\-alt for you, e\en tf )Oll arc snll a tcp a\\<ay from the road. This \\'llS actwll) one of the hardest thmgs for me tO get used to. I'd sta nd there at tht" s1de\\alk hcsitaung, whtlst the dmer would become more and more frannc. \\'"'hat is e\ en stranger is that C\en tho ugh practtcall} \1 L the cars stop ar the bottom of my street, someone (a nice gu} actually) is still paid to stand there t"\CI] morning with a lolly-pop (a rmn~ portable stop sign) in hand, and a \\histle. In Toronto, one is simply not allo\\-ed to enJO} 1cc cream delicacies at the theatre IJ mean \\-ithin the hall). Such a treat ts one of tht- delightful pleasures of theatrcgomg 111 fate England. [No" read th1s one again in an accent t)'P!Cal of the Queen.) I'm 22. lbat makes me )Ounger than ahnost e\CC)One m theJD course, and \et I'm actually enrolled 111 the U...\f progr.un. I found thts a little d1sconccrttng .l.t the start. l.a\\- ts an undergmduatc degree m England. In Fngland, one \\<ould not ha'ic a ~rad uanon photo taken "''ithottt the morut board (hat). 1 v.·ou\d go so £at as to a that the\-\!\'"\: ~"b\-j t U\c gr.adwnon photo, perhlljJs n tn of the enure unn ers1ty expencncc I disCO\ ered tlut Torontomans reject the tradmon of the IIKf. And fmall}, that the Dord Laskm Law Library has a pol.!g of acO\ cl} d1scourag· mg studwts from :;helvmg back the1r books. Why?

me

refuse such an c,·ent=> So, l went, got loaded, had a great time, and ended up get· ung a "D" on my insoh ·ency exam. And here's the best pan : That "0"-it still doesn't turn up on my transcript! Possums M a ke Better Nipple Warmers than Pets: While campmg in I asm ania during my hard-earned ~ummer break m·er there, I happened upon a httlc pos5um wandering around our cabm ~he wasn't the cutest thing eYer, but she d1d haYc a baby on her back, which was worth gushing a little bit OYer. This possum walked by ' me, smelled my toes (as I \\-as wearing sandals) , and kept walking. A couple of minutes later, another possum came by, smellt-d my toes, and the damned thing bit! It goddamn btt m el 1 was pissed off. bur what could 1 do?!? Fortunately. 111 '\,c\\'l.caland, they enjoy running d<mn pos sum.;-which are considered pets-and turning them into humiliating goods. So. I am now the proud owner of possum nipple warms. You bite my toe, your cou:;in keep~ my nipples \\'arm! There arc a plethora of other stories \\ ith which I can communicate to you my enlightenment in Austrai.Ja, but my ~pact• in UV has come to an end. I hope you. consider going on exchange -\nd when t.-xam time come::., remember "!::lh(.'ll be right."

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OPINION & EDITORIAL

16

UlTRA VIRES

of "foul'' wen: htk.trd la~t included: gl·ttmg at k-ast some mL-:tsure of \\eek O\ era lack of transparen- F:u:ulty budget accountability; theft and cy in the valedictorian clccuons, st·curity at the school; commissioning a new a vote that students actually acccssibility study; and obtaining more subcared :~bout. But if one had listened care- suntial commitments and clanficanons on fully enough. one might also haw heard the the functioning of the back-end debt relief usual l·olle~.:tiH· mutter of the student body progrAm. nround dcction rime: "\Xe couldn't care less The year has passcd and there has been uhout the Sl .'\." 1f one could ha,·e heard no mm·emcnt on any of these fronts. \\~hy this apathetic maJOrity (fewer than ~00 of is it that, in a country where the monolithic rltt• 525 eligible J D candidates cast votes m Liberal gm crnmc-nt has been brought to last week:~ clecrions, whereas 242 participat account for every last cent of its hundrednl in UV\ opinion poll, a poll which has no billion dollar budget. students at the most direct impact on the partictpants' !i\·es prominent law school are not e,·cn able to '' harsocver), one would have learned that get a whiff of the Faculty's spending allocatht: su, ts no more relevant than it has ever tions? Why did it take a prO\-incial tuition been freeze to force the hand of the administra'lwo years ago, when facing relegation to tion at a school where the maJority of stuobscurity (then-President Jennifer dents arc tn f.wour of tuiaon mti? \'V'hcre Mathews, L-trgcly unknown to students, was was the SLS when unclccted students rook acclaimed), the SI~ executive decided to the lead m orgaruzmg September's tuition retool the structure of student government rally? \'V'hy do students papng some of the by merging the Student Caucus of Faculty highest fees on campus haYe fewer hours of Council (nO\\ SI.S Studenr Caucus) with the access to their oum library than they do to Sl.S (now SIS Student Affairs) into one drtually any other on campus? And if secubody undtr the stNardship of the presi- rity is the n.-ason for restricted access, why dent, who would also sit on Faculty hasn't lh.JI been addre~sed? CounciL It "as hoped that this mo,·c would Of cour~e. the SI '-, cannot be held incrt-asc the; SlS tnfluence by bridging the entirely to blame for tlus stagnancy. .\Iany commumcat111n eap between Faculty outgoing executives justifiably point out Council and students, as well as increase that the dean's absence this year has pur the students' interest in vying for positions as Faculty into a policy holding pattern (but Mudent affam. repre~entativcs. surely tf E\..S could he dose~ this is not an \t is safe to say that the move has not cmirc\y gcntlinc c\·,\\m). Other» note that the ac.b\e.,.ct\ cllhet v,oa\. \."-'bi\e thtte wete <wet \'<<>c:ev.v. whctcby \t\\\i"-ti.-vcs "-te \nstig,ateu. 2S nommccs for va\co1c.torian alone, o£ the Marung at the cumnlll tee \eve\ and wor\ung up to l~ICUlty Council, j, convoluted and JH SJS-"dcct". ten were acru;Uly accl:wncd, including tour student caucus reprcscnta · cumbersome, p;u-ticubr for those bringing fi, c~ and the presidt-nt himself, all of whom up student Issues. This is not to say that the SLS has not mtc ill Faculty Council meeting!'. Some members of the new SJ~<., attribute tlus done phenomenally in its capactty as a result on the one hand to satisfaction social coordinator. The f Jallowe'en party, among the elecwrate ~ith the performance Law Games, Law Follies. and Law Ball were of the outgoing executive, which overlaps all enormous successes. But if the SI '> substantially \\ith new e;xecutive, and on the aspire.~ to be something greater than sunply other, to apathy among ~tudents due to the a student counol~harged w;rh organizing Sl_<;' lack of influence on key Faculty policy student social events and occupy111g a few token st-ats on Faculty Council-it will have dcci~ions. \Vhtlc apathy doubtles~ exi~ts, the propostuon that ~tudents are satisfied with to show a degree of assertiveness and perprogress made by the outgoing SJ~<., is high· sistence in its relations with the Faculty. This dynamic has been sorely lacking in the ly questionable. In September, at a town hall from which past. Only when this objective is accomfaculty members were expressly excluded U1 plished will students' interest in student polorder to fo~tcr student candidness, tht SI S itics be rcpiqued. Also, and ironically, only presented a list of pnorit:y issues upon then will the SLS realize the potential of a which it woulJ seck Faculty action. Tht'$e moti\'ated .mJ mobilized student body.

C

LffiERS TO THE EDITOR

Ignoring torture's sordid past

nt'S

'"ill

"Radical Lawyer" not newsworthy Dear Editor. I guess 11 tmght have been a slow news momh, but I thmk I speak for qutte a fl."\~ peopfe "hen I sa} that I Jon't gt\·e a shit about "Radtcal La\\ }er," hts secret tdenri "· or hiS \'le\\S on love and b\\· ( 'imren Desai, "hx premier gets nude '\'clson pies," Feb. 10, 2004). Since when docs a descnptlon of the flame wars on an tnconseyucntlal Internet message board quahfy as a front-page news story?

- Orm 13itk (II)

Apology to Jill Nelson in order Dt.-ar Edttor, I nm wnnng to ask \'Ou to apologize to Jill Nelson for repeanng the story that Ms. dson enjo)cd pnvdeges that other students wen: "w1justly depm·ed of." I am (and was ~hile she was a student) chair of the Acadcrmc ~tanding Committee. 1 want to assure all sntdcnts here that Sitnren Daa1's story ("()olin

1k-ar Edttor, At nunr times Ill hi~IOr}, Cl\"t\ nghts hah.: he< n \\ rongly ~acnficed for what was bdie\·eJ to be a JUSt cause, a moral cause. 1\.ctr \X ilinut ("let's not be nat\·c: the case for torture warrants," feb. I 0, 2004) '"ould be well ad\ tsed to constder these trJ!,'lC lNsons. The to\\ n of ~alcm felt so bc~tegt'd b) warhcs that torture, often cndmg m the death of the accused, ''"'s considered jus nficd. Jn Canada, we \\ere so certrun that people of Japanese descent would rtse up to support a country the} lud left that we jailed tht'm without mal during \Vorld War I I. Just a fL'W} cars later, the people of the United States wcr{' so ccrratn that Communists "ere trying to gatn control on.-r their n.tnon from withtn that people Wt're summoned before a commission that answered to no one. Those who did quesuon ,\tcCarth) \\cnt to jail, or \\Orse. were blacklisted and their econonuc livelihoods taken away, 111 a real conspir:lcy that was of dimenSJons equal to the one unagined

In fighung a war wuh an mternal enemy, where all its citizens and residents arc suspect, a nation ""'ill often be tempted to rcmow rhe hbcrtics and right" that it claims "others'' \\ould sec destroyed. At pomt the "othen" wtll have won. The ~ f.otun>. ) n 20, ~()(14) In thlo; Tt::g.trd IS--:1 Cl'>tnp1ctt" fab un cnl.th <. ncation. 1 11M Desai quotes an anonymous \V'hcn spe.tktng of extrl"lnc situations, "source" does not make it any less a lie. it is important to look back at h1story. at I would not e.-..-pcct Ultm l irr.r to apol- other suualions th.u were thought to he ogtze to the hlcul!) for prinnng a stot') extreme, and to assess and ackn~ ledge which wrongly tndtcatt"S that we would what we did tn the past to overcome those pro\tdc fa, ours to Ms. 1'\elson or an}Onc errors in judgment. else, but )OU should not be a part) to ·n1c scenarios propost:d by Wtlmut are defaming a fellow !;tudcnt. h} his own admission remote, and are ther.Jorc even weaker JUstification for - Proju.ror lrnold IY''dnrib ad,ocating the su!:pcnsion of cl\'11 libcrucs than has been relied on in the pa~t. ln bJ. ~ no/f: L't. i.r lorry if m!Jnnr u:as offmd· the heat of the moment, at times of per ed by tl e afomnmtzonrd arlirk, ,md zt't' u·ould cet\·ed cnsiS "e haYc done thtn!,rs that we like to rtitmtlr tbcfort/hat views t.:<pmstd in tbt felt \Hn' JUStified. In tht: ulm eye of hispaper arc not ncrmurt/y tbo.r~ of tbt rditorial tory we were rarely correct. i.'r.mkly, I ,tm appalled that a student of bot~rd. f ·urll ermorl', nothing rrporttd in tbe .n·tz ck u'Ur fabrtcatul \i111ren Desm n<~.t mrre/y law tn thc!:c modern times would suggest quotmg thr mws of tht &Jim/ I .D1J1"tr. J'lJo.te PLEASE SEE "TORTURED" ON PAGE 18 vmn arc not .tharrd by ( •1 •

Contributors

ultra vires Ultra \'ire~ is the independent stuJcnt newspaper of the Faculty of Law at the Uninrsit)" of 'limmto.

Editor-m (htrf '\tu·s !~alum

Editorial/ Opinion Ltgalls.rut.t DivmionJ Production Editor Copy Editor Online Editors Bu.tinm Manager

Bernina Butt Simren Desai Juda Strawczynski Ben Perrin Andrew Pilliar Lisa .:\linuk John Norquay Anstode Sarantis Davtd Khan Justin Petrillo Simren Desai

OPINION &EDITORIAL

17

OPINIONS 2004 RESPONSE

EDITORIAL

SLS elections highly "acclaimed"

23 MARCH 2004

Kirsten Agrd~ Ian Andres, Ben Arkin, Oren Bick, Geoff Blackie, I hlary Book, Keith Burkhardt, Lisa Cavion, Mark Colborne, Brian Cox, Ian DiscnJ, Alex Dosman, Vanessa Emery, llannah Ent\\i~tc, Chris rssert, Jonathan Garbutt, ..\liranda Gass-Donnell}. '\oah Gellner, David Germain, Julia Gw.ragna. Sana flalwani, Dana llnatiuk, St'an Horan, Scott Kirkpatrick, Shaun I.aubman, Anik Lalonde Roussy, Ronan Levy, Adrian l..1u, \lax Matas, ~ Iadic Poscnn, Robin Reinertson, James Rempe~ Tariq Rem tulia, Lobar Sadrehashemi, Christine Shabby, Anton} Singleton, Ken Stuebing, Arnold Wemrib Ultra Vtres is an editorially autonomous newspaper. Ultra Vires is open co contributions which reflect dl\"erse pomts of view, and its contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the Faculty of Law, the Students' I .aw Society (SLS), or the editorial board. We welcome contributions from students, faculty, and other interested persons. Ultra \'ires reserves the right to edit submissions for length and content '!be next issue will be published on September 14, 2004. 1be deadline for submissions ts September 6. Communtcations Centre, Falconer Hall, 84 Queen's Park Crescent Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C5, (416) 946-7684, ultra.vires@utoronto.ca, www.ultravires.ca Advernsmg mqwries should be sent to ultra.vires@utoronto.ca

Law schools "hang to the left" BY SCOTT KIRKPATRICK It ts no surpnse that htw students in Ontano, and posstbly m most prO\-inces, "hang to the left" a little more than the common Canadian. Approximately 50°1o of the law student body participated in the Ultra I rim opinion survey this past month. \Vhat result~ are most notable? 'Jbe Liberals, who at their best moment Juring Chn!tien's reign still only enjoyed 41% support from Canadians, gracefully enjoyed 4--t5°'o support in our school's sur\·ey. \X'e arc apparently ""'illing to forgi\e the Liberals for millions of lost dollars, fictitious projects, cash contracts given to friends, and "indiscretions" invoh·ing-golf clubs, governor-general expenditures, or ad agencie~-as long as they hold a press conference and shuffle the Cabinet. 'lbc '\JDP, who haven't reall) been talked about bv anyone except the CBC's l~\J! ( t111t1tlian..t'1ir 1Ur« since Ed Broadbent's days of 19R4 glof); have found support from 0\t:r a quarter of our students! (When do the union mcctmgs start? We'll meet at Bora's head.) Ralph '\oader, the man with 4% of the very conservallve American vote, seems to ha,~e won the hearts of 24.3% of students, while President George \Y./. Bush secureJ only 5.7%!

We need to remember that the legal profession's views and the views found

in downtown Toronto are not always the views of the Canadian people. Even my fellow Albertan students seem to be misrcprt-senting their prO\ince's political persuasions.•\mong federal political parties, a mere 1B.9'Yo of Albertans at our law school support the Conser\-ativcs, 37.7% the l.tberals, and 26.4% thL '\DP Remember, Alberta ts a 99-ycar-old proVUlcc where neither the NDP nor d1c Liberals has ever even had a nunority provincial government! Perhaps the affirmative-action advocates, given a chance, would implement a program mvohing selection of students to U of T L'lw based on whether their poliucal prefer· cnces were rcprcsentam·c of those in their home prO\-inccs. Ob,·iously, these political views also affected how srudt'tlts responded on issues ranging from gun control to gay marnagc, to immigration. Interestingly, the graduate-student participants expressed \lt'WS very different from those of their JD cow1terparts. Only one-third of grad students support gay marriage (as opposed to civil unions or no rights extended), t\\."0-thirds think the Liberal gtm registry was a misguided approach, and none of them wants to ban pri,-ate ht-:tlthcare (whereas 50% of the JD sntdcnts fed this is the proper approach). When forced to select one of the Conservative leadership candidates (which I know most did begrudgingly) 35.2 % picked Bennett Jones lawyer Tonr Clement, 24.3'Yo picked billionaire daughter Belinda Stronach, and 19.4% chose former Alliance leader

Rights are left

Stephen Harper. lnteresttngly, a recent BY SANA HALWANI f'laliot~<~l Post poll found 59' o support for I was not surprised by the fact that students llarpcr, 32% for Stronach, and 9'Vo for at U ofT I.aw arc more liberal than the avcrClement. 'lbat poll is considered accurate to agt: population, based on the results of tht· within three percentage points, 19 times out recent l ·11m Vim opinion survey \ftcr ;ttl, of 20. The U\ survey is ... well ... umm .. the profile of the student bod} ts quite a bit crrr... well, Simren Desat counteJ the different from that of the CanaJtan popul••responses. I do not want to tell anyone what to think, tion . ..\lost notablr, the mcdi<1.n age of law students at the F~culty is 24 (accorJing to but I hope to point out that our ,-icw~ as law admissions statistics), whtlc the median age students differ often from the \lews of the of the Canadi1n population 1s 37.6 (all pop· general popularlon. Undoubtedly, gcnerall}; ulation data from the we "hang ro the left" 2001 Statistics Canada as U of T bw stuCemus). Enn our dents. ·Ibis is not a geographical distribusurpnse, but should tion is skcwcJ: Over be remembered every • 2004 70% of the ~tudcnts time we pretend to polled were from speak for Canadian sec page 12 for full results either Ontario or "sentiment", political British Columbia, "trends", morali!)·, or compared to 51% of the general population. even legal justice in the courts, media, or J lowever, even tf I couldn't explain away poltucal arena. the left-leanings of the student body Why is it important to acknowledge the through age and geography, 1 wouldn't be diffen:nce bet\veen law students' \'lcws and too worried. As the survey shows, 66% of those of the general popul-ttion? Locke and students thought that our government f lobbes articulated the dichotomy, but should fulfill Kyoto commitments whether Aristotle delineated it best. The difference or not the protocol comes into force, 92°/c between democracy and oligarchy, along with its const:quences, ts what many supporters of voted to keep immigration the same or to increase it, 85% supported gay marriage, an elected Supreme Court or a Triple "E" and 54% felt that aboriginal self-governSenate poUlt to when debating political jusment is the way to go. True, the participants tice. Some law students recognize their future may nm be demanding blood over the sponroles as lav.ryers, judges, and politicians as ~or"hl\~-. :;c:mcla\ and they may nm \t\<e humble opportunities to repre~enl the people

~OPINIONS M

Stephen Harper or George Bush, but thcr arc clearly pro-environment, pro·immigration, pro-gay rights, and pro aboriginal selfgovernment. Question: \'\'hat do the em-i· ronmcnt, immigrants, gays ru1J lesbians, and aboriginal peoples have in common? Answer: They have all been-and continue to be-trampled upon by socict). So, how has the grt-at institution we call "Democracy" allowed such a thing to happen? \'fell, unfortunately. a bcne\·olcnt majority i~ about as plausible as a benevolent dean . <J'ote: I said dean not acting dt-an.) I hate to point out the obvious, but elected rcpre:scntatives conceiwd of, wrott·, and enacted the Charter, and they didn't ju~t do it for kicks. They obviously figured out that nghts need to be protected by more than the supposed goodwill of socict)· and ib elected representatives. As an immigrant (now proud citizen), ,-isiblc minority (according to StatsCan), and woman, I am happy that Canadian dcmocracr is not simply based on the "consensus of. the masses". Although I have a lot of faith in humanity, I also know that-just like individuals-the masses can be bigoted, narrow-minded; and simply unrt-:tsonable. So I take great comfort: in the structure of ( anada's polincal institutions, whtch allow tht: rights of minority groups to be protected. 1 also take great comfort in the fact that my fellow students and their "\cftist" anitudes arc \ike\y to be some of the people supporung minon\'J' nght.S.

1o 1hc :Hal<'. Ocher ~tuiknts aspin• rr> such

positions so that they can help malr the "will of the state" and represent the state down to the people. One is democracy, supported by the consensus of the masses that elect responsible representatives. ' Ibc other is a modern-day form of smug oligarchy, where a small body of the educated elite appoint thcmseh-t-s "superior" in moral knowledge and dictate an agenda to the general body. Judicial acti'i~m has a modern-day taste of oligarchy about it when democratically elected legislative bodies are ovcrturncJ \\.ith predictable regularity, not on what the "fr.tmcrs" intended or what the vo1ce of the majority demands, but rather on what the sclfappmntcd academic elite decide is the proper direction for the growth of the "li\·ing tree." The voice of the people is respected by this modern oligarchy only when it is In accord w1th the Supreme Court of Canada "Elite '\me's dt\'lnely appointed ,;cws." Wt• t:\·en make bronze busts of them and place them on pedestals by our library. Should Philippe Phaneuf and Stmren Dc..at e\er become writers for the 'fiJronlo f m, ~lax Morgan Chief Justice of the ~uprcme Court of Canada, Robin Rix the governor-general's husband, or Ronan Levy an actor on Tbis flour fla.r 22 .\>1inulr.r (as they all hkcly will), \Ve need to remember that the legal profession's views and the views found in downtown Toronto arc not always the views of the Canadian people. ,\laybl' this will matter to you ~s you represent the people to the state, or maybe it won't if you cn-:ttc the state and then represent it to the people. Only one approach is democratic and enfranchises the people's voice. 'Ibc other approach has some ,-el'}' unfortunate long-term out· comes as seen throughout political histOf)"·

EDITOR'S REFLECnONS

Chorus of controversy and anniversary BY BERN INA BUTT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF \t [1\t; }cars of age, \Xolfgang Amadeus :\1o;..oart, wnng a vtohn at a part), was told to "run away and stop botlKnng e\el) one." But run a\\a\ he dtd not; 1n fact, history has shown us how he St.l)cd. ~ lozart ~tarted composmg at five. \Vc are still interpreting his music 243 years l.1tcr. Those who do not \\'lUlt thctr acnons read, those "ho do not \\'lSh w ha' e their accomplishments sung. those who .uc wo vulnerable to be :.een-tht'SC an the ones who have told us to "run a\\:.1} and stop borltenng e\cnone." 'lbese are the ones \\ ho ha' e absconded from the press. But five }ears later. we arc still noung. \\e are still prcsSJng on It ts almost fi,e in the mornmp Staytng up late durtng an L lim I iru production \\ eekend ts nothing unusua~ but thts ume, the experience is decided I} dtfferc lit. Playing out before us are thl· movements, the pages, the words thnt '~ill take us from the computer !iCrccn back to the begmmng: the paper We began fi\·e rears ago. The bmm child of 1ts founder and first cdttor tn chtef, Meliss.1 Kluger. 1)\ was an infant of msntutional memory. Rut me1nory fatls. and thts 1~ wfut the paper h.1s grown fat on-human failure. tdtosmcra~. and

growth. Imnall} 12 pages and black and \\ hite, l \ now stands corrected and coloured at 28. I ha\t.: written for and edttcd se,enteen ts~uts smce my first year at d1e U of T bcultv of I .a\\. As all others, I h;l\c \\1t· nessed change. [\er} )C-ar, students grad· uate from the 1-aculty. Iwer~ day, thoughts somewhere return to the l acuity. h>r those who ha\e forgotten, the paper lies in wrutmg. The connccuon IS qwet. } et the ues robust. The strength of the p.tpcr ltes m the open hnes of commumcation, the orchestra of opm10ns. \Xe are fore\er sur pnsed h\ the responses, po ·mvc and neg an\e, thllt arncles eltdt. \Xe are fore\er pleased b} the chance to reference. Students of mustc, \\hen fir~t k-arnmg, page to \lozart. We hope th.u rem, "hen rcmembenng when and what } ou first learned tn Ia\\, will page the U\. \ftcr this. the 30th ISSUe of l \, IS pnntt'd and the collection of letters :md grnphics ts m your hands. we trust \"ou \\til appreaatc what has passed anJ look forward to \\hat IS yet to be And cu n tf vou don't lO\c us, \I.e hope that )OU belie\ e 111 l \', and arc w'lth us In our amphfic.ttion of the beautiful back ground noiSe of our law school commu

ntty.

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ULTRA VIRES

LEGAL ISSUES

18

Deadweight costs dragging down the new contract law

Clinic checkup Downtown Legal Services BY IAN ANDRES Thi~ p.tst year has certainly been an nentful

determine whether criminal offences have been committed, and that such a proceeding is unconstitutional because the pro,ince can· not authori:te an infringement on federal criminal law jurisdiction. The highlight of the however, arose out of the lmmigration and Refugee group, where the conuibutions of DLS helped to prevent a young woman from bemg deported to Somalia, where she would ha\.e faced a strong likelihood of persecution or death. The pre-removal risk assessment submissions were prepared by Kirsten AgreU (III). In her submissions, Agrell emphasized the dan_gers that awaited this woman back in ~omal.ia, due to the facr that she no longer speaks the language, and has no male or dan protection. After numerous hearings and app<.·.Us, a humanitarian and compassionate application, and even an Ontario Coalition Against Poverty protest, the woman won the right to remain in Canada with her husband.

year,

one for Downtown Legal Services. With twa 70 t'llger young minds to trrun, a docket full of set date:;, hearings and trials, and the move to our colourful and spacious new home, there has been no shortage of work for our Yoluntccrs. For those dicnts pcrsi.stenr enough to ink one of our criminal retainers, our srudcnts ha\ e spent a great deal of orne this year negotiating pleas and pr..:panng defences. Yet despite the;e mliant eff<>ns, the unfortunate reality is that not all who are in need of help recei\·e it In fact, most who call in se-.ucll of criminal reprcscntl cion arc turned awa}: a~ our suppJr of srudents simpiJ C:U1110t keep up with the demand In the ci,·iJ realm, students have been making a difference in five different pracuce areas. \mong other things, the Employment shift has worked on wrongful dismissals and human rights chitns, the Housing mlun· tt:ers ha\·c helped disgruntled tenants fight their c\ ictions, and the Child and Family group has :lssisted in rcsohmg the most del- BYHANNAH ENTWISLE 1cate of domestic Issues. A current file of interest for the University Last semester, the International Human ,~\ffairs shift is a federalism test case, R1ghts Chmc's 14 students worked on scYen hunched on behalf of a student, agamst the ftles representing a \\;de variety of clients Un\\·crsity of Toronto. Usman Sheikh (H) from \\;thin Canada and around the world. h·.1.s \)ten \m~y prc~a.ri.ng the subrruso;ion~. ln parucu\ar, students filed an inten:cner wh\ch 1\'Y}lC that the ~choo\ ha!'. i..n~tirutcd ·A \lti.d m the Spccia\ Court £or Sierra Leone,

The International Human Rights Clinic

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w\\\ \n eHcct

'.\t\!,U\n\!, lh'.\1 1he recn1i.tment o£ chi.\u ""'

dices 1s a cnme under international customarv law. Students continue to work on prote~ting the nghts of \layans to their ancestral lands in Bcli:te, wrulc others represent a Roma refugee m Canada before the European ' court of Human R.tghts to address the human rights Vlolations suffered by his community in Romania. The Clinic, headed b} International !Iuman Rights Program Director ~oah '\on>grodsky, has sent students abroad to meet \\.1th their clients and gather informacion. These cxpc.:ricnces, in addition to the cours<.work, give parnc1pants in the Human Rights Clinic an opportunity to gain \-aluablc pracncal skills on how to launch international human rights litigation, as well as insight into attendant difficulncs. Above all, getting the facts on the ground can be parncularly challenging, when the communities the Clinic represents can be thousands of miles away. Cultural and language differences, and procedural rules of unfamiliar jurisdictions all create challenges. I Iowever, these experiences give students a real understanding of the ups and downs of litigating human rights \;olarions in international forums.

Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic BY CHRISTINE SHAlABY The Barbra Sch\ifer Commemorati\·e Clinic works "s ··' free counseling, \ega\, mlCl'f't<:ta

rion, informacion, and referral sen;ce for female survivors of violence. The clinic works with women from many different backgrounds. Man} of the 1ssues that arise in the legal department are family law matters such as diVorce and child custody. In add1tion, however, the cliruc works on matt<.rs pertaining to unmigration, partner abuse, sexual assault, and childhood sexual assault. Clinic lawyers also do legal aid appeals and generally represent clients on any related legal matters that may arise. There is a large emphasis on reacrung out into the community, and some law students work with the community-outreach worker to achieve this goal. Another major component of the work done by law students is the preparation of Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB) clauns. Thts work involves inter· ncwing clicn ts, soliciting medical reports and letters, drafting personal statements based on client meetings, and putting claims together for Board re\lew. Students may sometimes play a part 1n advocating for dicnrs at their CICB oral hearings. Currcndy, five to seven U of T law stU· dents from first to thtrd year \·olunteer at the clinic. The staff lawyers are excellent mentors, and the experience is rewarding on several levels. 1be Schlifer Clinic is an excellent place to learn about a particular area of public interest law, and it offers students a chance to work for a marginalized group in society that is undersen·ed and has great ncnl for

l<:~a\

asststancc.

Tortured readers speak out MLETT£Rs~

coNTINUED FROM PAGE 1s

that there arc people des<.:nmg of torture and that comm1ss1om and regul tor) bod 1es should be crcatc.:d to dcctde '"here and \\hen to hand it out. \\e ha\e failed 1f we ha\ e learned nothmg from the ~:cars of torture on the hl'<toncal record. Bnan GfJX. I'b. D. randidate, I >rparlmml of .\1tdiral Cmehto and MitTObio/ogy at MI'Julll \melt llo!pita/'r \amud Lnnrnfcld Hcstarcb I uslilulc, Toronto.

Torture- the lost legal test? Dear I duor, I \\ nte to comm..:nd Kc1r \'\ dmut for h1 excellent nude on the offic1al usc of torture "Let's not be nru\c: the case for torture warranL~, r:cb. 10, 2004). It 1S the.: mo t \\ell reasoned Jusnficanon for tlus useful JUlltaal tool that I ha" e r<.>.ld tO manv years '\fv only cntiasm of \X tlmut 1s that hL~ suggested uses for torture arc roo narrow. It is my own modest propos al that tortur..: be used 111 the day to-da} admtmstratlon of JU~ticc Jn man) tnals, the finder of fact must dec1de a case on the basts of Wltness cred 1bll1t), a process fraught Wlth uncertamn. Yet Ill medle\-al nmc~, Jt was kno\~n that wuness t..:snmony can be trusted tf u IS extracted under torrure. Thus, 111 a modern court, torture could be used to csrnb !ish the truth of anr testimony. For exam

'

19

LEGAL ISSUES

23 MARCH 2004

pic, ullegauono; of sexual ass ult often come down to deciding bcn\ecn th<.: stones of the accused and the complainant. 1he answer, surd), is to torture them both. In thts \\a\, the guilt-. \\ill be con \ICted and their ,,<.:nms w11l be spared the p:unful ord..:al of a JUr) tnal In mcdll.\al nmes, people charged \\tth certam difficult comes \H.. rc subjected to trial b} water or frrc Ltkc torture, these forms of due process also have a pbce m our modt·rn JUStice S}Stcm. ror cx.unplt·, people t·hargcd with fr.tud could bt· dumptd in Lake Ontano. Th1s would turn a ~.·omplcx philost>phical qu..:snon to \\ hich "e can nc\ cr rcall} know the ans\\ cr ("Do we kno\\ that the accused mtended tr> defraud hts clients?") into a 1mplc cmpmcal que,non ('Does he float;.•) The~,. 1deas may setm extreme, but I urn confidc.:nt that once \'\ tlmut's 5UgJ;t uon about the usc of torture IS acceptnl, the adopuon of mj 0\\ n propos.Jls ... Ill me\ I tabI\ follow. Your obed1ent sen.mt, LORD HALD \NL 1nffJlly Smglctnn {1)

not be nai\ c. the case for torture \\ ar rants," l·eb. 10. 2004). The author feels thJt s l ng s such activtt\ is regulated b} gm ernment, 11 Is fine. In n:ph, I haH' .1 fc\\ thmgs to say about whv the argument put forth m th, t article 1s tl:tWed. hrst of all, this t n't Holl}'\\ood, and \Oll are not Kcam1 Ree\es. \'\'ilmut sug gc~ts som~ prctt\ mteresting scenariOs in which tOrture \\.Ould be an appropn.lte method for sa\ thg se" eral lives. 'I c> wtt: There's a bomb Ill the cuy and no one kno\\S \\her..:. It SOllnds like the opuung lme to a rnovtc trailer. The sltuauons \X ilmut uses to tllu trate hL~ pomt, e\·en the om· presented b} Alan Der~ho\\1tz, S('em prett\ farfetched at best, and a little merdramauc at worst. For one thmg, th..:re arc mtclhgcnce sen·i<.:e-; p~rsonncl spec1£icall} tr.1ined to make goc•d brucs~ts as to where the bomb mt~ht be m such a situauon a:;summg the bomber actu.1lly sta}s qutct. It seems to mt' that man~ bomber$ \\ould prefer to indJatte \\here they plan to wreak havoc: m exchange for somethmg of value. Second!}. in C.mada, we care about rights. Unhke '\bn Dcrshow111.'s home countr), Canada hasn't gotten around to sub\ crtmg our Cl\ II liberues 1ust vet--at least, not all of them. In case the .•lUthor hasn't been doing his readmgs for Cnmtnal class, let me refre~h hts memory: Dear hdnor. Last month's UV featured an optmon R1ghts are onh nghts 1! they are protect piece advocaung the adoptton of torture ed when it huns. To class1fy an alleged for certam purposes (Ketr W'ilmut, "Let's bomber's nght to bodilr lntcgritv us pnm,,

Let's not be brutes: a case for naivete

Professor Robert Scott's call for informality BY SEAN HORAN Over the past 20 years, the bculty of La\\ has invited legal scholars from around the world to deliver a public lecture 111 honour of former Dean Cecil \. \Vnght. This year's speaker, Professor Robert Scott from the University of Virginia, gave the talk on .\larch 2. In his provocatiw and articulate speech, "The Death of Contract Law," Scott argued that contract law is at risk of becoming irrclc\·anr unless "courts and leg · islators come to sec th:lt, in fact, less contract law is better than more." The title of the lecture plays on the name of an influential book called '111e Deatb of Conlrarl. In this book, Grant Gilmore argues that contract law 1s being swallowed by the cxpanswn of tort liabili ty and rhe advent of the Umform Commercial Code. While Scott said he found Gilmore's instinct that "something was amiss" quite prescient, he suggested that it is contract k1w rather than contract itself that is in severe peril. Scott supported his view by suggesting the proliferation of vague standards and contextual interpretation in the 20th century has led to a mass exodus from the for mal contract law system. He argued that commercial cntcrpnses, once significant consumers of contract law, now favour more informal binding arbitration. ln

Scott's esrimauon, contract law has thus cd that the contextual "interprell\C become "irrele,·ant to many if not most approach injects a severe bias mto the contracting parnes." Citing soc1al science process" by subYerting the efforts of evidence, he argued that "contract law can those parries who wish to rely on the writ ten agreement. Th1s results in mcreased b~ revi\·ed," but that it would require a return to the formalist approach of the uncertain!) and error, and significantly greater litigation costs. 19th century. Scott stated that these deadweight social According to Scott, two features defined the old formalist approach: First, the cen- costs made the new contract law less trality of written agreements; and s..:cond, attractiYe. In addition, however, the "major the limued role of law' in enforcing and wholesale loss from the exit of st:tndard interpreting these agreements. As contract contract law is the loss of social benefits proliferated in the early part of this centu· that derive from the common law process." ry, courts struggled to apply these simple Smce arbitration is neither public nor bind· rules. In response, courts developed a new mg as precedent, it confers few benefits on contract law to resolve the increasingly subsequent contracting parties. To resoh·e the problems created by the diverse fact patterns and complex relation · ships they encountered. The new contract ne\\! contract law, Scott advocated a return law was characteri:ted by \ a!,ruC standards, to the minimalist 19th-century approach. like reliance, that expanded the scope of I Je explamed that this approach relics on JUdicial regulation, and contextual rules of "powerful informal norms, rather than interpretation that limited the parties' abil- legal rules, to govern most contracting behaviour." In support, he cited recent it} to control meaning. experimental work 1n behavioural econom· In response to these changes, many partiCs "voted with their feet" and chose ICS. Explaining that people are naturally btnding arbitration instead. Scott attributed this exodus to the increased costs of inclined to behaYe reciprocally, he contract formation and htigauon. He described three key findings: ~iany people explained that vague standards are rarely a are much more cooperative than predicted good fit for contracting parties. Smce it is by the ax.1oms of rational choice; people repay gifts and take revenge even 111 inter difficult to predict how courts wtll mtcr· pret them, parties must expend more time actions wtth complete strangers and even if it is costly for them to do so~ and, ~orne and resources bargaining. I Ie also suggest

people exhibit reciprocal fa1rness while others are selfish. I Ic also cited another experiment where buyers had to choose between an unenforceable bonus agreement and an enforceable contract with sanctions for non-performance. The experiment demonstrated that the self-enforcing option produced a much higher payoff on average for hoth parties than the legal option. Scott suggested that the great lesson of this experiment "is that any effort to judJCi;tli:te preferences for fairness will destroy the very informality that makes them so effective in the frrst mstance." Scott acknowledged, howcYer, that selfenforcement and reciprocity arc less likely to be effectlYc m complex commercial transactions. \ccordingly, he argued that contracting parucs may simply prefer to operate under two sets of rules, namely, "[A]n explicit and rigid set of rules for those parts of their relationship that require legal enforcement and a flexible and implicit set of rules for those aspects that respond best to self-enforcement." ln parting, Scott cautioned against the tendency to exaggerate the role of law. Forcefully, he stated, "Precisely because fairness matters, the law should leave space for reciprocity to work ... In short, the lesson may sunpl) be that fairness imposed i.s fairness denied."

Property Guardianship experience displaces law school fictions Jam less \ .1luabl~ than the "tnnocent It\ es" h1s acts end mger 1s a \ 10latton of the most fundamcnt'lllaw of our land, like u or not It m y be JUstified s ::>tatcd tn SocC uon 1 of th<. ( h,trf,r, \Cs, but e\cn then. torture l~n't like banmng rour Saturda\ mornmg tO} commerctals-tt ts an mfrmgement of one's own person, and m the SltuJilons pr<.~entcd m \X ilmut'~ ,trU dt-, tt oct·urs betorc ,lfl} rna! b conducted Tht~rc goes scctt<m 11 (d), too Ciencrall}, we '"'all to constr'lm a person's Iibert) unnl after a fair tnal, and 1f s/he must bt impnsontd beforehand. there nrc strict standud" for so domg. ln addltton, let's not forget about the Oak.tr test. Torture surt doesn't seem like a minimal 1mpair ment of the nght tn qu<suon hn.tlh·, \\ ilmut pmnts to government nguht1<>n as the preferred altcrnaUH.· to an outn •ht ban of torture. I havc one word m respon5e: \\'alkcrton. If offictal gtUddmes and monitonng of our most tmportant resource can go awrh thfn there IS defimtch• the possibilay of torture gomg wrong. Torture IS so offensive and ~o hnkt:d to abus~.· that the ~uggcsnon of "regulated torture" 1s an oxvmoron. It\\ til ne\ er be ac~oepted bv soae~ - Chn tme Sh11/abr (1J

3) guardianship investigations; and 4) litigaPro Bono Students Canada (PBSC) is a national organization matching law students from sixteen law schools across the country with public interest organizations, community groups, and lawyers doing pro bono work. PBSC also runs programs in the courts, through which trained students provide legal assistance to people without lawyers. This month· ty column features pro bono stu· dents and the work they are doing in underrepresented communities this year.

BY DANA HNATIUK AND MARK COLBORNE This year, we have been working for the Ontano Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee (OPG1) as our PBSC placement. Our experience has been lunited to the areas related to the OPGT's guardianship of men tally mcapable adults; however, the Office also serves a vast number of functtons including the monitoring of the operanons of charitable organizations and the process ing of property belongmg to dissoiYed corporations. The OPGT undertakes four essential roles with respect to the protection of the mentally incapable: 1) property guardianship; 2) personal care guardianship;

tion guardiansrup. The OPGT assumes the re~ponsibility of property guardianship when there 1s no one able, willing, and appropriate to protect the fmancial interests of a mentally incapable adult. The process of becoming the guardian of property can take place through the recommendations of a number of different authorities including doctors in p~ychiatnc facilities, the Capacity Assessment Office under the responsibility of the i\.firustry of the Attorne} General, or the courts. Pa}i.ng bills and rent, and managing mcome, assets, and charitable donations on behalf of the client, arc among the many tasks of the proper~· guardian. While proper~· guardianship involves financial matters, personal care guardianship involves decisions regarding medical treat· mcnt and general health. Often, familr mcm· bers or others opt to assume this rcsponsi· bility; however, in situations in which this is not the atse, the OPGT has the authori~· to make decisions in consideration of the I ltaflb Care Consent Act. '!be OPGT is also responsible for investigating citizens' concerns that a mentally incapable person may be suffering because of an inability to care for hun or herself or because of mistreatment from others, including family members. Severe neglect of personal care, abuse, and financial exploitation are some of the situations that the OPGT ~pically addresses. The last of the OPGT's major roles is litiganon guardianship. Tlus arises when a

judge determines that an individual litigant lacks the mental capacity to understand and make the necessary decisions regarding the litigation at hand. The court can, in such a case, appoint the OPGT to act as the litigation guardian. In this capacity, the OPGT interacts with the client's legal counsel to ensure that the interests of the client arc met. '\11 settlement agreements must be approved by the OPG'l.

Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of our experience is the realization that the policies we helped to develop will have a significant effect on vulnerable individuals. This year, we have worked spectfically m the area of property guardianship. Our job has involved drafting some pohcy about the management of clients' assets, specifically regarding the procedures used by the OPGT in distributing money to clients to meet da} to-day lifestyle needs, and in determining how to make gifts on behalf of clients. The challenge of writing policy for the Office lies in the balancing of the requirements of the Substit11/t Dm"sio11s Act (by which the entire authority of the OPGT is delegated), the practical constraints on the Office,

and the needs and wishes of clients and their families. Sometimes the indiYidual clements ~cern to conflict, and it become$ difficult to determine which concerns should be emphasized. Ultimately, the clienr's wellbeing is of utmost importance to the OPG'I: espcciallr when there are no friends or family willing to address the concerns of the client. The staff at the Office has been, without exception, reccpri\·e to our suggestions and eager to direct us to helpful resources. The clt'll! desire of the Office and it:> staff to fatthfully represent the best interests of their clients motivated us to tackle the daunting task of aligning the practices of the ore. r \\ith legislation. Through a process of con ducting inteniews with client representatives and legal staff, we gradually put together two fairly comprehensive policies that hopefully meet the needs of both clients and the OPG1: Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of our experience is the realtzation that the policies we helped to develop will have a Significant effect on vulnerable mdividuals. During the course of our studies, there rna}' be a tendency to view people as nothmg more than "plaintiffs" or "defendants". At the end of the day, sometimes decisions can take on the structure and importance of fiction. Our assignment has provtded us with an extremely meaningful opportunity, and we would not hesi~te to recommend a pro bono placement or artiding position at the OPGT to those students who desire to serve the community in a unique and valuable capacitr


ULTRA VIRES

LEGAL ISSUES

20

Peter Hogg talks gay marriage with Harvard's Richard Parker Cross-border constitutional debate sends sparks flying h1ghltgh11ng rhe following cases. In l:.gan \. Cmada (SCC !99S), a s:tme ~t·x At the Unh ers11y Club on Fdl. 26, 2004, couplt· wa~ denied ct·rtain spousal benefits Pcwr llogg, former Dean of Osgoodt' II all undt'r the Old Agt Jmm{Y Art, on the basis Law ~chool and a pre-cminenr mmd 111 that Egan's partner d1d not meet tht· explicCanadian co'nsunuional Ia"~ ~yuarnl off itly heterosexual definition of "spouse" \\1th Richard Parker. Professor of Cnmm:tl undt•r the Act. The court decided that Jusun• at the llnn'llrd J.aw Sch(x>l, and homosexuality was a ground analogous ro race, national or ethnic origin, colour, reli nurhor of lltrt, tht Ptople Rlllt: A CoiJI/Ihthonttl Pop111ir1 Mon!fe.rlo. on the 10pic g1on, st•x, age, or menral or physical disability, under section IS of the Cbarttr, and was of the constirutionality of gay marriage. 1/ogg JS coumel to rhe federal govern· thus entitled to cyual rights protection. ment in it~ reference ro the Supreme Court \X'hile the court found thar there had been of Canad;t to determine the conscirutionali- an infnngemenl of the couple's section IS ry of a legislative proposal to redefine mar· rights, it dctermu;ed that this discrimination riage co include "two persons" rather than was Justified under section 1 since "none of merely "one man and one woman," to the the couples excluded from benefits under exclusion of all others. Hogg started his talk the Act are capable of meeting [its] fundaby surveying the Canadian jurisprudence. mental social obJectives," namely procre aoon and family development. f le generally argued in favour of the same '\Text, I logg pointed to Vnend v. Alberta sex-friendly defirution, yet maintained a safe personal distance-perhaps partly due to (SCC 1998). \'nend filed a complamt with the nature of h1s legal relationship ro the the '\!berra Human Rights Commission issue. Professor Parker, on the other hand, after his employment at a college was termibecame quite. animated and delivered an nated on the basis of hls homosexuality. impassioned and articulate plea for parlia- This complaint was denied because the mentary sovereign()~ focussing hls criticism province's bJdinllual RightJ Pro/ulton Art on the ~upreme Judicial Court of (IRPA) did not include sexual orientation as i\lassachusetts' recent ruling that restncnon a protected ground. The court reversed the of ci.vi\ marriage to heterosexual couples Alberta Court of Appeal by deeding that the lRPA was in violation of section 15, infringed the ~tate's Constitution. Ho\\\', l'-U\"'.:C'jcd the recent de,·e\o?ments that it could not be saved under section 1, \n tlam.e-llex \un~\lnl<it:nce \n C:anaua \)~· and that 1\L"Xua\ onentation would have to be

BY SIMREN DESAI

REAL Challeng'e yourself in law. And in life. BORDEN LA 0 N E R GERVAIS

CALGARY Colin MacDonald 403-232·9523

Talk to a member of our National Student Recruitment Team.

MONTRbL Janet Casey 514·954-3125

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Borden Ladner Gervais LLP Lawyers • Patent & Trade-mark Agents I Avoca11 • Agtnts de brevets et de marques de commerce

I

rmd tnto thl· Act as a prorccted ground. .\lost signiticantly, it \\115 decided that even legislati\ c omissions would be subject to scrutiny unda section 32 of the Charier, which rcytures that gon~rnmcnt acuon be in conformity wuh the enun1crated rights. In .\!. tl II. (SCC 1999), a woman suing her ft·male partner <,>f 18 years for spousal support challenged the constirutionaliry of the explicitly heterosexual defmnion of '\pouse" under _section 29 of rhe Onlario F,,,n~l)' l.tJw Art (FL,\). The court found that there hau been an infringement of the equality guarantee and that it could not be saved under section 1 since the purpose of sectton 29 was ro recogmze the financial dependence that arises tn intimate relaoon ships in a context unrelated to chlldreanng. In other words, excluding same-sex couples from the FLA's support regime was found nor ro be rattonally connected to the Act's pressmg and substantial objectives of protecong children and women, addressing sexual inequality, proVIding equitable resolunon to economic disputes, and reducing the burden on the pubhc purse to prm,;de support. Same-sex marnage was finally recognized in Canada with the 2003 Court of Appeal for Ontario decision tn Halpern v. Canada. The Court ruled that the common-law definition of marriage-onginating in an old English case called Hyde v. Hyde (I IL 1866)- -as being between "one man and unc wom4\n,"'

wa~

stance smn•

dobted rla· diJ.,'llirr of same·

ll

Ui-scriminatory in suh

sex couples. Th~: definition could not be jus tified under st·ction 1 since there was no ev1denn• in the case Ia\\ of a pressing nnd substanual objecti\ c. The Court allowed Parliament two }"l'ltrs to amend the comm<m-law dcfiniuon, faihng which it would be rcformulatcJ by substituting "two per sons" for "one man and one woman." The B.C. Court of Appeal 1n Egale v. Canada applied 'trtuallv the same reasoning, and cam~ to the same conclusion as the Court of Appeal for Ontann. ..\lost recently, last week, the Court ol .t\ppeal of Quebec released the decision l ..t1 l{l!,llt (tllboliqllr po111· le.r droils dr l'holllmr c. llmtltirk.r, whtch affirmed the unconstitu tionalitr of ~l·ction 5 of the Frtltral Lau Cml 1Jlll' l lur/1/rmizq!Joll Ads limitation of mar riagt• to couples of the opposite sex. ,\11 this has culminated In draft federal legislation containmg the following two kcr prm·isions: 1. i\!arriagc, for ctvil purpose~. 1~ the lawfulunton of two persons to the exclusion of all others. 2. :-.:othing in this ,\ct affects the freedom of officials of religious groups to refust• to perform m:~rriagcs rhat are not 111 .tccordancc with their reli1,,>ious beliefs. The original reference yucscion, wluch had thrn· parts, asked whether 1) the Act is illlliJ tirrs the federal gm ernmcnt, 2) section 1 of the propos("d btll is consistent with the (.fltlrtrr, and 3) whether freedom of religion under ~ection 2(a) of the Charter protects rdiginus officials from betng compelled by the state to perform same sex marriagt'S. llo\\l~cr, this f:Ct of questions met with some degree of backlash from consen'l!Un· and rehgtous groups. Partly in response to this, the government collapsed the yut-s-

ttons into one. The yuestion reads as follm\ s: "Is the opposite-sex requirement for marriagl· for ciYil purpose~. as established bv the common law and set out for Quebec i~ s. 5 of the Ftdtral lAw-Cit,il Lull" llurmolliif11ion i'1rl, i\'o. 1, comistent with the Cmadia11 (.hartrr of Ri,gbts und Fmdofll.r? If not, in what parricular or particulars and to what extenr?" Hogg pointed out that the key change in the new yucsuon is that it is negatively worded to determine whether an exclusively heterosexual definition is unconstitutional, rather than positt\,ely asking whether homosexual marnage is constitutional. This subtle change opens the door to so-called same· sex "civil umons," which the pnmc minister and the federal justice minister have recently hinted their willingness to consider. \fter I Iogg's presentatton, Parker, who admitted to having very little knowledge of Canadian constitutional law, took several minutes to expound on Ius reading of the \1assachusetts rulmg. He first clarified that he and "most members of the Harvard Law [School] faculty support same-sex marnage." Nonetheless, he deplored the Massachusetts dectsion as "an accelerated rush of judicial activism [that posed] a threat to popular sovereignty." He asserted that the conventional view of the U.S. Suprcmt• Court in rulings like 8rrnm \; HtMrd

q( h,hm,litm (1 054)-rt"'llllr-

ing a dcs('gregation of blacks and whites 111 high schools-is that of a champion of moral justice in \\hOSt' ab~cncc "dcmocrattc progress could ne\ er ha,·c been achieved." The correct undcrstandmg of constitution· al Ia\\~ he argued, 1~ t<> sec it as a form of poliucs. nonng that ''getting to Bro11111 u Boord took IS to 35 years" of litigation and the formation of a popular poliucal will for change. Parker called the \lassachusetts justiLe "drunk on the1r o\\ n narcissbrn," implpng that hy picldng tht• 50th !lllmvcrsar} of rhe llrou·n dt•ci~ion to render their ruling, the Jllstict~ sought to tmmortalizc themselves. I k cauuontd that hy not \\ aiting for popu lar opinion to consolidate around the issue, thctr "stunning act of 1udicial hrazenncss" risked a popular backlash. ''If the federal constituuon ts amended, then it will be the resuh of tht• \lassachusetts decision," he prophesied grimly. Unlike Hogg, Cynthia Peterson, \\ ho rcprt·senred EC,\LE m ItS recent\ ictory m front of the Briush Columbia Court of Appeal, aggrcssi\·cly yuestwned Parker's reasoning after both speakers' remarks had been dchwrcd. "In the B.C. litigation, some of the evidence we introduced was C\·idcnct• of puhhc opinion in the U.S. subsequent to Lnr-ing v. Vit~~inia 11967 USSC case in which restrictions on interracial marriage \Verc dt't'med unconstirurionafl. The record shmwd t_hat the majority of public opinion !at the _umt· of the decision] was against tntt.rrac1al marriage.'' She further asserted that there was little rt'llson to think that c;lurts had hccn tno\·ing hasuly on same-sex ~ghts, staring, '~I"ht• first same-sex ca~e was m the t'llrly 1970 , so we've been Waiting 30 years."

23 MARCH 2004

Advocating for ourselves: the Law and Social Work Club BY VANESSA EMERY AND LOBATSADREHASHEMI Tbr u·r!furr

~(

thr people is tbr tdlilllale /au:

-Cicero (106 BC- 43 Bq

All too often, students in the combined Law and Social \X'ork program find themseh·cs stuck between two common stcrt'O· types: At the Faculty of Social Work, lawyers arc "mean,'' and at the law school, social workers arc "nice." \\"1hat is often forgotten amtd these stereotypes is that both professions can be about working for social justice. Here at the law school, we arc frcyuent· ly pcrcei\·ed as socially conscious types who possess sufficient doses of altruism to step out of the Bay Street rat race. The unstated assumption is that gin:n the social JUStice work we will do, other law students net·d not concern themselves with such matters. Others conclude that the degrees arc a strange combination as social \\ ork and law have nothtng, and should haYe norhmg, in common. •\ftt•r all, it is not a law ·er's 1ob to provide counseling 10 clients, and being emotional, caring1 or empathetic may be a hindrance in advcrsarwotk '\\7 hilc there an· many student~ who baH· a more balanced v1ew of the program, !Oo often we arc left with the impression that both students who support and do not support the program seem to view soctal work as marginal to the practice of law. \X'hile a lack of student understanding of what social work has to offer the law may be frustrating, tr is the Faculty of Law's failure to recognize the importance of this connection that has led to the effective marginalization of these concerns. Given the apathy ar both faculties, we have been lucky to have a strong support network among the students in the program. Paulina Wyrzykowski and Katie Wood, who are both graduating this year, have been extremely helpful in explaining the reyuirements, warning us abour credit confusions, and advising us on possible

21

LEGAL ISSUES

maneuvers around rhc rigiduy at the practicum office. But a program cannot rely on the kindness of fellow students, even tf they are social workers! In fact, despite popular belief at the law school, social work is not just about "being nice." Like bw, social work has a lot to do with advocacy. J\s a result, we haw decided to usc the advocacy skills we ha\ e dew loped at both schools, to advocate for ourselves and our program by launching the Law and Social \'fork Club. Believing that the cxpc· riences, \·alues, and skills developed in social work have infused our legal work with energy and humanism, we have decided to attempt to rewrite the old myths about what is valuable to a law school education. The mission of the group is threefold: Firstly, the group members arc motivated by a common interest in incrt'ltstng the vitality of the Law and Social Work pw · gram. Central to this goal is ad,·ocating for the appointment of a coordinawr who understand~ the inrcr:;ections hem·ccn the two disciplines. Secondly, we will work to strengthen links between the law and soCial work faculties by proYiding input on potential practicum placement~, intersect ing cour~e requtrements, and the f.emina~ course. Hnall)~ we wJll pro\'ltic edueaoon :tbour the intcrsecuons of law and soc1al work. Part of this work w11l be developing public legal education geared toward social workers in response to o\·erwhclming reports that social workers feel they have an inadequate knowledge of the law in the advocacy they do for themselves and their clients. \\""'e also hope that this article wtll be the first of many opportunities to dialogue with the student body about what social work has to offer thetr legal practice. In the social-work spirit of building connections, and the legal spirit of promoting free and _open debate, we encour· age any questions, comments, or partiCipa tion in our projects. Please send any queries ro our contact, Vanessa Emery, at vanessa.emery@utoronro.ca.

--the Green Vine

i11si,ghtr from the F..tll'ironmmta/ Lou' C/11b

Are environmental laws all we need? BY ANIK lALONDE·ROUSSY

contnbunng-morc than a1r pollunon.

\t the Spmlaw conferentc last \Htkend, the l of r I m tronm<:ntJI l-3\\ Club ~ponsorcd a workshop entitled, "l·nvtronmental Ad,ocaC) on the hont Lmeo;." 1hrec law) ers \\Orklng for the pro tec.uon of the en\'lronmt-nt shared thctr \lews on the relattonslup between em i ronmentallaw~, lcgal rights, and povert) \lark Mattson, President :tnd \X'atc;rkecpcr at Lake Ont:ano Watcrkecper (LOK), stressed that lau s are essential for people ttJ ha\ e rights, but laws alone o~.re not enough. Laws need to be enforced if the} arc to ha' e am me.aning. \lost would agree that \\ e ru\ e :t nght to <;WUn, fish, or dnnk from lakes and nHrs; howevc.r, the meaning of the Em>rro"'nmt<~l ProtMion 111 (l.P.1) 1S lost when \'ie can't enjO} an} of rho c nghts due to pollution. The gmernmcnt has to gnc pnont\ to these nghts over those of polluting mdu tnt'S. "I he problem, l(;.COrdmg to Mattson, ts that the Ontano \\lirustq of the biVironment (\fOE) ha no cnf•Jrccment force sumlar to the reguhr pohce force to tnVt.'Sil<';\tC U C...'\SC Ol j>O\\uuon, gather t."'Vl dt:nt<", find suspc;cts, and arrc:;t chcm. 1'he \10F has opkd for a mort• \Ulluttary approach itt the enforcement of em Iron mental laws. If the M< >E adopts a srncter approach, there \\oill surdy be protest from mdustrics, some job losses, and the usual fears assooared wuh any change. cverthelc~s. Iau s must be better enforced 1f ·we uant to gi\c meaning to the nghts enshrined in the F..P.A and otltcr enVIronmental laws. \lbcrt Koehl, Protect Lawyer at ~terra l~al Defence l-und, agreed with Mattson thar laws need to be enforced, but also p()intcd out that some Ia\\ s need ro be strengtltcncd. ~ome industries spc\\ atrociOus amounts of contaminants, but go unpun tshed because their actions comph \\1th or even e.:.;c.eed the applicable regulations ·1be btggc.st .ur polluters in the provmcc, coal fired power plJnts, calmly go about their busmcss because they arc tn compli a nee u uh the Ia,v. On nn indtvidwl le\·e~ someone In mg m the suburbs commming daily 111 an SUV rather than 111 a small car or by taking pub he transit is dotng nuthtng illegal, but ts

Lnnronmcntal laus should Jlso tOOlS rnnrL on pm en non and on 1denufvmg sour1.es of pollution. rather than on rrymg 10 lay bl.rmc after the d.1magc ha been done. I111s 1S because tt 1s '>Omeruncs dtffi cult to find <.:onclusi\ e t'\1dence hnktng em·Ironmental damage to a parncular <;ource or mduStr). \)so, tn man\' <.a$cs, u ts :>imph a c.tse of "too little roo late," the polluuon havtng alrcad) dam.aged the emtrorunenr beyond repair. Koehl also believes thar currenth acU!ss to a clean envtronmcnt tn C.mada IS not a nght, bur a privtlegc There current!) seems to be a marketpl:tce in whtch pwplc arc able to purchase acccs~ to a dean em i ronment l•or example, if )OU are \\Orncd about the qualm of tap water, )Oll sunpl~ bu~ botded water. If vou arc \\orricd about food, you buy more expens1\e organtc food. If you arc worned about smog, )OU buy an air conditioner •>r head out to the cottage on \\eckcnd~ As the quality o£ our cm.U(mment wor<;en "'tth climate change, so wtl\ l.he t.lt \)anti~:,. "bet'Wcen the \w,vu a.nd tn..: IJ:I\ c noes. C>nl> rhc nch \HU bt.• .tble ro prorcct thcmsch es cffccm dj ngntnsr cn\1 ronmcnt.JI degradation Apart from strongcr laws. and mcreascd enforcement and prc\cnuon, another crit teal element for the protection of the cm'l Mnmcnt ts, of course, the existence of !:myers '"illing to pracuce m the field of envuonmental bv.. Da' td Donnell}. Legal Director of Em trorunenral Defence Canada, pointed out that lugh legal costs are a problem for manr otizcns and communit\ groups wanong to prorect the cm'lronmcnt. They muqt rely on the few lawyers willing ro work pro bono or at a reduced fcc. Rdcrnng to the legal profession, Donnelly rnucizcd the loss of the sense of dul) to protect the more vulncruble. Fe\vcr lawyers are getting tm olved 111 pro bono uork, especiaU} 111 Bay Street firms, wh1ch are mcreasmglr run like regular businesses. He cononued that law}crs enJOf the pmilcgc of a monopol) on legal se:rvtces, and .;hould therefore fed compelled to make use of it for the benefit of aU, nch or pooL

LENCZNE I~ SLf\ C HT R OYCE SrviiTI ·I GI<IFFI N learn about student opportunities and becoming an cdvocate by visiting www.lsr!g.com or contact Perry Hancock. Student Co-ordinal()( (416.8653092 ()( phancockCPisr!g.com).

130 ~ STm:rwm, &lllE 2W:l, 'J'rmno, {).i:IJW M5H 3r; I'IIIN.416.8li59SOO fAC!I.IOJt416.865.~XllO ftT.I.IISG.OJll

IS

necessary-to


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I

23 MARCH 2004

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I

DIVERSIONS

23

The hypnotized never lie: Our law school is tOo corporate BY KEN STUEBING \Vhat is it that makL-s selling out so ugh-? It\ natural, easy to be cynical .1hout. corporate rock dinosaurs. Any sdt:respl'Cting rockfan has ro draw boundaries, to shapt• a personal code. Frinstann·, much ,\ s it patns me, if I'm ncr gonna set· :1 Ji, mg lkatlc pby rnustc, 11 s gonna ha{t• to he Ringo ;It tillS . Str I)auI often prt·tcnds he ts ;I roung pmm. mat . hur remains of course a compul he, rc\'l~tonist, glorioush· mer commmhficd dtppy schmarmy fop.· ' I le almost gets )OU, though, because he's oL\lously got heart. That is, ht• strms a soulful and likeable 'cgctariln dad '' ho Jo, cs you and probably most cvcr}one else. But ~elf-serving c.uccnsts end up more ;tnnoytng than cndt·aring, cn:n if the\ 're Paul :\IcCartneys at ht~rt. :-\ow, Pt tc ' l h~\ nshend is no Paul ;\lcCartncy in tht• hcarr department, but what separates 1\·te from shameless muru,>ing is Pete's I loncsry-.1 virtue that entire!) cle\'lltes his track record. The \'\'ho ha,·c always hem honl·~t, en·n when they turned sonwwhat dcspkahlc deeds. Is it cool that there's still the kmd of \Vho that would go on to commence a lucraU\'C world tour only tuo dtf)S tifler b.1sstst John Ent\\tstlc's sad tatal overdose on fame's \ ile trappint,rs in \ 'egas? Seems pretty hearties~. huh' In all rta~ smackmg of the shrewd bu iness moll\ e fo r such Ck~r Clunncl ponsored event tours. I sn"r thts, oo, honL'Sty? \ rockf.m'~ dtstrt'$S: <)Jd classic guys art allunng to young gu~ s hk~· mt·. because, Jeep in the trUl' recesses nf a ll>l it) that no one hkcs to think about, /{0( A. .\tcJJ!C JJ (X\'TX ,\f,-JRK/:'/:-113Lt: At IJJ Ml;Dl.-1 U/\1:. Ul /:/OT/1/lW; E/.1'/;"But 1 hkc it?" Is/was rock all JUSI popuLir product for unhinged corporate conglomerates ro profit by, or was the classic rock era reallv something grtal, somtthing ultimatcl\' a~d timl·lessly better than the industry that now sur· rounds and clouds our link to htstory? That's the litmus test yer discriminating rockfan has to carefully apply. For the most part. it seems the early 70s had so m,my fantastic mon:ments gomg, all beautiful ~hyth­ mic and far-out venturing together for the first time. .All these different g;thtxtes of wild sounds in one global boomtown music renaissance, in all genres and fields, a period in time that's onl} and espectally 11ow becom ing challenged by thrilling nl'W (and/ or m:w again) directions in synthetic, improvisatlonal, and electronic music and, I might add, nice young rock bands who arc proving well deserving of their careers! But can any of these bands (I'm looking at you, amazing Constantines!) actually be as good at rock as The \Yho were? From 19651978, The Who were at least among the top five, maybe top three, of supreme bands well worth knowing. Maybe the top all· time Bncish hard rock group, the Who's greatness ts a peak balance of energetic, happ}' fun, and original but meticulously solemn creanvicy, crowned by thetr mfluential catalogue of album-length studies of adolescence and alienation. Come on, People! I'm talkin' adolescence and alienation! Can I get ~ "\Voo!"? C'mon, "Woo!" for the \\'ho! When it comes down to it, 1973's Qutidrophmia is the album on whtch I can most rely. \X'hy, it sports PTs perfect lyrics

)and themes): )young cnsiti\ it}~) "Wh) should I care? Ir~-7 should I care?" ... I• ola uon and iJentity Issues: 1 "Is 11 me. for a mo~cnt?" ... )nostalgic mdulgem:c:)"l•,, 'ry year ts the same and I lcc:lu agatn/thc loscr, nu chanCl' to wm" ... Jw•ld triumph.mt t.1st rocking L 1-\'-I-:-.::) "Can you ~n· till' rral me, can ya? CA:\ Y \ !?" .. , )gallopmg ler.:p r.kp'r.l morntng joy:) " lns1<k· outstr.le. lca\e me alonc/Insidl' outsidt•, mm hue 15 hornc/lnstde ourstdc, when• ha\ e 1 hn·n/Out of my hram on ajitr-jij ICC'lll" ... !Siddharrha hkr.• \llatcrstde Ill} suer m:J "A beach ts the place ''here a man can feel/He's the onl} soul 111 the \X'orld that's rr.~l" .. Jail I} neal themes rulminaung m one ~running fragtlc plt'a:J "1.01 7:! Rl.IG 0'/:.R ,\1/:!' I fir:;t hstl'lled to Qnadrophrnia in 111) second \n·ek :at tht' l' ofT, midst 11\} first IlL'\~ explorations of the cur and \\hat maturing in it might mean: it was holy sundo\\ n on ,\londa}; Sept. 10, 2001, rambling round 'limmto'~ harbourfront. In zany frel'fall autumn, .\ks~cr 'li•wnshcnd's firedo!n rotk ()pera gave \OJCC to how I rL'!IIIy fr.:h. song· by dl'!ld on ~on g. It \\as cool It was hhtTat

mgt It's wetrd, though: The more 1\t• ought Perc for answers, the less I Jill· h1s rnt· sage. Yet, the less I hke Ius message. tht• more It speaks to me. Llstt'll, hn\c )OU )ward "\'i'on'r Get l•ooled Agatn" lately? I Jere at the Inaugural Rockt·rc 1dcmy Awards, pre~enting the award for Htsl Primal Rllt'A:: 'n Rill/ Shritk. hy a male classiC rock \oc.:.llist.

~\ntl

the notnmccs arc:

• Jim Mornson, "When the • • • •

\lusic's 0\er"; Robert Plant, "The lmmtgrant Song"; John Lennon, "Mother"; Roger Waters, "Careful \X>uh That .he, Eugene"; Roger Daltrey, ~'Won't Get Fooled Again";

Who among these gents won't get fooled again? Who's next? J>boto rourltl]

of llrrnifltl lln/1. hrr..:akmgl'St l·vent, the world satd, "~o" to tht· kilhng of mnon~H people Ul lratJ, pcacdully pk~dmg that Yankce drop sane uons not hombs, .md Pete's song's Sl'cond 'ersr.· captures \\hat happent·d, and norwtth standmg \IS people,\\ hat cuntllllll happen ing: 'l'ht ch.mgr,

11

bad Ia

wm~.

U 'e k11ew tl "" <Jicm,g.

ll'r urrc /i/Jtrakdfiv"' Iliff()(,

thtJI j

,,;1,

./lnd lht world loohjmii!Jf .rtllflr, A ml history t1i11 ~ clhu~~rtl. 'Cau.rr tbt bt~nnm. thry 'd alljlmm in lilt ltul U'tlr.

and 1rue~ I (FugazO hcrot•s \dw \·e gone hdorc, the left has to be about stnpng wgaged in a pron·ss. ,\ good me:1surt• of Boh Dylan is requa~ue: ~tar Wl' stay fort'\ er (~etl) roung. Pcrh;aps 11's a~ stmplc ns dus: 'I he left has w s tay contranan. l:.trn tho11gh \\c'rc gonna ha\C to sen t· somebodr, ohvi OU ly, \\ C' StJIJ ha\'C a choice. I came to U of 'I l.:~w l>eau c 1 wa~ curi ous about myself and ahour others. I wantt•d to sec\\ hat the drrft t'ward selfish cor rupuon looked hke, C\cn ftlt hkc. By now (now! Bur no\\'1), I drji11ittfy rake" ith me )Cr U of 'I' 1111demark package deal of anxiccy, loss, rsolation, confu ion, disallu ton, resent mcnt, dcht, pain, .md pressure-tell me tl I've forgotten .lnythtng. But I'm urpn cd how easy 11 has been to pretty much t:&}' the s:~rne, l'\ rn amtdst the ktnd of ptlcd on hull· shit and fear that thi mstuuuon helps us stakl holders to tmhthc. If you fed like )'OU h:nc no choices now that you ha\e huge debts of one land or anothc:r, )'Ou'rc com· promismg )'OUrsdf just Wee they atd )'OU would. Look., ptcture it thiS way: Suppose )'OU'd gone somewhere c:lse to study law~ somewhere \\'here tuition hadn't l~ttn arufiaa.ll), prohthtm eJr infbted to mmnlmn tht s11111t general IC2mm' package that \\'liS being doled our long before Run Darucls C\C:C became dean here. So, at tins otlxr bw school, )OU get a true north strong LI.B. wuhout a I.JU2Si mortgage that anchors )'OUr shtp v.·hcrc all the lights arc bnght: Downtown! So }'Our hand aren't so bound m this other pi~ Docs th1s change Uf!'

;\nd tsptcia(ly history ain't changed! It's perpetuated! There's an O~goodc llall law prof named ,\tichacl .\fandcl who says ur can do only what we can in the ctrcurnstanccs in which we find ourschcs, o~nd to protest in advance of fal t' war is Inherent progress. To paraphra~e I?.:ty Da,ies, we'll try and we'll try again, but wt· know we L'2n't uw. The great left isn ~about accomplishing ~orne goal like the tbwnmg of magic utopia or anythmg. The sever;\} scartr.:rtd !l'ft is about vanously participating in that giw and take ;md take and t.lkt• and t.1kc that undrr scores our orne. The grinnmg left isn ~ .1hout winning. If a left wm about winning, th.ll left would dtssohc like so many ,\1acht·th s before tt. An}one notice that at the end of .'it.1r l:pisotk IV: A Nro• //opt, the Dl":lth Star·blasnng Rebel ,\lhancc n:placcs a total itario~n, fasast empire with ... a totahtanan fascist emptre? The final ccnl· whcre J.e1a ho~nd~ out some medal vtsually rcfert·nces Leni Riefcnstahl's 19.14 doc, 'f'nnmph of tht U '~i/1, and underscores Pete ' li>w nshcnd's haste, overall dag: '', \luttht Nru• Ross• .\'amt 11! the 0/J Rllu." Yl~\111 As truly as "denounce" follows "denouement" 111 11 dicttorury, with thts stroke, Pete Townshl'nd offers rock and roll's ultimate S3} on the 11is of \oiolent revolution. Yc'd may as well camrt like ycr John Lennon, caust· unkmd hastory strt·tchcs too deep to C\Cr changL.__why hot her and hum- thin.f.

And the winner ts... oh my word ROGER 0\J:rREY, "Won't Get Fooled Again!!" Yes sir, as the epic album closer on 1971's lFbo~r i'\txl, rock's greatest-non concepralbum-assem bled - from-top -rat e-stmp lyas/otmdln,~conceptual·matcria! (the cream of Pete's llerculean t\Vo·ycar cxpcnmtntal exploraoons of rht evolution of human mteracoon, pure and distorted, J>Ts amaz ing, prescient yet sadly unworkahlt' .tnd uncompleted I .iftlxJII.rt saga), "Won'r ( ;cr Fooled Agatn" is an IIIJiln(/y spirited performance. Ketth gets a drum solo!! Pert· gtts a synth solo!! Roger bdrs his ~inglc greatest syllable (the aforesaid "YE1\!!l!'' scream ncar the end)!! John, uh, plays bass \ery well!! The \X'ho!! And if you know the song, you know its underuable brilliance. Even stripped of its intended place in the l.iJ'tbon.rt arc, this is a standout tune in an}' setung. As Perc had been saying all along, we art tools of bigger men, pawns in their gam<.: Spurred on by shotgun·wielding martial bwmakers, the street-fighting men of Pete'5 I ifibonu future actually re\·olt to tear down global corpor.lle clampdown, one that much resembles today's Internet! By compari~on, in our n":ll · ity, IJit file outside only to t.md and obey, mundanely resigned and orderly. In our h1p bug. Ah, humbled hke the ~tL-adiest (Ramoncs) 21<t century fashion. and m last year's heart·

u:arr

PlEASESEE "LAW" ON PAGE25

l

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ULTRA VIRES

DIVERSIONS

24

23 MARCH 2004

FROM THE SIDELINES

SMORGASBORD

Sixteen things everyone should do before they die 5. <;o to an .:-.:111. game and stt nght llehmd the glass. Yes, it will blow the entt·r· So this is it-my final UV arucle. As I end, taUJment budget for the }"t'llr, but tru t mt', it I would hkt· to thank Alex Dosman, \~hose is \\ell \\orth it. 6. Join every o ffice pool you find . You cm:ouragmg \\orJs started this column l~st \\ill hkclv lose about fiftY dollars per )'L~lr on }l';lr. I'J also hke to rl1.1nk ncryone \\ ho tht• d1.'lll: hut )OU will m~kc plenty of friends reads my work (yes, that means you). It Is om· rhUJg to cxpre~~ a \ie\\: bur a complete· in the process, and the friendly O\ alries will Jy d1ffercnt thing when someone actually incrC'.tSe your mterest in, and knowk dge of, reads 11. As 1 IC"a\'c: you, I w1~h you all well, :;ports. 7. Play sporrs in a k.tgue where the averand re..:ommcnd that you consider the fol · age start rime is after 10:00 p.m. Keep at it lowmg acm ities as nect:Ssary for a complete for at least two st-asons. Only with that comlife. 1. \X'arch .rhpsbol, F/dd of DrramJ, and mitment will you realize the true "fun" of HOOJirr.r. These are the three best sports the spor t, while meenng others who share that interest. rnO\ ics ncr made, and I know of a guy who 8. .A ttend a baseball game at \\ riglcy n:fuse~ to date a woman who doesn 'r Cl} Field, Fenway Park, and Yankee Stadium. d uring Pirld q/ DrramJ. 2. \ 'olun reer m a pit crew ar a car·racing T h ere is more history in each of those three n enr. Wrule '\J \ SC\R would be ideal, that ballparks th an in the ROM, \ GO, and is unlikeh· to happen, so you m ay need to Museum of Civilization combined. 9. Dunk a basketball. I t doesn't matter if rc:;ort co ;I backwoods ~rock car race. T here is no better \\~If ro Jearn teamwork than by you need co clunb a ladder or bounce on a trampolme to do it. The game is more fun participating 111 the pit. 3. Attend an "'H game in rhe late fall, at after you realize the rush of dunking for a packed ourd• r stadium. I recommend yourself. 10. Date someone who lo\·es the "-l"l . Lamht.·au Field in Green Ba): but a home game featuring Kan~a~ City, a ::--:e\\ York Trust me, there are more bcnetits than you team, Chicago, or ~ew England would know. 11. ,\uend .l '\, \SC \R race. Yes, I know \\ork, too. There is ~omething about the combination of cold "1.\"l"ather, cxciung foot- it sounds redneck, but It is a truly a cultural hall., passionate fans, and ~reat food that event and wlll be one of the more exciting thmgs yott do all year. ma\<;cs the e'ent un(orgettah\e. o\. \.\:atc:.h tc\)\ayy, o£ the\1)8.., ( .anada Cup \2. \)arncl'p ate m a championship parade. \"mah and the \ 9<)2. Wot\d 'Sen e-.;-the Remember: ~ma~hing cars and windows ,\d\n'"'i> C.•Anad\an "E>'\>O t \S m oment o~ <>ur ah ct the ( anudc \o~l the Stan\ey C up fma\s generation. Do this at least once per decade. to the Rangers was not a champJOnshJp BY KEITH BURKHARDT

p.uadc. You will hkcly need to It'll\ c 1i)ronto to .1ccomphsh thi~ t;l~k. \\hen you finally Jo 11, buy 11 jt•rst'}'. pretend you arc :1. lifelong fan, and enjoy thl' moment. I:1. Co for .1 five-kilometer Jog at 6:00 a.m. Something about jogging :It rhat time of the morning makes the world feel likt· a hcttt·r place, and it starts your Jay off on a much bnghter note than a cup of coffee .md colt! ptzza. 14. Lmrn a sport that would be con~itl· crcJ "Xtremt•" or at least "dangerous". I recommend racecar dri\;ng, snow mobile racing, lacrosse, bull riding, or surfing.

UV FOOD REVIEWS IS. Coach II }Outh sports team. It c;m be hockey, so it hall, football ... it doesn't matter. Just tc.lch the kitls good values, sportsmanship. and respect. You'll thank yourself 40 \"l~trs from now. . Anti mn~t importantly ... 16. Become a d1e-hard fan of a sports team or player. 1:ollow their every move, c:~.amim· their ~tats, and spend hours <.~tch week trying to be like them. Then remember that that is the way your child views you. Thanks for reading, and remember: "Life is the place where we spend our time between hockey games"-Fred Shero

Forget travelling the world, finding true love, or ris ing to the top--all you need is

the a dren aline rush from the fo lks a t NASC AR.

FASHIONABLY YOURS

Gina's eye for the straight guy BY JULIA GUARAGNA

could do it yourself with a home waxing kit, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you It has been brought to my attention that I mess up, It could take months to grow out. tend to wnte for a female audience, leaving While we're on the subject of hair removal, my gentlemen readers to fend for them - if you have an exceptionally hairy back, It's seh·es in the jungle that is fashion. Well, a good 1dea to wax that as well. Also, men I've decided to rectify the situation, by often have a hairline that extends down the starting with the basics: groommg. Thmk back of their neck. The ha1.ry neck is unatof it as a "Gina's Eye for the Str~tght tractive, and should be shaved or waxed. Guy." I know waxmg is pamful, but men Remember the days when men were free would do well nor to complain. You don't to look as haggard as they pleased, while know pain until you've experienced the women were forced to adhere to impossi· hly lugh beauty standards? \\'ell, umes have changed-sort of. \\"omen are ~till chasing ru.liculous beauty standards (for example, Jcnmfer l..opc-1 has been heraldetl a~ marking a return to a "cun ier" female physiquc-gt\ c me a break, the gtrl is a s1zc two even "\\'lth he.r big ol' butt). In the age of the mctroscxual, however, men too arc facing beauty pressure. Let's start with the most fundamental of mak· beauty fall.,; pas: the "unibrow." l understand that not all men arc born with two eyebrows; some men arc cursed with one, amalgamated brow. Thankfully, the indignity of stripping down to your thong unibrow is treatable ~Imply go to a salon in order to let a perfect stranger rip your and get the unibrow waxed. I'm not sug- pubic hair out by the root with hot wax. g<.-sting that men submit to elaborate brow This bit of torture is called the bikini wax, shaping, but merelr to enough waxing to and k'llgue:, of women endure it regularly. rc\ cal the existence of two eyebrows. il.lost In fact, women remove ha1r from every salons offer sen·ices to men, and eyebrow smgle part of their bodies, and the l'Xperiwaxing is inexpensive. Technically, you cncc ranges from merely irritating to

You don't know pain until you've experienced the indignity of stripping down to your thong in order to let a perfect stranger rip your pubic hair out by the root with hot wax.

excruciatingly painful-but you don't hear us whining ab'out it, do you? Just suck it up, boys. As for the hair on your head, I have but one simple request: Balding men, I know you\e fought the good fight against your receding hairline, and I appreciate your vahant efforts, but it's rime to get a buzz cut or shave your head. I lave you ever noticed that the bulkiest men at the gym are also the shortest? This obscn·ation ha~ caused me to issue a newsflash; Short men of the world, you cannot compcns:tte for your hetght by buildtng huge muscles that are completely dispro· portionatc to your frame. !·rankly, It looks a I11tle funny. Take the muscles del\\ n a notch or t\vo, and make peace with )OUr shortness. '!'here i~ a school of thought that mam tains that men should smell of soap. and nothing else. Personally, I think cologne l'lln he a lovely thing. \\'hat's not lovely, howt·ver, 1s cheap cologne. II ere is .l up: If your cologne can be purchased at Shopper~ Drug ~!art, it is cht·ap, and eveq body wtthin ten feet of you w11l know it. Of cour~c. expensive col~gnc can also offend the olfactorics, so tread carefullv. And don't over apply. Your cologne shoulJ only be noticeable to people standing vcr} close to you. It shouldn't waft down the hallways ahead anti behind vou for miles cau ing people to choke and. gasp for air. '

Good skin is extremely important for men, because most aren't willing to venturt• into the wonderful world of covcr·up. Despite the importance of good skincarc and a good dermatologist, I don't know a single straight guy with a skin c:.~ rc routine that goes much further than shanng. 1\ t the \cry least, you shoultl be washing your face twice a tla\ (w1th a facial cleanser, not with a bar of /.ut!) and applying a facial moisturizer. \lost mtn would also benefit from facials at least a few times per year, and exfoliation a few times a week .•\nd unless you \\"ant to look 40 when you're 30, ~ unscrcen is an absolute necessity. The Robar Retlford leather-facet! look only works for Robert Redford. \X'hy tlo men h:t\·e such ugly feet? It's a \'entahlc eptdcmtc. Please, trim those awful toenaib, anti if at all possthle, go for a pedicure! Even if your feet arc cute, you nt·cd cute shoes to go with them. ~hoes arc absolutely the most important item a man can wear. LadleS judge men basetl on their footwt:ar. \X'hy? ,\ ly theory ts thts: \X'hile anyone can own ugly pants or an ugly shirt, an ugly shoe is a sign of a truly bad dress · cr. Shoes arc an expensive item anti men usmlly only have a few pairs, so it onlr makes sense that the most thought and effort should go into shoe purchases. Thus, if the shoes are ugly, one can onhtmaginc what the rest of the· wardrob~ looks like,

25

DIVERSIONS

Cowgirl a funky find BY CHRIS ESSERT

the small print • UV book reviews

Sex, lies and fervent prayer: Legal past surprisingly salacious BY ADRIAN LIU

1\nd the food 01amhurgc·r , steak~>, sand Shanghai Cowgirl w1ches, noodles) IS prem cheap ($8, 15, 6 53H Queen \\'est (at Bathurst) $9, and 8, rcspectl\d)). , o it's COH'red m the fun and cheap categones. But is u good? \\'ell, sort of. It's not the Ru:r. Curlton, of Sometimes, e\·en eptCUR'llnS like tn) elf course, but the food on the· whole was qwte want to be able to go out for dmner rome- gootl. 'I he major cxccpuon was the steak, where that's cht'llp, rast), and fun. ~lontrC::'lll \\luch was both undcrcooh·d and \Cr} has tonncs of tncxpenshc restaurants (wuh tough. 'Ibis, I would ha\e thought, would he entrees around ten dollars) that arc good, a logically imposSJhlc patr of problt·ms for n maybe a little bit original, and that ha\ e a steak, hut apparent!} not. '11w burgers. on relaxing and mcc atmosphere tn haH' dmner the other hand, got general apprO\'lll '1 her( and maybe e\cn a few drink:; after dinner. \\a somt· suggesuon that tlw patties were 'toronto, on the other lund, seems 10 ht• pre-nudc Qtkc, packngtd), hut this dctiut experiencing a rather pomtt·d tk~trth of tlus was nH·rcome hy the ddiciousm·ss of the type of establishment. There llrt' lots of accompan} mg cht'L'~c .md baron, <~nd 111 one cool, funky place~-like Juhc's Cuhan, on case, a fned L'gg. 'l11e ducken santhuch was DoYercourr, or La Palettt•, on \ugusta- tlcscnhc·d as "t tstr." < lt;e compamon com thar are fun to spend ttme in, hut these 111L'Illcd, '"I he cluckt·n ts tender and JUIC)', places arc too tlamn t':Xpt·nsi\ e. Two people although I don't hke tlus kmd of hun. 'I he just can't ha' c a fun, classy, rast), and relax sabtl1s good. I guc· s the dres mg is 01! and ing dmner m thiS Ctt} for less than I f)() \ megar, and u has tomatO<.'S, '~ luch IS good bucb. (Readers: If you di(Jgree \\llh th1s for Jill xed green~." J~, ct\ one \\ holchcarted point, I urge }OU w fmd me around school ly ]o,ed the frieS e\en our health conand tell me. Rt'lllly.) scious cluckcn s.tnd\\lt:h and salad catt·r, But the re 1cwc s joh IS to search out tlw \\ ho at rhe end of the meal, cxpr · sed sor n places that the reatlers w;nt to rt~d regret at not h;t\ mg ordered them. _/"llhout, so my little team and I \\ L'nt to So what's the H'n..hct? If )OU w,mt 10 go Shanghai Cowgirl ('i1H Queen \'\1est, at nul for hurger:s l>t•catt•\.' )Oil v.nnt tkhci(>US Bathurst) bt't'ause it looked l!kc It 1111p,ht bs: burger•. go ro I tlk'~. B\lt 1t ,you want to cheap, tasty, and fun. I'd lta\c to descnhc· ht•.ld somewhc·n· limk) \\ hnt• } <m e.111 t';ll the place as a "htpster diner" or "funky rd.lll\ dy good food nnd hnng mu .tnd dnnk ibn,.~:· but thost• descriptions makt· it sound n fc·w htTrs 111 a prctt)' cool ntmospherc, really lame, which it isn't. It has the layout of rhc•Jt ~hangha1 <.•mgul Isn't 11 had pl;~cc• ro a dmcr, but it's a lot mccr nnd the people he. there nrc sort of hipsters-but that's not all ,\lso, thcr apparent I) serw hrc:akf:.tst that bad,~~ it) I\ e heard 1s good, nnd Juclgsng b) 1he They serve cheap hcer h) the pucher, so dcmonstr.ltcd compelt'nC} of the 1\nchcn, I the place can make for a fun mght if )OU'rc wouldn't he surpn ed if that \\ere true. into hanging out for drinks a frcr dtnner.

****

/

Law school a sucker breeding ground "HYPNOTIZED" CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23

nzc m' feehn "' a he ut lu\ 111 • <.ontc.: ro the 11lustnous l of I law c.hool H n 11 A fip I ver~e for o1 )~:trot JKupk toleratmg nn spn~\ling ~elf tndu~ •cmc' '!bank tO l \ anJ tu ~t 1, re.1der, I\ t had (> mlKh fun I It wu don't aln ady kno\\ that p, te 1o\\n htnd td 11 hkt n 1 \OU rcaU\ houltl It ten to more mu tc.

I hertcr I bdter I bet th.lt tf \ >u \\ant cd to s t.trt our 'om legal c.:arc.;cr m an mtcmational corporate Ia\\ fmn \\htlc .lltt.'tlding the l of 'I~ )OU'd w.Jnt to st ut out your legal c.:art-cr ar a Lllg c.orporatc firm '1\helhC;r or not \OU WLOI 10 am other Ia\\ school. ( au t; tho~t' ) l makm chotcesl We're Jl! ortJ pre:ruspo ed m certain wa} s. l·atc's 1 snv..ller word for 11, but tf.c; more like: \OU sc:ektng }OUI place, , our natural mc;he. \od lot of people o~r tl11. L. of 1 arc gomg to fit m fine.: Jt downtown fumli- Incrca~ut,l~h mam peo pic 1 here's so much more etch of us could be domg agamst our fall mto mur l of I Law Tht·rc.' uck r b m1 dcrous glohal chm.1tt' d1.1ngc and murder lh:C} nunutc· I ct' .11l pr:t\ \\C d n t et ous global raci~t polltlcst!J But I ha\e to make th t chan e \nd fooled .1g.un P.". I pst r )OU han to make thllr change Sttrung with the man 111 the nurror. You coo, ladies! Shaman'! \nd tf \ u're alrr 1d cooL thcn stmph dun't '"c.hangel g(ll(( t ' ' I realh put some ume mto th1nktn PP. ':I I A I ' I I 1''1111 I about \\hat rock song could be t umma

Murdering Holiness: The Trials of Franz Creffield and George Mitchell hr Jim Plulhps :and Rosemary Gartm·r UBC Press (2003) 347 pp. $55.69

It's the stuff of a llollywood popcorn muncher; religion, Sl'X, murder, rn~anity, :l scJtSational criminal trial-and ir all hap· pcned in a small town in <)regon. The modest west coast to\\'11 of Con allis, ( hegon was put on tht.• m.tp in 190(1. Franz Crcfficld had been running a radical rclt gwus sect there, which was popularly known as the "Holy Rollers." A tight -kmt group of about 20 people, they believed that holiness could only be achic\'ed by social 1sol~non, rejecting worldly luxuries (including com·entional forms of clothing and furniture). and long bouts of fasting and praying. Crcfficld was the enigmatic leader of the sect, and many members belie\ cd that he received mess.1gcs from C:oJ. or was e\·en some kind of modern· d;l}' Joshua. Although the townspeople tolerated the gro\tp\ cccentriciues for a while, \Cn!'.ions hot\ct\ nver when a\\ep,allons of sex bct\vt·cn Creffield and some ot his female followers surfaet·d. lt was these allegarions that e\cntually led Georg~. \fltchell, whose sister was a member of the 1-lolr Rollers, ro hunt down Crefficld and gun him down in hroad daylight on a busy strcl'r in Seattle. \furdui't?. 1/o/inm; The 'J'ri,d.r ry FrtJIIZ ( rrffitld and Grorgt Mitrhr/1 chr<>n1cles .\litchcll's murder tnal, and the ~cnsatlon tt caused 111 carl} twentieth-century Seattle. •1he uncommonly long trial lasted 12 days, \1. ith tlw defence alone calling 10 witm·sscs. l•or 11 wasn't just Ccorge il-1itchell ami h1s unc<JUinocal act of premt·ditatcd murder that was on trial-Crcfticld's rd1ginn, society's sexual mores, and the "unwritten law'' of male chi\ .dry were also the subjects of public judgment. \\'rit ten by Professor Jim Philltps and Ius wife Rosemary Gartner (who 1s a proft•ssor .tr the Centre of Cnmmology a t the lint\ crsity of 1i>ronto), M11rdm11g 1/olilltSJ IS a detaileU portr:tyal of Crefficld. Con-alhs, and its r~s1dents at the turn of the cen tury. Drawing on newspaper accounts and e\'ldence of wider soctctal prncttccs, the hook places the Crcfficld candal in contt?.."t. While the sect's beliefs may. seem extreme compart·d to orthodox C.hrrsuanity, Phillips and Cartner situate it in the holines~ movement of the dar, \~fuch was led by the \X'cslcyan Mcthodi~t Chur~ and its emphasis on a highly indl~ lduah7ed form of saiYation. J\nd although tt ts t•asy to dtsmiss Creffield a~ a cult leader who seduced women inro comph ance, the authors pOint out that membership in the sect was also ltheraung for women. Crcfficld's tl."aChings spurred them to flour there traduional homemaking roles and to serve God O\'Cr their husbands,

things which eventually turned the town rhem. It's the~c discussions about religion and other broader issues that make up the most interesting aspects of M11rdrring lloli11US. Phillips and Gartner spend most of their time narrating the srory of Crcffield, h1s sect and the murder trials, but they frequently digress into an analysiS of the background surrounding every turn of c\'cnts. For example, the chapter about the pre-tn.J buzz focuse::. on the Jrt~llle Times, one of Seattle's daily newspapers. It was a high!) partisan paper that consistently. defended \1itchell's actiom and likely influenced the outcome of the trial. Another example is the discussion about the insant· ty defence, and how it was criticized as the .. tnsanity dodge" at the time. ~Iitchdl's case is an illustration of how a legal defence like insanity \\'aS used as an excuse to acquit, e\·en though no one really belic.,·ed the accused was insane, but \\anted to acquit him simply because they thought his actions were JUstifiable. ,\lurdtring Ho/i11tsS is an atypical w-ay of retelling history because it focuses on a ca~e '\tudy, rather than broad political fig· urc~ or events. \ n the ftrsl chapter, \)h1\\ips and Gartner e~plain that their goal is to usc this "micro-historical" approach to show hmv Jaw intersects with daily life. As Phillips explams, "It's a different way of talking about the Ia\\: \\'c tend to dis-count this 'law In action' way of recounting a case, but sometimes it can be d.:ry informath·e." What's more, the Crcfficld story is one way of getting to the root of why laws arc the Wa\· the\' arc. The book constanth· refers t~ the ;'unwritten law," or rhc popu'lar notion that a man like ,\litchcll was, 111 certain circumstances, justified in takmg the law into hi~ own hands. "That's what legal history is all about,'' Phtllips says. "They're not just abstract legal principles floating around." It is only by probing the social 'context behind the law that we can understand how the law itself came about. · Legal history aside, .Httrdtrilrg llo!iturs is a great read. The authors thoroughly detail Crefficld's origins, the lloly Rollers' practices, and the minutiae of the tnal itself. At times, it's almost hard ro bclic\·e that this ~cnsarionalist mix of murder and rchgton actually happened. But in case ,·ou need a reality check, the book also has ~nough law in it to bring you back to your legal roots. again~t


ULTRA VIRES

DIVERSIONS

26

UV CROSSWORD

BIZ SCHOOL BEAT

BY JONATHAN GARBUTT

BY LISA CAVION

l reaUy could have learned much more from Di\bert, if attent\on eat\\et.

,;ector's reputation for commitment to \ l nbbc.;\an, iniliv\u ualistic principles is a

problem to be mvestigated more fullyT he team draft, though, is a two-stage next year. process; first we all \'Ot e for those among To put any speculation to rest, I should us who express interest in being "Team tell you that not\\.ithstanding any discomPresident." TPs are cloistered away for a fort I feel about the draft process-and few hours to make "draft picks" of sru-. bear in nund that I am horribly .uncoordidents they wish ro have on their "execu- nated and pathologically scarred by dodgeth·c," and trading is allowed after the first ball-the outcome in my case is gold; my round. :\Iuch carefully calibrated politick- 1:\lC team is absolutely killer J. ing intervenes between the TP nominatiom and the draft process; non-prcstdents are allowed w express their desire to work with particular team presHlcnts, and to indicate which students they absolutely cannot stand, but only a limited number of such official requests can be made. :\1eanwhile, there are no guarantees that inform:tl agreements will survive the heat of the drafung floor. 1 watched non-presidential cxecum·es hedge thetr bets carefully llgainst committing to a wt..-akly committed president, and cali · hrating the danger of bemg snatched up by undesirable superVIsors, or, worse, not being :;natchcd up ar all. Friendship~ arc tested, I'm sure. And the stakes arc high: I \IC is Rotman's signature lcarmng expcrtcnce, and it extends until the end of the second (and for non -JDs, final) year. I'm a little sketchy on the detail~ of the draft proper (not

Across 2. "as" In pretentious legalspeak 5. Eastern Asian tropical shrub 6. one editor 8. Internet address 9.1ocomote 10. indicates a high degree 11. come in 14. dry 15. proof of this can sometimes reduce murder to manslaughter 11. default assumption since Ewanchuk 19. numbers, abbreviated 20. International law moot 23. small child 24.actus _ _ 26. lunchtime staple 27. human, not divine 28. Hamlet wasn't sure whether to do this 29. Court ruthless mocks patron in Kanellos'

restaurant who mistook a fire extinguisher for

27

,

When a Google goes wrong

Simulated management prompts dodgeball flashbacks (shud~er) being one of the ambitious cadre who angled to "m;1h· president," I am nor privy RMiity 1.r /oo romplt'x to all the msider dealings) which arc.: supafld Joo .rlou• /o /rarn posed to r~:main strictly confitlcn11al. from (in afl rdurnlirJII Ringht. ,h if speculation of "mongrel" mtironnlenl}: So sap teams and "last chancers" hadn't prcdatt•d my larcsr compulsory the draft-0· mxrul mo11/IJJ. Even without course, rhc Inrcgrarh·e .\fanagemt·nt tht: gory spcctfics, though, watching the Challenge (11\fC), in which reams of fi,·c whole thing felt like a horribly protracted will wrmcnr rhemseh:cs and t•ach other rry- leatl-up to a high-risk dodgeball game, an "c,·crythtng I needed to know about life I ing to run a fictional company. The reality factor gets off to a pretty learnctl in gratle-se,·en gym class" moment. gootl starr with the team draft process. Our Realistic, intlecd. fhe other thing I\·c learned from busiusual reams arc formed by (supposedly rantlom) assignment, such that the Slackers ness school, in addition to the snU someand the Keeners haYe a pretty much equal what mystical propcrcies of present value chance of rwrung each other's weekends cash flow discounting, is the central with any gi,·en project. It's interesting to importance of relationships-the " not watch-although, incidentall}, I really what you know but who you know" and could have learned much more from how they know you, and how they feel Dilbert, if only I'd been paying attention about you, and whether you can stand to be in the same room together, and whether earlier. they think you're useful, rlc.-in this world. Isolated business wunderkinds may exist, but they don't stay isolated for long; and for all the emphasis on "quantitative skills," executive sun;val seems to more akin to skills of Twister or connect-the· on\'f \' d been pa'f\ng dots. \low this can be reconc1led with the

DIVERSIONS

23 MARCH 2004

this 31. three-day prime minister

Down 1. Wright's test for causation 2. Ted Tjaden's alma mater 3. ash holder, sometimes 4. second in "three-finger salute" 5. our city 7. Bambi's mother, for one 9. these can be presumed or implied and still be sufficient for an easement 12.um

13. res---,-...,..--

16. the mind, post-formal education 18. shared ovum (two words) 20.joke 21. small-penised man who was pushed too far 22. _ _ _ curiam

25. strongly encourage 27. statutory interpretation, some say 30. indefinite article

It ts illegal to climb trees.

OTTAWA 1r has happened ro you, admit it. You arc lr is illegal to cat icc cream on Bank <.,tr~:ct dtligc.:ntly working away on ;t papt·r, or on a on a Sundav. law review footnote chn:k, or somcthmg else scholarly and academic... then, you TORONTO l t ts illegal to drag a dt·;td horse down decide to Googlc somcthmg and 11 all goc~ downhtll from there. Yon1~t Street on a Sunday. Don't get mt· \\ rong-Coogle ts great, UXBRIDGE but 11 just coughs up cwr}thing, and I mean lr ts tilt: •al to have an lntnnt't connection eH·rything, sort of like a cat wuh a hairb:tll. faster than S6k. The other &ty, I ( ;ooglc.:d, Wlth tlu: purest of academtc intentions, and found m) self WAWA forced, (absolutdy foret·d I tell you!) to It is illegal to paint a ladder as it ''ill he check out a site called dumhlaws.com that slippery when wet. came up on the ftrst of about forty pages of random junk. I wasted about an hour look- QUtsEC ing ar all the stupid laws that arc actually on BEACONSFIELD It L~ illegal ro have..· more tlun t\m matc.:ri the books. But it was worth it as I got a good laugh. I abo learned that people in als on the outside of one's house. Texas have a serious problem with dildos. It is illegal to own a log cabin. :\Iaybc they arc just not as "big" as they say MONTREAL they are ... The Queen Elizabeth l lotel must feed Anyway, the following is not in any order your horse for free when you rent a room. and is nor really a comprehensive search of It is illegal to park a car in such a way that all dumbass municipal laws out there or it is blocking the owner's own drive\vay. e\·en the ones on rhc site. I only checked out Canada, Ontario, Quebec, and all the redALABAMA neck US Bible Belt stares I could think of. It is illegal for a dri, cr to be blindfolded while operanng a ,-ehtcle. ONTARIO It ts illegal for dominoes or ~oluare to be COBOURG played on Sunday. If you have a '1.\l:tter trough in your front It is illegal ro wear a fake moustache that yard. ;c must be filled by 5:00 a.m. causes laughter in church. GUELPH lt is illegal to put salr on a railroad track. !'he cit\ is classi fled as a no pee zone. This 1s pumshable by dcathl It is illegal to fljck boogers IIl lO tllC wind. KANATA It is illegal to have an tee-cream cone in 1t 1S illegal to have a clothesline in your your back pocket at any time. backyard. Children of incestuous couples are OSHAWA deemed legtomate. (If nor, half the state

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would be bastards, I guess ... j lr is illegal to sell "blow-out nuts.'' Sex toys arc banned throughout the state..'. ARKANSAS The .\rkansas Rt\·er can nsc no higher than to the Main Street Bridge in Little Rock. A law provides that schooltc..·achcrs who bob their hatr will not get a raise. ;\ man can legally beat his '"ift•, hut not more than once a month. Oral ~ex is constdered to be sodomy. It is illegal to keep an alligator in a h:tthrub. LITTLE ROCK It ts illegal to walk one's cow down ,\ lain Street after I :00 p.m. on Sunday.

TENNESSEE It is illegal to import, possess, or cause to be imported into ]rhcl state any type of hve skunk.

Britannica because it contains a formula for making beer at home. The "Bluc.:bonncr" is the offictal song of the state flower. CLARENDON lt IS illegal to du~t any, public hui\ding with a fe~1thcr duster. DALLAS It is tllegal to possess n·alistic dudos. HARKER HEIGHTS Dm ·rs of cny vehicle~ must respc..'CI all traffic rr.llcs, "ju~t like the rest of us." HOUSTON It ts illegal to sell Limburger cheese on Sunday. Beer may not be purchased after mid· night on a Sunday, but it may be purchased on Monday. MESQUITE It is illegal for children to have unusual haircuts.

TEXAS \\'hen t\vo trains meet each orher at a railroad crossing, each shall come to a full stop, and neither shall proceed until the other has gone. rrrunk about this one a minute ... ] It ts illegal to rake more than three sips of beer at a time while standtng. It is illegal to promote the usc of, or own, more than ~x dildos. It is illegal for one to shoot a buffalo PORT ARTHUR from the second storey of a hoteL · 1t is tllega\ to emit obnoxious odours in lt is i.l\sgal to milk another \'lcr,;un'>~ cow. an c\evatoL Crim1~als must gi' e their \icrims notice SAN ANTONIO of twenty-four hours, either orally or in I r ts illegal to urinate on the Alamo. writing, and explain the nature of rhc crunc ro be committed. TEMPLE It is illegal to own the Encyclopaedia It is legal to ride your horse in the saloon.

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28

ULTRA VIRES

DIVERSIONS

Ultra News: Not-So-Real News From Around the Law School McClary: "The people have spoken!"

Faculty unveils new weapon of mass destruction

Afler a wlurlwind C'.tmpaign, Jamt's fcUary (II) has carn·d out an election viclOr) for ~lA'> prt·sidcnt. In :1 tight l'liCl' hl't\\ et'tl \fcClary and not -,\1cClary, till' more photogenic .\1cCiary h:~s made his war to the rop. McClary. pronouncing himself "completely happy" ,,;th the result~ of the balloting, feels likt• hl' ha~ really engagt•d 111 a dct· Iogue with his constirurcnrs. "I think that it \\'aS my \\Uhngness to rake a stance on tltfficult tssues that really won over vort·rs. But I rt"::ll) fed thar l..a\\· Follies should be shghtly btcr in tlle year, and thar is what r told nJtl'r~ '' ho sought me out and asked me m\• platform." . In a race so secret that not even the election committee could say who the candidates were, the election process has also dent, who spoke on condition of anonymiproduced three third-year represenrati,·cs. ty. "OCis went really well, bur that was back The reps, whose names are still unknown, 111 October! \Vhich fll"ms made me offers? hope to raise the profile of the SIS and pro- Which offer dtd I take? 1 honesdy can't mote accountability. remember." \\'ith May fast approaching, the panic ts - I.is,, Minuk ob,·ious on her face as she describes the firm that she is trying to identify. ·~\ really nice office," she recalls. "SomC\vhcre ncar Ray and \\'ellington. Up high ... 37th floor, maybe? Thirty-fourth? And oh! Really big wimlows in the boardroom." " \\'s hccn so \on g:' sa\d a ~ccond )'~!at s\u U nah\c to fmd her name on any of th e

Student forgets which 1\rm h\red her

Administration targets nametag fraud U of T adm.inistranon has announced that it will begin monitoring the distribution of name rags to students, to ensure accurate naming. The law school is still reeling from the effects of namerag fraud during Welcome and Outreach Day. '\Jotable nametag wearers included: Robbie (I), whose tag read, "Don't Come Here! This is the First Time I\·e Been out of the Library in Two ~[onrhs!"; Sarah (III). who wore a namerag reading, ''I'm JUSt herl' for free food and boo7c"; and ,\cting Dean I..ani,>ille, who sported a tag that had a crossed-out portion reading, "Hello, I'm here for the ladies! Arc you a lady?" and replaced with, "Hello, I'm Dean I..angille." - Ronm1 !..try

websites, she now devotes a few hours each week wandering through the PAfH svsrem, hoping that a familiar landmark will lead her to the right office. As a precaution, she has begun surfing rArtorney for a new job. ''\X'harever I can pick up now won't be as good as the one that I got back in October," she sighs. "That place was really great, not at all like any of the other fU"ms. I reallv should have saved their letter, though."

- Oren Birk

j

Briefly Noted U of T sweeps Callaghan Moot Third year prepares for class, regrets ir Student awakes from three-year coma, awarded law degree ~looter

points out it really doesn't matter

Prof~'o' ronoomcil, ~ pens Globe & Mail op-ed


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