Dalhousie University
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Advanced computer architecture
No full textIntroduction: What is Parallel Processing? Executing tasks simultaneously using multiple processing units. Benefits of Parallel Processing, Increased throughput (more tasks completed per unit time), Reduced execution time for specific task
Judicial Discipline through the Prism of Public Law Values: A Critical Analysis of Bill C-9, An Act to Reform the Judges Act
Full text linkBill C-9 is the first legislative reform to the Judges Act in five decades. The goal of the legislation is to enhance public confidence in the administration of justice by modernizing the complaints and discipline system for federally appointed judges. In a previous essay published in Volume ?? of the Advocates’ Quarterly we offered a normative framework for assessment of a complaints and discipline system and identified seven key strengths of Bill C-9. In this sequel, we continue to apply this normative framework and argue that the legislation is marred by five significant weaknesses. We conclude that because the reforms were driven by crisis thinking they over-emphasized two values – independence and efficiency – at the expense of several other equally significant values, including impartiality, transparency, accountability, participation, representation and responsive justification. Consequently, Bill C-9 will likely fail as an attempt to enhance public confidence in the administration of justice
The Political Economy of Laughter and Outrage
Full text linkA bit uncomfortable. That is how it feels to be among dear friends but labelled professionally as an outsider. I have a law degree, a bar membership, and a PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy. I am a professor in a women’s studies department at Concordia University. At conference receptions, people respond breathlessly, “But they don’t have a law school at Concordia!?,” as though I am hearing confession in a gas station, or something as heretical. I teach legal history, international law, feminist legal theory, and constitutional law to undergraduates who are not in law school and mostly don’t want to go to law school. Undergraduates who are not law students can read treaties, statutes, and cases—even Supreme Court cases. You can teach them about standards of review, division of powers, slippery slopes, reasonable men, and legal pluralism. They can independently generate the difference between primary and secondary rules. They can read law review articles.
A bit uncomfortable. That is how you might feel on hearing that undergraduates outside of law are reading law review articles. It might disturb the cozy feeling that we are writing for each other, and that we write for each other as transference for our field’s ideal audience—judges and legislators. The they who we imagine reading our law review articles are allied with the status quo and better still, poised next to the levers of power
Agnieszka Doll: Legalization of Psychedelics in Canada
No full textJoin student editor, Patricia Doiron, as she sits down with Dr. Agnieszka Doll to discuss the story of the legalization of psychedelics in Canada. Dr Doll is a socio-legal scholar in law, health, science and regulation and an Assistant Professor at the Department of History and Sociology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. The discussion looks at the network of actors who have played various yet intersecting roles in the process of psychedelic legalization in Canada, the Food and Drugs Act, and regulatory pathways which advocacy regulatory efforts have been streamlined in Canada
The Potential Impact of Charter Section 28 on Quebec\u27s Controversial Secularism Law and the Pursuit of Gender-Equality in Canadian Courts
Full text linkThe Western liberal democratic order, anchored in respect for individual rights and constitutional norms, faces a critical challenge as Quebec follows the pattern of several European nations in enacting laws restricting religious attire. While the Quebec Law 21, “An Act Respecting the Laicity of the State,” is ostensibly neutral, it particularly restricts Muslim women\u27s rights. This paper explores an ongoing, novel legal strategy challenging Quebec\u27s secularism law, focusing on Section 28 of Canada\u27s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. While Section 28 mandates gender equality in Charter implementation, its potential remains largely unexplored in the decades since Charter enactment. Drawing on feminist legal scholarship and Critical Race Theory, this paper examines the implications of Section 28\u27s application in gender-equality and intersectional analysis, particularly in combating laws like Quebec\u27s. By contrasting Supreme Court cases that overlook Section 28 with those few recognizing its significance, this paper evaluates its role in challenging discriminatory legislation, including the use of Section 33\u27s notwithstanding clause. Furthermore, it contextualizes Quebec\u27s Law 21 within broader discussions of secularism, citizenship, and gendered Islamophobia. By utilizing Critical Race Theory and intersectional analysis, this paper sheds light on the hidden implications of ostensibly neutral laws, particularly for marginalized groups like Muslim women. Finally, it considers the potential impact of a revitalized Section 28 on the ongoing pursuit of substantive women\u27s equality in Canada. Through an examination of the Hak et al. case and the broader legal landscape, this paper advocates for a reinvigoration of Section 28 to address contemporary challenges to gender equality in Canada
Prescription Practices, Anti-Psychotics, and COVID-19: An Intersectional Examination of the Long-Term Care Home Setting in Canada
Full text linkPublic discourse and concern over the state of long-term care homes in Canada has been ongoing over the last two decades. One of the main sources of these concerns is the off-label prescription of anti-psychotic medications to long-term care home residents. Off-label use of pharmaceuticals is common and can be beneficial in certain contexts, however, there is a risk of anti-psychotics being used as an inappropriate means of managing patients chemically in the long-term care home setting. This paper engages in three lines of inquiry: first, the regulatory landscape of on and off-label prescription in Canada; second, the off-label use of anti- psychotics in long-term care, and specifically, why they are used, why they should not be used, and the impact COVID-19 had in increasing their use; and third, the legal implications of these practices and potential alternatives avenues. This paper ultimately highlights the dangers of off-label prescription in the long-term care setting and advocates for cultural and institutional changes to protect elderly Canadians in these facilities
Detention and Arrest
No full textThe criminal justice system aims to maintain a balance between the individual interest of private citizens to carry on their lives free from state interference, and the communal interest in maintaining a safe society. These two goals come into conflict with each other most visibly when agents of the state take control of private citizens — that is, when they exercise their powers to detain or to arrest.
The book focuses on “street-level” encounters: detentions and arrests that occur in the course of investigating crime and laying charges. The authors explore the initial interaction between agents of the state or others authorized to detain and arrest, and the private citizens whose liberty is interfered with. It is at that point that the balance between societal safety and individual liberty is most keenly in play.
This third edition has been updated to incorporate significant statutory changes to Part XVI of the Criminal Code (Compelling Appearance of Accused Before a Justice and Interim Release), to common law powers (powers of detention, safety searches, search incident to arrest, etc.), to developments in the law in dealing with racial profiling, and to Charter rights (freedom from arbitrary detention, right to counsel, and so on).https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/faculty_books/1123/thumbnail.jp
Legal Hurdles and Pathways: The Evolution (Progress?) of Climate Change Adjudication in Canada
Full text linkCitizens, civil society, and environmental organisations throughout the world are increasingly turning to courts to find solutions to the perils of climate change. In July 2023, the United Nations Environment Programme (“UNEP”) reported that as of November 2022, there were 2,180 climate change litigation cases underway throughout the world, that this number is 2.5 times higher than it was five years ago, and that the number of jurisdictions involved has grown from 24 in 2017, to 39 in 2020, to 65 in 2023. The authors of this report describe climate litigation as “a frontier solution to change the dynamics of what the UN Secretary-General has described as ‘the fight of our lives.’” In both its 2020 and its 2023 reports, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) concludes that “litigation is central to efforts to compel governments and corporate actors to undertake more ambitious climate change mitigation and adaptation goals
Farming in the Software Age: Interoperability & Provincial Legislation
Full text linkIn recent years, while governments have tried to create new industries in the West, an economic and innovation champion of the agricultural industry was in significant danger of being lost. The agricultural equipment manufacturing, or shortline, sector is a small but important employer, exporter and economic foundation in mostly rural communities of the Canadian prairies. The industry, and the jobs, innovation and exports that it engenders, had faced an existential threat from the abuse of copyright law by mostly foreign manufacturers of tractors and combines. This endangered not just the shoreline industry, but also potentially the future of sustainable agriculture on the Prairies.
At its most basic, agriculture shortline equipment refers to the specialized implements or attachments that connect to tractors and combines to plant and harvest crops. Shortline equipment must, of course, be able to inter-operate with the combines and tractors to which they are attached, like a mouse and keyboard with a computer. In today’s digital world, that means more than connecting a hose; it means talking to the software that runs those machines. Manufacturers of shortline implements must be able to access software in the larger machines in order to design and build equipment.
Historically, accessing operating software was not an issue. But as combines, tractors and other large equipment have become increasingly digitized, manufacturers have begun to limit access to the software. Recently, the largest maker of combines and tractors, John Deere, blocked access to software on its state-of-the-art X9 combine.
The threat to the shortline industry was recently mitigated by overwhelming and rare all-party passage of a private member’s bill in Parliament, Bill C-294, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act (Interoperability). The federal action to change the Copyright Act is a good start, but it is neither complete nor is it sufficient. As the act approaches final approval by the Senate and Royal Assent, the provinces and particularly the Prairie provinces need to prepare.
In this What Now policy brief, the authors look at the threat to the shortline industry, its impact on agriculture sustainability, the federal response to this threat, and the provincial action that’s needed to offer further protection to the industry
Judicial Discipline through the Prism of Public Law Values: A Contextual Analysis of Bill C-9, An Act to Reform the Judges Act
Full text linkBill C-9 is the first significant legislative reform to the Judges Act in five decades. The goal of the legislation is to enhance public confidence in the administration of justice by modernizing the complaints and discipline regime for federally appointed judges. This essay is a contextual analysis of Bill C-9. The authors begin by outlining a conceptual framework which identifies eight public law goods that can guide an assessment of a complaints and discipline system. They then locate Bill C-9 in a historical context by identifying a crisis of legitimacy that had overtaken the Canadian Judicial Council by the early 2020’s. Having established this context the authors outline seven key strengths of the reform legislation. In a follow up essay entitled, “A Critical Analysis of Bill C-9,” the authors revisit the eight public goods identified in this essay and argue that the legislative reforms are vitiated by five significant weaknesses. The authors conclude that Bill C-9, despite some improvements, reveals a failure of nerve on the part of its proponents and therefore it is unlikely to generate the improved public confidence that is central to the legitimacy of the Canadian judiciary as a democratic institution