The Friday Brief: Managing Editor’s must-read items from this week

Matthew Grace

Here are my picks for the top stories we published this week.

Lawyers weigh in on new harassment, safety workplace regulations
Employment lawyers are giving the thumbs up to Ottawa’s new rules and heavy fines for harassment, violence and health and safety violations in federally regulated workplaces. But they are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to enforcement.

Quebec’s proposed crime victims legislation ‘a major reform,’ prof says
Barely two weeks after the federal ombudsman for crime victims called on Parliament to overhaul Canada’s victims bill of rights, asserting that it has fallen far short of delivering the “real rights it promised,” the Quebec government introduced a bill that will revamp its crime victims legislation to expand the number of people it will cover, making it the most generous in the country.

Province did not owe private law duty of care in flooding case, B.C. Court of Appeal says
A long-lasting dispute over a flood in British Columbia’s southern interior is headed back to trial after B.C.’s highest court ruled the initial decision in the matter had a number of errors which need to be revisited.

Lawyers can be diversity and inclusion changemakers in firms, say conference speakers
In the tumultuous weeks following the death last May of George Floyd, as he was handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a white police officer’s knee in Minneapolis, lawyer Jorja Jackson met with colleagues in her department to discuss the troubling events and her own experiences facing systemic racism.

The Coach: Small firm succession planning part one
In his column, Gary Mitchell writes: “Whether large or small, regional or national, the current demographics of the workforce are causing more and more firms to look at succession planning seriously and soon. There is an aging lawyer population with more and more lawyers close to or facing retirement. It’s happening. Are you ready? Is your firm ready?”

Matthew Grace is the Managing Editor of The Lawyer’s Daily.