Jonnette Watson Hamilton

You're probably right.

One more reason to keep using Firefox.

The issue of training for academic misconduct hearings doesn't really arise in a law faculty, or not to the same degree. The idea that students can & should access the assistance of legal aid, such as Student Legal Services, is a given. But I can't recall any university-wide training for faculty.

Agreed. Pretty common in my experience, although that was 20-30 years ago.

Dozens of Montreal school staff already fired or resigned over expanded religious symbols ban | CBC News Dozens of Montreal school staff have either been fired, suspended or decided to resign following Quebec’s new law expanding the ban on religious symbols in schools. According to the Montreal Associati...

The Government of Quebec is racist. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Peter MacKinnon: University of Alberta should be applauded for resisting affirmative action Affirmative action — by whatever name it is known — is discriminatory

Peter MacKinnon with an absolutely inane piece about EDI hiring opens by noting that 'affirmative action' is discriminatory and against section 15(1) of the Charter. He fails to note section 15(2) of the Charter, which EXPLICITLY PROTECTS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICIES. nationalpost.com/opinion/pete...

If we can stand up for the people of Greenland against Trump's jackboots surely we can muster the moral courage to also support the people of Cuba from Trump's illegal energy blockade on that country and people.
#cdnpoli

A very hard hitting @ablawg.bsky.social post on the new limits on public consultation and the disappearance of previous studies of similar resort proposals from the NRCB website. Shaun Fluker appears to have uncovered something rotten in the state of Alberta…

In this post my colleague Shaun Fluker provides an important critique of the All Season Resort Act & the truly exceptional provisions that exempt new all season resort proposals (e.g. Fortress) from otherwise applicable rules. @albertawilderness.bsky.social
@cpawssab.bsky.social #abpoli #ableg

And another new post from guest author Kent McNeil on issues surrounding recognition of Aboriginal title in Wolastoqey Nations v NB and Canada.

This post went up earlier this week and deals with the arcane but fascinating topic of “received law” in Alberta. Meaning received from the colonizers, and surprisingly, still applicable in some instances. We are lucky to have @ablawreform.bsky.social to delve into such topics.

With headlines that the University of Alberta will "abandon race-based" admissions policies, remember that anti-EDI framing is designed to make it seem like the pre-EDI status quo is somehow 'neutral'. In reality, by abandoning sensible EDI policies, institutions are *doing* race-based admissions.

Horrified at the misinformation and hate that is being spewed right now. Sending love, strength and solidarity to trans folks and their communities. 🏳️‍⚧️

Is it time? Every now and then, my long-suffering spouse will look up from reading the news and say “is it time?” This is shorthand for “is it time to sell the house and get the heck out of this province?”

The latest from @jlisayoung.bsky.social

Time to get vocal if you don't want to be packing your bags, or selling in a falling market.
#ableg #abpoli #cdnpoli

lisayoung.substack.com/p/is-it-time...

Smith demands more say in Alberta judicial appointments Premier threatens to withhold funding, says the appointment process needs reform

From someone who clamours a lot about governments staying in their own lane, this is equivalent to jumping the middle meridian on the highway: www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alber... #ableg #cdnpoli

Danielle Smith calls on Mark Carney to give Alberta more say in selection of judges — The Globe and Mail The Premier says she will withhold some judicial funding if Ottawa doesn’t agree to her demands

So Smith claims Alberta has “distinct legal traditions” as the basis of her threat to withhold $$ for new judicial appointments without more say. It increasingly feels like the distinct legal tradition here is absence of the rule of law, though that is pretty new.
apple.news/AEaOehjN7TtK...

And this! The ACLRC is part of our law school. Part of the community. Supports access to justice in numerous ways. And now another target of the UCP’s ideological warfare.

It's imp that civil society (esp lawyers) respond to the Premier's manufactured attacks on her imagined problems w the judicial branch we can't let her control the agenda.
We need to keep laser focused on the real challenges, public health care, public schools - add to the list
#abpoli #cdnpoli

Well worth a read: the horseshoe theory of clout-driven principles on what happens when prominent / dominant people start talking about what marginalized people already knew and talked about all along.

I got my first automated reply from his office to my last email - a small improvement over the void into which my previous messages disappeared. Still waiting for any substantive engagement.

Wholehearted support for this. Thank you.
#ableg #abpoli #cdnpoli

www.albertacourts.ca/kb/resources...

My latest residential tenancy law post, this one about interest on tenants' security deposits and how Alberta's law ensures that the rich get richer.

The full text of Wes Wark's expert opinion is available on the website of O'Kelly Law here okellylaw.ca/news/sturgeo...
A great educational resource..
Thanks to @orlaghokelly.bsky.social and the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation for making this opinion readily available.
#ableg #abpoli #cdnpoli

As previously pointed out, there is a real risk of foreign interference in the Alberta independence initiative launched by the Alberta Prosperity Project. Counsel for Sturgeon Lake First Nation has commissioned an expert opinion from Wes Wark to document this risk. 1/ #abpoli #cdnpoli #ableg

Equality nerds! Joshua Sealy Harrington and I wrote a chapter on s 15 of the Charter for The Canadian Constitutional Law Open Access Casebook, 2nd ed (Richard Moon, Howard Kislowicz, and Asha Kaushal, eds), that is now available on SSRN as a handy reference: ssrn.com/abstract=603....

Maybe if enough of us grains of sand gathered together we could amount to a base on which our government could stand in favour of the rule of law.

But I was reading aloud to my daughter yesterday the latest news from Gaza & Ukraine & our PM's statement on Venezuela & it's hard not to lose hope.

WB Yeats, The 2d Coming - seems apt for Jan 3

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

I am wondering if former mayor Gondek will be given credit for the fact that the city is better prepared to act this time.

By the way, the City of Calgary website on the water main break is excellent - clear and detailed facts, maps, easily accessible from the city's main page, etc.

This year's @ablawg.bsky.social year in review post has lots to say about the state of democracy in Alberta and elsewhere, a major theme on the blog this year. Wishing all our readers a 2026 in which state actors are held to the highest standards of democratic accountability and justice.

David is right.
When a government magics up new legislation (Bill 14) to sidestep the courts and enable the separatists' (un)constitutional citizen initiative, there is only one conclusion.
Smith, the UCP & their fellow travellers are separatists.
Govern yourself accordingly.
#ableg #aboli #cdnpoli