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Canadian Supreme Court to hear case of couple who sued Air Canada for not being able to order a 7Up in French
The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear the appeal of a couple who sued Air Canada when they weren’t able to order a 7Up in French.
Michel and Lynda Thibodeau filed eight complaints with the official languages commissioner over the English-only services they say they received from Air Canada during trips taken between January and May, 2009.
The Federal Court awarded the couple $12,000 in compensation for the times Air Canada did not serve them in French. Air Canada was also ordered to apologize to the Thibodeaus.
Lawyers take to the streets with students for Montreal’s 35th consecutive night of protest
As negotiations between student leaders and the provincial Liberals resumed in Quebec City Monday evening after a supper break, more protests took place in different parts of Quebec including Montreal, which hosted its 35th consecutive night of demonstrations.
Lawyers dressed in their courtroom gowns paraded in silence from the city’s main courthouse through the streets of Old Montreal to join the nightly march.
“It is one of the first times I’ve seen lawyers protest in public like this…and I’ve been practising for almost 30 years,” Bruno Grenier said outside the building surrounded by about 250 people, some carrying copies of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The lawyer said his colleagues wanted to show the public that they oppose a law they “find unjust and which is probably unconstitutional.” (Photos: Canadian Press/Reuters)
![Surrogate not legally a baby’s mother, judge rulesA Saskatchewan judge has ruled that a woman who gave birth to a baby girl in 2009 is not actually the child’s mother, in a decision that exposes the gap between legislation and reality in modern parenthood.“It’s tough for the legislators to keep up, and this is a case where it may be lagging,” said Rich Gabruch, lawyer for “John” and “Bill,” the same-sex couple who are now properly called the parents of “Sarah,” who was conceived with John’s sperm and an ovum from an anonymous donor, and carried to term by “Mary.”“The way we’re reading this decision is that the other father can now be listed on [the birth certificate],” Mr. Gabruch said. “The next step would be to list [Bill] specifically,” although he acknowledged the case has moved into “uncharted waters.”In granting John and Bill’s request, supported by Mary, to remove Mary’s name from Sarah’s birth certificate, Madame Justice Jacelyn Ann Ryan-Froslie of the province’s Court of Queen’s Bench, noted that the law defines a “mother” as the woman who delivered a child, and presumes she is also a parent, which is no longer always true. (Photo: Fotolia)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrgtc3V4JC1qze0z6o1_1280.jpg)
Surrogate not legally a baby’s mother, judge rules
A Saskatchewan judge has ruled that a woman who gave birth to a baby girl in 2009 is not actually the child’s mother, in a decision that exposes the gap between legislation and reality in modern parenthood.
“It’s tough for the legislators to keep up, and this is a case where it may be lagging,” said Rich Gabruch, lawyer for “John” and “Bill,” the same-sex couple who are now properly called the parents of “Sarah,” who was conceived with John’s sperm and an ovum from an anonymous donor, and carried to term by “Mary.”
“The way we’re reading this decision is that the other father can now be listed on [the birth certificate],” Mr. Gabruch said. “The next step would be to list [Bill] specifically,” although he acknowledged the case has moved into “uncharted waters.”
In granting John and Bill’s request, supported by Mary, to remove Mary’s name from Sarah’s birth certificate, Madame Justice Jacelyn Ann Ryan-Froslie of the province’s Court of Queen’s Bench, noted that the law defines a “mother” as the woman who delivered a child, and presumes she is also a parent, which is no longer always true. (Photo: Fotolia)
Sperm donors lose anonymity
A B.C.-born woman has won a landmark court battle to give children of sperm or egg donors the same rights as adopted children to learn about their biological parents, after a judge struck down B.C.’s Adoption Act as being unconstitutional.
Olivia Pratten filed the lawsuit — the first of its kind in North America — to try to get the same rights for offspring born as a result of anonymous sperm, egg and embryo donors as adopted children have to learn about their complete genetic makeup when they come of age. (Ian Smith/Postmedia News)
Digitizing the law: Universite de Montreal’s new cyber-justice lab aims to pull the conservative legal profession into the modern, wired world with Facebook and holograms. (Illustration Kagan McLeod)
