BarTalk April 1999
Volume 11, Number 2

by Shelley Bentley

There are currently 69 active provincial sections of the BC Branch. These sections play a vital role in keeping members up to date on changes in the law and aware of legal and political issues affecting a given area of practice. They are the main resource utilized by the BC Branch in legislative review, law reform initiatives and in responding to the Law Society in matters affecting the profession.

What follows is a sampling of the recent activities of many of these sections. Asterisks indicate papers which are available through the Section Papers Series at a cost of $7.49 (including GST). Please contact Marife Sanvictores at the Branch office to receive an order form.

Aboriginal - Vancouver Island *
Shelley Wright, visiting professor at U Vic Faculty of Law from the Faculty of Law at Sydney University, spoke on the protection of aboriginal intellectual and cultural property in Australia. Robert Howell, professor of law at U Vic, started off the evening’s presentation with a discussion of the conceptual problem arising from the necessity of linking “culture”--a term encompassing a broad spectrum of human rights based on a communal heritage--with the concept of individual or personal property inherent in copyright, patent and trade mark law.

Administrative - Victoria (Joint meeting with ADR)
Ken Duke from Boughton Peterson Yang Anderson and Gwen Taylor, Associate Chair of Adjudication, Property Assessment Appeal Board (“PAAB”) talked about the use of alternate dispute resolution by administrative tribunals and in particular the PAAB.

Alternate Dispute Resolution - Vancouver
Dr. Gerry Cormick, a principal in the CSE Group, in international dispute management and consensus-building group spoke about solving public issue disputes. He said it was important to structure a context for negotiation. It is often necessary to create a temporary organization in order to accomplish agreement. He gave as examples the negotiation process that resolved the creation of the Seattle Freeway, now in its 20th year of “resolution”, and the current dispute mechanisms to resolve water usage in the Colorado River.

Minister of Municipal Affairs, the Honourable Jenny Kwan, told members about how the Ministry is incorporating ADR into its operations because they find that decisions are made faster, costs are reduced and people are happier. The catalyst for change was the introduction of the Growth Strategies Act which provides a framework for coordinating planning for local governments.

Business *
Gary Dunn of Gary Dunn Computer and Technology Law spoke about “The Law in Cyberspace”, specifically the law or lack thereof governing communications and transactions over the Internet. He noted that the Internet has grown into something approaching the “global village” envisioned by Marshall McLuhan, providing a platform for globalization and the free exchange of information and ideas. However cultural and legal differences among the nations of the world are unlikely to evaporate, so we can expect social values and legal systems to come into conflict, giving rise to an increased need to cooperate in the face of this diversity.

Construction *
Craig Wallace of Shapiro, Hankinson, Knutson discussed recent developments in the law which have had the effect of not only postponing the running of the limitation period but also potentially reviving causes of action which might have previously been considered “dead”.

Corporate Counsel
David Hughes from the Canadian copyright collective “Cancopy” surveyed the changes to the Copyright Act and gave details of how the changes have involved phased developments to deal with the technological innovations in the latter part of this century, including desktop computers, VCR’s, the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Criminal Justice - Vancouver
Counsel and interveners involved in the S.C.C. case of R. v. Cuerrier held a panel discussion of the case. The issue in the case was whether a complainant’s consent to engage in unprotected sexual intercourse is vitiated by fraud when her partner knows he is HIV positive and either fails to disclose or deliberately deceives her about it.

Criminal Justice - Okanagan
Mr. Tomash, a forensic crime lab specialist delivered a slide presentation on “blood splatter” pattern interpretation, a very technical endeavour involving training in physics, ballistics and fluid dynamics.

Environmental
Bill McNaughton from Ladner Downs spoke on emerging issues in both contaminated sites administrative processes and litigation. Richard Bereti from Singleton, Urquhart, Scott covered administrative appeals.

Family
Madam Justice Downs gave advice on getting the views of children before the Court. Justice Downs stated that although the judges surveyed informally stated that they would make independent decision about hearing from children in each case, there was agreement in the general approach to be taken. Affidavits were felt to be inappropriate and interviews in Chambers were generally not supported. It was agreed that an assessment by an arm’s length professional was the best route. Guidelines surrounding this were given.

Gender Issues
Vivian Clark, an organizational behaviour and human resource management specialist spoke to members about creating and sustaining part-time professional positions. Among the many positive things she revealed about her observations of part-time professionals is that they tend to get as much work done as those who work full-time and tend to be very committed to their employer because of the gratitude they feel for being allowed to work part-time. Fewer than five per cent of lawyers work part-time.

Human Rights
Mary Woo Sims, Chief Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission, spoke about the Commission’s focus on setting new directions and their report to Minister Dosanjh entitled “Human Rights for the Next Millennium”, which proposes among other things, that gender identity and social condition be accepted as two new grounds for human rights.

Immigration
Alexander Stojievic spoke about the removal of terms and conditions of immigrant entrepreneurs by the BC Business Immigration Branch in his paper entitled “Show Me the Money.”

International
Earl Drake, former Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China and to Indonesia and current Executive Vice-President of the Canada China Business Council spoke on the economic, social and political outlook for China.

Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgendered
Joe Arvay, of Arvay and Findlay spoke about the recent Surrey book banning case, in which the Surrey School Board Trustees refused to allow books dealing with same-sex families to be used in their classrooms.

Poverty
Victor Leginsky, Chair of the Manufactured Home Parks Dispute Resolution Committee, gave an overview of the special rules in Part 5 of the Residential Tenancy Act which apply to situations where a person rents a pad but owns their manufactured home, and spoke about the alternative dispute resolution practices, namely mediation, of the MHPDR Committee.

Lawyer Robert Fenton spoke about issues in co-op housing.

Real Property - Vancouver
The current state of residential conveyancing is of concern at both the provincial and national levels and to organizations such as the Canadian Bar Association and the Law Society of BC. Patrick Chen, CBA representative on the BC Real Property Practice Issues Committee, outlined some of the external and internal pressures involved in residential conveyancing practice. The primary external pressure is the perceived desire of consumers to obtain conveyancing services for the lowest possible cost, which pressure is magnified by the public perception that lawyers add little benefit to the conveyancing process. Internal pressure arises from extreme price competition among lawyers and the resulting cost cutting measures taken.

The new Strata Property Act (Bill 47) was the focus of Lynn Ramsay’s address. She emphasized the substantive changes to the Act, which will not likely be proclaimed in force until the regulations have been finalized sometime in the summer of 1999.

Securities
Rod Anderson gave members practical advice on how securities solicitors may help their clients stay out of trouble with the BC Securities Commission.

Wills and Trusts - Vancouver
Representatives from Leave a Legacy British Columbia spoke to members about their campaign and how estate planning professionals can assist and benefit. LAL is a community-based public awareness campaign that encourages British Columbians to work with estate planning professionals to make a charitable gift in a Will or other planned structure. Its primary objective is to change philanthropic behavior over the long term by making the public realize that leaving a gift in a Will is not just for the wealthy.

Women Rainmakers
Wendy Weir, former Manager of Consumer and Commercial Marketing at BC Hydro, and now in charge of establishing the Canadian Women’s Bank, discussed feminine and masculine attributes in the corporate context.

Young Lawyers - Westminster
His Honour Judge Dennis Schmidt gave his views on the future of the legal profession and the increasing problems with access to justice.

Young Lawyers - Vancouver
A financial planner from Merrill Lynch made some sobering demographic arguments in encouraging us all to be proactive in planning for our retirement and not to rely on government pension plans.

Asterisks indicate papers which are available through the Section Papers Series at a cost of $7.49 (including GST). Please contact Marife Sanvictores at the Branch office to receive an order form.

Shelley Bentley is in-house counsel at CIBC Trust Corporation, Vancouver.

This article originally appeared in the April 1999 issue of BarTalk and is reproduced here with permission of both the author and the Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia Branch.