It’s time for the federal government to take a leadership role in access to justice, the CBA’s Access to Justice Committee says in a submission to the House of Commons Committee on Justice and Human Rights which is studying legal aid.

Any Canadians with dual citizenship travelling abroad lately might be surprised to find it difficult to re-enter the country, unaware that new rules require them to use their Canadian passport to do so. Our National Immigration Law Section warned the government that it hadn’t publicized the measure enough. It doesn’t like to say “we told you so,” but….

The CBA broke a record in 2016, with 97 submissions by close of business in December. The previous record was 82. Nineteen of those submissions came after the last CBA Influence newsletter of the year went into production. You’ll find short articles about many of those submissions below.

At what point does the justice system become unjust to the estimated one in 10 Canadians with a criminal record?

The personal is political – and so is the charitable it seems. Federal regulations limiting activities of a political nature have left charities tying themselves into knots and spending valuable resources trying to decide whether any given activity or statement is political – or more importantly perhaps, could be perceived to be so.

The poets have been trying to figure it out for millennia, so it’s not entirely surprising that Immigration officials might have a hard time telling true love from false. After all, if the answer is, as the song suggests, “in his kiss” – I don’t think there’s training for that.

Reproduction seemed ridiculously easy when we were teenagers, given how ubiquitous were the warnings against letting it happen accidentally. Unfortunately it’s not so easy or straightforward for everyone.

If the government enacts Bill S-3 – or some version of it – on or before the Feb. 3, 2017 deadline set by the Quebec Superior Court, as many as 28,000 to 35,000 people could become eligible to be registered as Status Indians under it.

ook up in the sky! It’s a plane! Is it Canadian? That last question is a little harder to answer when it comes to a globalized aviation industry, as the CBA’s Air and Space Law Section notes in its response to the Canada Transportation Act Review Report.

The CBA supports the idea of a Parliamentary committee to provide oversight for national security activity, but it has serious concerns with the enabling legislation, the proposed Bill C-22. It places so many limits on the committee it could keep it from carrying out its mandate effectively, the CBA submission says.