We’ve come a long way, baby. Time passes and society evolves and so do its attitudes to certain behaviour. Some laws are slower to change than others, but once something becomes more socially accepted, the laws regulating that behaviour gradually fall off the books.

Money laundering and terrorist financing is on the minds of both policy-makers and regulators this spring as the federal government carries out a statutory review of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, and the Federation of Law Societies of Canada proposes amendments to its Model Rules dealing with the subject.

Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, set to become law this summer, is making its slow way through the approvals process, arriving in mid-April at the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs.

No one is ever going to suggest that tax law is simple enough for average individuals to wrap their heads around. But the complexities in proposed changes to the “tax on split income” provisions of the Income Tax Act will go “beyond the capability of business owners and generalist advisors to comprehend and apply,” says a submission from the Joint Committee on Taxation of the Canadian Bar Association and Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada.

The CBA appeared before the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs in late February to reiterate its concerns with a bill that it says will introduce uncertainty into the criminal law and carry serious repercussions for permanent residents and foreign nationals.

You can attract flies with honey, but if you stand there swatting at them they might not stick around.

The decision in Green v R, 2017 FCA 107, was engineered to avoid an inappropriate result, but in turn could lead to other inappropriate results if applied broadly.

The CBA’s Intellectual Property Section welcomed the opportunity to comment on the Federal Court’s Draft Report on Confidentiality Orders, offering up its own proposal for a set of six principles for establishing best practices on the protection and handling of confidential information.

The federal government continues to line up its ducks as its self-imposed 2018 deadline for cannabis to become legal in Canada quickly approaches.

The CBA’s End-of-Life Working Group has some concerns about the implications for medical professionals in the proposed Monitoring of Medical Assistance in Dying Regulations published in December.