In R. Clment and P. Foucher, eds., Fifty years of official bilingualism: Challenges, analyses and testimonies (Ottawa: Invenire, 2014) at 85 (with Mark Power and Perri Ravon)

Written for charities and their advisors, this book is a great legal and practical guide on managing bequests. Along with Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, the second edition has been expanded to include Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the eastern pro...

Field Law, a western and northern regional law firm, is excited to announce the Northern Alberta winners of the Field Law Community Fund Program (the Program). This year, the Program celebrated its fifth year of supporting local community initiatives i...

Richard was interviewed by CBA National magazine on the subject of a recent EU privacy decision.

The Lawyers Weekly interviewed Richard Stobbe for its article Canada mulls registration of non-traditional marks.The introduction of motion marks in the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) would permit registration of marks such as the VeriSig...

Richard Stobbe was interviewed by CTV for Intellectual Property in the Digital Age an interesting review of media, privacy, copyright and the concept of fair dealing. When you post pictures to Facebook, or other social-media or photo-sharing sites, you...

Field Law, a western and northern regional law firm, is excited to announce the Northwest Territories winners of the Field Law Community Fund Program (the Program). This year, the Program celebrated its fifth year of supporting local community initiati...

Empowering the Incapable: Ensuring Power of Attorneys and Personal Directives in Estate Planning

When to call a Mentor - How to mitigate litigation problems

Parliamentary committee recommends scrapping immigration consulting regulator - Vance Langford, a Calgary-basedPartner at Field Law is quoted in The Star (Toronto) as a parliamentary committee says better oversight of the immigration consulting industr...

Vance Langford, a Calgary lawyer and chair of the National Immigration Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association, is quoted in an article in the National Observer - Teacher denied entry to U.S. highlights long-standing powers of U.S. customs officers​

Field Law, a western and northern regional law firm, is excited to announce the Southern Alberta winners of the Field Law Community Fund Program (the Program). This year, the Program celebrated its fifth year of supporting local community initiatives i...

Edmonton Law Libraries Association is proud to present the 15th Annual HeadStart ProgramFrom request to memo, follow the trail of legal research including finding articles, books, case law, and legislation. Research professionals will provide tips, tri...

Between blogging at Slaw.ca, posting legal research tips at Slawtips.ca, and taking courses towards Lean Six Sigma certification, this poor blog has not had much attention in 2014.  Christmas is the traditional time for guilt trips. Rather than focusin...

I have been a very quiet blogger lately with a reasonably good excuse.  Since the beginning of August, 2014, I have been working to achieve certification in Lean Six Sigma. As of last Sunday, the formal part of my education in this discipline is now co...

~ a slightly modified Slaw.ca post~Waaaay back in 2013 there was an Alberta Bill passed that consolidated the Notaries Public Act and the Commissioners for Oaths Act. These two pieces of legislation are in place to make the rules for notarizing and com...

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries is advertising some upcoming webinars that will be useful for anyone who has a market research need:Conducting Business and Industry Research - September 29, 2015, 1:00pm to 2:30pm ESTSummary:This webinar provi...

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to speak with members of the Toronto Association of Law Libraries about the synergies between knowledge management, law librarianship and process improvement.  I hope to speak on similar issues at the CALL Conferen...

Marsha Guthrie, Manager, Implementation and Partnerships with the Alberta Legal Information Society and Julie Rainey of Alberta Law Libraries for sending the following my way:New free website for Albertans dealing with family law issues: LegalAveLegalA...

How often do you review your social media channel terms of service and privacy policies?  At the Mireau household we (the Giggles and I - Mr. M. chooses not to participate in the social web) review our privacy settings on a regular diarized schedule.I ...

One of the areas I don't often have an opportunity to research is environmental law.  Infrequent review of a subject area is one of the things that can make for inefficient research, especially in a regulatory rich subject like environmental law.  To c...

I think that omnibus legislation is the key to law librarian job security.  Don't believe me? Have a look at the incredibly complex nature of the amendments and in force dates embedded throughout Bill 12, the Statutes Amendment Act, 2014 which was asse...

Josette McEachern and I were among a group who participated in a stakeholder session this week about the Alberta Queen's Printer products and services.  To assist with results based budgeting, the QP is looking for feedback about how they deliver servi...

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The Alberta Provincial Court Civil Division monetary limit has been raised to $50,000 with this regulation amendment. Effective August 1, 2014 a small claim is not so small.

Often one individual has a huge impact on the careers of many.  This is true of Shelagh Mikulak.  Shelagh was a fantastic Alberta Law Librarian. A role model to many, her tragic passing this year from ALS created something positive: the actions of othe...

The Alberta Court of Queen's Bench has officially adopted the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation 7th edition. See the Notice to the Profession from November 12, 2013. I am happy to have clarification from the Court about citations, but kind of su...

Bill 38: Statutes Amendment Act, 2013 (No.2) has passed 3rd reading in the Alberta Legislature. Statutes Amendment Acts, which used to be called Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Acts, modify a number of Acts and are usually created to take care of hous...

Happy New Year.  A few quotes and images about libraries to start the year off right. Hat Tip to Connie Crosby (@conniecrosby).

Thanks to a tweet by Get Noticed Get Found the world has statistical evidence and an infographic that proves law blogging is more successful than Ground Hog Day rodent predictions: Courtesy of: Get Noticed Get Found

Well, that is it. Statutory Instrument 2014-19 registered March 12, 2014 titled Canada Gazette Publication Order, 2014 has been published. Three short lines that spell the end of a very long era.  1. The Canada Gazette is to continue to be published el...

Someone at the Alberta Courts is going to be very unhappy.  I was asked to write a letter to share how disappointed (stronger phrasing will likely be used) that the Alberta Courts Judgment Database is no longer applying their "recent First default to t...

I wrote about problems with the Alberta Courts Judgment Database in a July 25 post. The webmaster was responsive to the problem and had contact with myself and others at the firm letting use know that they were working on the problems. Today, I got som...

I believe in active participation in professional organizations. Despite this firmly held belief, until recently I have only held appointed roles for the Edmonton Law Libraries Association. For the next two years I will fill the post of Chair of the Ed...

Digital information is fantastic.  It makes research tasks more flexible when you have options for the format or forum that information is available from .  One thing that hinders me, and others I am sure, is the potential for born digital information ...

Guest post by Lois Gander, Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Centre for Public Legal Education in Alberta.Deeply rooted in the access to justice movement in Canada, public legal education plays a critical role in ensuring that our laws an...

There were three proclamation orders in today's Canada Gazette Part II. These are also three examples of short names of acts that you may need to follow up on to ensure that legislation you are interested in is either ameded or not.Order Fixing Novembe...

If you have received the Common Experience Payment (CEP) for living at an Indian Residential School, you are eligible to receive a one-time personal credit towards educational services, in the amount of up to $3,000.00. The credit is provided by the G...

The Field Law IRS Team celebrates its’ 1000th closed file with a segway tour in Edmonton’s river valley.

If you submitted an IAP claim on your own before the September 19, 2012 deadline, and are now looking for a lawyer to handle your IAP claim, please contact us today. We continue to accept new clients and are working hard to represent all claimants who ...

Field Law celebrates completing 1500 IAP Hearings for residential school survivors, with a trip to Fort Edmonton Park on August 14, 2015.

The Independent Assessment Process (IAP) for people with IRS abuse claims is coming to an end.   The vast majority (approximately 87%) of people with abuse claims have now had those claims resolved through the IAP. Field Law now expects to have all its...

We would like to let everyone know about an upcoming workshop being held in Edmonton: Stories of Survival Workshop Date:    Tuesday March 8, 2016 Time:   9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Place:   Holiday Inn Express Downtown, Salon A Topic:   Stories of Surviv...

By Richard Stobbe In a decision last year, GSI (Geophysical Service Incorporated) sued to win control over seismic data that it claimed to own. GSI used copyright principles to argue that by creating databases of seismic data, it was the proper owner o...

By Richard Stobbe In response to the proliferation of recreational drones in American skies, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) introduced a rule known as the “Registration Rule” in 2015.  The rule required drone owners to register their drones ...

The 6th National Truth and Reconciliation Event was held from Wednesday September 18 to Saturday September 21, 2013 at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver, BC. The event was attended by paralegal Joe Lema,  paralegal Amanda Gould, and lawyer D...

We are very excited to tell you about the seventh -and final - Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) National Event which will be held March 27-30, 2014 at the Shaw Conference Centre. Many members of our team at Field Law have been to TRC Events i...

The Alberta National Truth and Reconciliation Commission Event was held from March 27 to 30, 2014 at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton.  Several members of the Field Law IRS Group attended the event, which is centered on the task of uncovering the...

On June 4 , 2014, a new Decison was released  by Justice Schulman of the Manitoba Court of Appeal, which protects IAP claimants from having to pay most fees charged by IAP Application form fillers. The decision rules on fee agreeements made by IAP clai...

By Richard Stobbe Inventors must take care that their invention is “new” for it to be patentable. That means the invention hasn’t been disclosed to the public. Trade show announcements, press releases, publications, offering the invention for sale – al...

By Richard Stobbe As the recreational and commercial use of drones expands, the calls for a regulatory framework have grown louder. The Canadian federal government has, until last week, taken the simple approach of prohibiting the use of UAVs: “No pers...

By Richard Stobbe It’s always exciting when there’s a new decision about an obscure 5-year old subsection of the Copyright Act! Back in 2012, Canada changed its Copyright Act to try and drag it into the 21st century. Among the 2012 changes were provisi...

By Richard Stobbe A patent owner notices that knock-off products are listed for sale on eBay. The knock-offs appear to infringe his patent. When eBay refuses to remove the allegedly infringing articles. The patent owner sues eBay for patent infringemen...

By Richard Stobbe In the midst of a challenging period for a condominium owners association in a property located in Costa Rica, the president of the association resigned in frustration. Someone had overheard a rumour that the president resigned becaus...

By Richard Stobbe If photos are available on the internet, then… they’re free for the taking, right? Wait, that’s not how copyright law works? In the world of copyright, each original image theoretically has an “author” who created the image, and is th...

. By Richard Stobbe When we’re talking about trademarks, at which point do we measure whether there is confusion in the mind of the consumer? We reviewed this issue in 2015 (See: No copyright or trademark protection for metatags). In that earlier decis...

By Richard Stobbe This fascinating Ontario case deals with an Alberta-based individual who complained of certain material that was re-published on the website Globe24h.com based in Romania. The server that hosted the website was located in Romania. The...

Faculty of Law, University of Alberta

MacEwan University

Bar Admission Instructor - Legal Education Society of Alberta

Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education