Law News

Call for Canada to braid Indigenous rights with endangered species law

23/09/2025despair

Caribou from the Klinse-Za herd in northeastern BC graze in this handout photo. Line Giguere, Wildlife Infometrics.

Climbing caribou numbers in northeastern British Columbia prove that collaborations between Indigenous and colonial governments can reverse decades-long declines, but focus needs to shift to culturally meaningful recovery targets, a consortium of researchers and community members say in a new paper published this week in Science.

UBC Okanagan’s Dr. Clayton Lamb and West Moberly First Nation Chief Roland Willson co-lead the paper, Braiding Indigenous Rights and Endangered Species Lawalongside nine others for the influential journal.

“Abundance matters. There are many cases

Higgs compromises on language-law update, will keep periodic review

21/09/2025despair

The Higgs government is compromising on its update to the province’s Official Languages Act in the hopes of winning unanimous support for the legislation.

Premier Blaine Higgs is backing away from the elimination of a mandatory 10-year review of the act contained in the statute.

He told the legislature the government will introduce its own amendments on “establishing a time frame, or periodic review” of the law.

“We believe the amendments will be in the spirit of continuous improvement of the act,” he said.

The original Official Languages Act was adopted unanimously in 1969 and the new version of the

TikTok content creators file lawsuit against Montana over first-in-nation law banning app

18/09/2025despair

Helena, Mont. –

Five TikTok content creators have filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Montana’s first-in-the-nation ban on the video sharing app, arguing the law is an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights.

The Montana residents also argued in the complaint, filed in federal court late Wednesday without public notice, that the state doesn’t have any authority over matters of national security. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law Wednesday and said it would protect Montana residents’ private data and personal information from being harvested by the Chinese government.

The ban is scheduled to take effect on Jan.

Republicans push surge of laws targeting transgender people in US | LGBTQ News

17/09/2025despair

Laws restricting transgender rights have piled up in recent months, underscoring likely 2024 election battle lines.

A rush of legislation targeting transgender people has been introduced – and in some cases passed – in state legislatures across the United States as the topic has become a Republican priority.

The issue is sure to factor heavily into the 2024 elections as Republicans seek to portray Democrats as out of touch with the values of large swathes of the country and to end challenges from further-right candidates within their own party.

Most recently, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to announce

Calls grow for Quebec laws to fight sexual violence in high schools after new allegations

14/09/2025despair

More than a dozen parents and students alleging sexual violence at some Quebec high schools came together Friday to call for a law to prevent and fight the issue in secondary schools.

At a news conference Friday in Montreal, several young women and parents — some holding signs reading “No means no” and “#sexualassault awareness” — took turns speaking about their experiences, denouncing the way their school administration and boards handled allegations of sexual assault.

They, along with several politicians present, implored Education Minister Bernard Drainville to do more to clamp down on the problem.

“It’s been a while that

Building a house or renovating? We explain what Domestic Builders Insurance covers and how to protect yourself.

13/09/2025despair

Domestic Building Insurance (DBI) – What is it, when can I rely on it, how does it protect me as an owner and how do I know if my builder has obtained it?

Building a new home is an exciting time, but it can also be stressful with the many terms and documents being provided to you that you may not have come across before. One of the most important documents you should receive from your builder is an insurance certificate which confirms that the builder has obtained a current policy for Domestic Building Insurance (DBI), also previously

Kenneth Law investigations see rise of wellness checks: sources

11/09/2025despair

Editor’s note: If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental health there are a number of ways to get help, including by calling Talk Suicide Canada at 1-833-456-4566. A list of local crisis centers is also available here.

Amidst a global recognition around the unregulated sale of sodium nitrite online for the purpose of suicide, Peel Region is reporting a 10 per cent increase in calls “involving either attempted suicide or suicide” in 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.

The police response to those calls in some jurisdictions, sources allege, has been intense.

The uptick

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson tells law students ‘Survivor’ offers helpful lessons

09/09/2025despair

Jackson, the court’s first Black female justice, is coming to the end of her first term on the court. The justices are done hearing arguments for the term and are expected to issue all their remaining opinions by the end of June before going on summer break. Major decisions on affirmative action and President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan have yet to be announced.

In her address, Jackson described “Survivor,” in which contestants are deposited in a remote tropical location and undertake challenges in the hopes of ultimately winning $1 million, as “great fun to watch.” But she also