When making healthcare decisions for our incapable loved ones, many are likely not keeping in mind the rules pertaining to substitute treatment decisions. Such disregard are partially due to urgent and emotional situations, such as where there is a lack of ventilators due to the COVID-19 crisis. Also, many are not aware of what the […]
Yesterday, Quebec City police arrested a woman diagnosed with COVID-19 for defying a quarantine order. What are provincial and federal government powers to enforce a quarantine? What other powers are available to governments to address public health emergencies such as COVID-19? Legislation exists at both provincial and federal levels to tackle such issues. Ontario – […]
Today, a judge of the Superior Court of Justice ordered bail in a bail review case in part due to concerns over potential outbreaks of COVID-19 within Ontario prisons. In R. v. J.S., the court found a material change in circumstances and granted bail, specifically commenting as follows: “In my view, the greatly elevated risk […]
Alex commented on two capacity cases in an article in this month’s The Walrus magazine. The article: Why Aren’t We Free to Age on Our Own Terms? discusses Public Guardians and incapacity findings across the country and is a great read. Disputing an incapacity finding is unfortunately not a straight forward task. The path to […]
Alex Procope is returning to teach Gerontology at Ryerson University’s G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education. He will be instructing an Elder Law course he designed last year on Ethical and Legal Frameworks in Aging. The following description is from the course outline: The course provides a framework for managing key legal and ethical […]
Mercedes Perez presented at the 2019 Legal Guide to Consent, Capacity & Substitute Decision Making conference organized by Osgoode Professional Development. The conference was held on December 9, 2019 and Mercedes presented on three topics with a number of co-presenters: “Understanding the Substitute Decisions Act – From Property Management to Personal Care”; “Preparing for a […]
On December 3, 2019, Alex presented on the topic of mental capacity at the 8th Human Rights Summit. This continuing professional development program was presented by the Law Society of Ontario. Alex’s panel included Rani Khan from the Human Rights Legal Support Centre and Lauri Reesor from Hicks Morley. They presented on legal capacity generally, […]
Kelley Bryan and Mercedes Perez are proud to have been recently added to ReferToHer, a referral list of experienced female litigators. ReferToHer is an initiative of law firm Lenczner Slaght, conceived as a means of supporting and promoting the advancement of female lawyers within Canada’s legal profession. ReferToHer is comprised of a series of practice […]
On October 18, 2019, Alex returned to guest speak on the topic of advocacy in capacity law practice the Windsor Law Mental Health and the Law course. Topics included professional ethics and personal morality, avoiding paternalism, client-directed advocacy, maintaining independence and the practical retainer issues in a social justice advocacy role. […]
Alex Procope presented his paper: The Ongoing History of Section 3 Counsel: Origins of the Role and a Path Forward at day 1 of the 22nd Estates and Trusts Summit program on October 16, 2019. The Estates and Trusts summit is the largest professional development program presented by the Law Society of Ontario and was […]