Can lawyers help extricate their clients from nasty multi-issue guardianship litigation? On March 6, 2024, PBP lawyer Alex Procope will discuss strategies on how lawyers can do so during his and Arthur Fish’s presentation “Dealing with High Conflict Families and Alternatives to Contested Hearings” at the Law Society of Ontario’s The Annotated Guardianship 2024 program. […]
Category: Commentary
Mercedes Perez and lawyer Joanna Birenbaum are representing the Coalition for Gun Control at the Mass Casualty Commission. The Mass Casualty Commission is an independent public inquiry jointly established by the Government of Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia. The Commission’s mandate is to investigate the “causes, context and circumstances” giving rise to the […]
Earlier this year the World Health Organization (WHO) published its Global Report on Ageism (Report). The Report resonated with me as I and my partners at Perez Bryan Procope LLP routinely work with older people in our practice, which includes capacity law, access to care and benefits, and elder law. In my article “How to […]
Last week I spoke at the Law Society of Ontario’s Annotated Guardianship Application 2021 program, which was co-chaired by Jan Goddard and Ian Wright. My topic was “Representation of a Person Alleged to Be Incapable”. I approached this topic by reviewing this question: If someone who is alleged to be incapable wants to retain you […]
Earlier this month, I spoke about intersectionality in legal arguments with first-year law students in the Access to Justice course at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law. I was on a panel with Raj Dhir, Executive Director and Chief Legal Officer at the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and Shushanna Harris, Federal Prosecutor, agent for […]
SDA Case Law Update – Can Section 3 Counsel Be Forced to Testify Against Her Own Client On August 6, 2020, the Debono v. Debono endorsement (Superior Court of Justice – Ontario) was released. The proceeding involved an interesting issue: could an adverse party compel evidence from counsel who has been appointed for an allegedly […]
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 […]
Mercedes Perez successfully represented a patient detained at the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in a hospital transfer appeal. The patient had been civilly detained at Waypoint’s maximum secure unit pursuant to provisions in Ontario’s Mental Health Act. He applied to the Consent and Capacity Board for a transfer to the North Bay Regional […]