Faculty in the News

Publication: CBC - Ottawa Morning
Lynda Collins, Common Law Section, explains what toxic torts consist of and discusses her recently published book. " First of all, a tort is a non-criminal legal wrong. So, the ones that everybody know about are negligence, nuisance and tresspass. So these are things that individual citizens can bring to court and sue over, as opposed to crimes in which we wait for police or the state to enforce," she says.

Publication: Toronto Star Online
Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, comments on internal documents from Public Safety Canada that reveal that government authorities have been making millions of data requests as far back as 2006. "It suggests that there have been huge numbers of requests for years now taking place largely below the radar screen … without very much public awareness," he states.

Publication: Toronto Star Online
In this Op-Ed, Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, discusses warantless disclosure of suscriber information in Canada. "Canadian Internet and telecom providers have, for many years, disclosed basic subscriber information, including identifiers such as name, address, and IP address, to law enforcement without a warrant," he writes.

Publication: City News Toronto
Carissima Mathen, Common Law Section, comments on Duffy's court case and explains why Nigel Wright was not charged for bribery himself. “We can find aspects of Wright’s conduct problematic, troubling, even wrong — and it doesn’t mean that in law the RCMP felt that there was enough evidence to present a reasonable chance of conviction,” she says.

Publication: Globe and Mail
Stewart Elgie, Common Law Section, comments on Tony Abbott’s move to repeal Australia’s carbon tax. Talking about the benefits of the B.C. carbon tax, he states that “it’s a smart way to tackle climate change without hurting the economy, and even helping it by preparing us for future economic success in a low-carbon world.”

Publication: The Hindu
Debra Steger, Common Law Section, comments on the G20's future. “The G20 has reached a turning point at its fifth anniversary. It is now time to reflect on its purpose and objective, to determine whether it is meeting those objectives and what kind of forum it will be in the future,” she declares.