Justice Sébastien Grammond has been appointed a judge of the Federal Court. He replaces Justice S.B. Noël, who elected to become a supernumerary judge effective September 1, 2017. Justice Grammond was a professor and former dean at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law.
Federal Court updates, namely new proceedings and updates on watched files have not been available since October 30th. The Federal Court database says, “The last database update occurred on 2017-10-30 22:16”.
Three practice notices came to my attention this week:
Justice Shirzad Ahmed was appointed to the Federal Court on Friday. In other appointments, Justice Ian Nordheimer was elevated to the Ontario Court of Appeal and Justice Barbara Fisher elevated to the BC Court of Appeal.
The Federal Court issued a Practice Notice today regarding informal requests for interlocutory requests such as extensions or abridgement of time, leave to amend pleadings or the style of cause, bifurcation, and other procedural matters on consent. The Notice sets out the requirements for such requests by way of letters, in place of formal motion records.
Continue reading Informal Requests
For those on Twitter, the Federal Court has now joined as @FedCourt_CAN_en and @Courfed_CAN_fr. You can also follow me at @amacek. Continue reading Twitter
Judges were appointed to the courts in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and the Federal Courts. John Laskin of Torys was appointed a judge of the Federal Court of Appeal and William Pentney, Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General of Canada, was appointed a judge of the Federal Court.
Judicial appointments have been made in the Federal Court, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and British Columbia. In the Federal Court, Prothonotary Lafrenière was appointed as a judge.
Proposed amendments to the Federal Courts Rules have been published that are described as “non-substantive, non-controversial”. The proposed changes address differences between the English and French versions and reduce the number of paper copies required in some circumstances. Consultation is open for 60 days.
My recent article on the use of protective and confidentiality orders in the Federal Court is available on Slaw. This topic was one of the items discussed last week at the Federal Court town hall and was the subject of an order released last week which stated, “The open court principle is of crucial importance in a democratic society, … Confidentiality orders inherently compromise these fundamental principles and important rights.” Continue reading Protective Orders