Welcoming Kamala Sproule to the CCEL Team!

We are so pleased to welcome Kamala to our team. Kamala will be supporting our continuing work with older women living in the Lower Mainland. Over the last 15 years, Kamala has worked as an evaluator, a community development worker, and community-based researcher. She has a Masters in Social Work. She brings much experience working with immigrant and refugee women to her work, having taught English as a Second Language for adult immigrants and refugees Read more…

Will-Making Formalities

This series examines and compares recommendations made in several BCLI reports and those made by the Law Commission of England and Wales. To read the other posts in the series click here. In order for a will to be valid, a will must meet certain formal requirements. These requirements, often referred to as “testamentary formalities,” are relatively standard throughout the common-law world and also relatively well-known: a will must be in writing, signed or by the testator Read more…

Advance Consent and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD)

The Carter Decision In February 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada released a landmark decision with respect to a person’s right to medical assistance in dying (“MAiD”). Historically, it had been a crime for any person to assist another person in ending their own life. In the Carter decision, the appellants challenged the constitutionality of the Criminal Code provision that criminalized the actions of anyone who aided or abetted another person to end their life Read more…

The Manitoba Law Reform Commission Releases Consultation Report on Small Estates

Just this week, the Manitoba Law Reform Commission published its consultation report entitled, “Updating the Administration of Small Estates in Manitoba.” The consultation report considers possible legislative amendments that might improve how law and procedure operate during the administration of small estates. The Commission notes that ordinarily, there are legal and administrative costs and burdens associated with obtaining probate. The Commission then asks: “[b]ut what happens in the case of relatively small estates, where the Read more…

CRT Roundup—repairs, chargebacks, parking stalls, and more

This post is part of a monthly series summarizing the Civil Resolution Tribunal’s strata-property decisions. There have been 18 new decisions since the last post. Repairs—water penetration—negligence and significant unfairness In Capek v The Owners, Strata Plan VR1706, 2017 BCCRT 42, the applicant owner alleged that the strata corporation was negligent and significantly unfair to him in taking “8 months to repair a . . . leak affecting [his strata lot’s] bedroom and that it failed to address a Read more…