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The first Lawyers' Charity Gala will take place on Friday, January 29, 2010 at TCU Place in Saskatoon. This will be an annual event to raise funds for pro bono services, benefitting CLASSIC and Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan respectively. The event will alternate between Saskatoon and Regina and the 2010 proceeds will go to CLASSIC. The event is sponsored by the Canadian Bar Association, the College of Law and the Law Society.  Please make cheques or cash payable to CLASSIC. Charitable receipts will be issued.

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Feb. 4 - Feb. 5
CBA Saskatchewan Branch Mid-winter Meeting
Location:  Regina
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3:20 Coffee & Cookies, FMC Student Lounge 
Opportunity to meet Justice Lawyers

Please consider registering today for the conference on Freedom of Association, Harmonizing Canadian Norms with International Obligations  which has limited enrollment. The conference, which is being jointly sponsored by the Sallows Chair of Human Rights, College of Law, U. of Saskatchewan and the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public policy, will be held in Saskatoon from February 25-27, 2010. Several international as well as Canadian experts will be exploring the interface between Canada's international obligations, contemporary law and practice and rapidly evolving Canadian constitutional law.

Since, in its BC Health Services decision, the Supreme Court of Canada not only "constitutionalized" collective bargaining but also stated that "the Charter should be presumed to provide at least as great a level of protection as is found in the international human rights documents that Canada has ratified" several settled areas of Canadian labour law may have to be revisited. For all labour lawyers, labour administrators, labour academics, labour practitioners and human rights experts who want to stay at the cutting edge of this fast moving body of law, this conference is a must.

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Hugo Cyr, LL.B., B.C.L. (McGill), LL.M. (Yale), LL.D. (U. de Montréal) is Professor of Public Law and Legal Theory at the Université du Québec à Montréal and a member of the Québec Bar. He is a member of the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la diversité au Québec (CRIDAQ) and Vice President of the Chaire UNESCO d'étude des fondements philosophiques de la justice et de la société démocratique. 

Professor Cyr’s presentation will be drawn from his book, Canadian Federalism and Treaty Power: Organic Constitutionalism at Work. Using the Canadian federation as its starting point, this book is a case study illustrating a range of factors to be considered in the appropriate distribution of treaty powers within a federation. Professor Cyr argues that because the Constitution has no specific provisions dealing with the distribution of treaty powers – the Canadian constitution has “organically” developed a tight-knit set of rules and principles responding to these distributional factors. 

The presentation will focus on the traditional arguments put forward by the federal government to support its claim that it possesses exclusive and plenary powers to make treaties. Professor Cyr will argue that such a position is without a valid constitutional foundation. He will also demonstrate how orthodox constitutional sources and sound policy reasons support a division of treaty-making powers according to the general division of legislative powers. 

Brian Topp was closely involved in the discussions surrounding the proposed Parliamentary Coalition of late 2008 and recently authored a book on the subject. He is executive director of ACTRA Toronto and chair of the board of Creative Arts Savings and Credit Union. He previously served as deputy chief of staff to Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow. He has been active with the federal NDP, serving as that party's national campaign director during the 2006 and 2008 elections.