The MLJ continues its mission in this Volume of “preserving the voices of distinguished jurists from this province,” and strives to publish high-quality scholarship in maintaining its standing as an exceptional law journal. Here are a couple of statistics that the MLJteam is particularly proud of from our SHRCC application this year:

• The MLJ received 7 Supreme Court of Canada citations in 2024-25.
• We are a diamond open-access journal, with content available through a CC-BY-ND creative Commons license. The MLJ is available through Alberta OJS, CanLII, Lexis Advance Quicklaw, HeinOnline, Google Play, Amazon and through com.

Overview of the latest Issues

Issue 1 is a retrospective on the career of the Honourable Chief Justice Richard Chartier. It begins with his oral history and features a series of remarks made at his retirement gala, including his own comments and those by fellow jurists, the Honourable Justice Freda Steel of the Manitoba Court of Appeal and former Chief Judge of the Provincial Court (2016-2023), Honourable Judge Margaret I. Wiebe. The issue concludes with a comprehensive analysis of Chief Justice Chartier’s jurisprudence by Court of Appeal researchers, Melanie Bueckert and Michael Rice, and a final word on the jurisprudential developments in civil procedure overseen by the Chief Justice, written by Dr. Gerard Kennedy, a former assistant professor at UM Law, currently an associate professor serving as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law.

The second issue is a continuation of the MLJ’s The Current Legal Landscape series. It deploys a “range of methodologies to address some of the most fundamental issues in our legal system.” Included is an article on access to justice in Manitoba from the legal practitioners’ view by Gerard Kennedy, and UM Faculty of Law’s Director of Access to Justice & Community Engagement, Natasha Brown. The issue continues with an article co-authored by the Honourable Justice Malcolm Rowe of the Supreme Court of Canada on the role of appellate standards of review in the Canadian legal system. Justice Rowe’s article is followed by a word on lawyer incivility in family law by Deanne Sowter, a doctoral candidate at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School. It concludes with an oral history of the Honourable Chief Justice Marianne Rivoalen, the first woman to head the Manitoba judiciary.

Issue 3 is another continued project, this time furthering the Underneath the Golden Boy project on legislative development in UM’s home province. It features two articles from a recent UM Law graduate, Anna Evans-Boudreau [JD/25], on Manitoban sustainable development legislation and the complexities of working within the field of freedom of information or access to information in all three levels of government, the second of which she co-wrote with Kevin Walby, Associate Criminal Justice Professor at the University of Winnipeg. Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law assistant professor, Andrew Flavelle Martin, also provides two articles in this issue on the public perception of lawyers in public service through the lens of the hit television series, The West Wing, and on legal ethics for government lawyers in light of several provisions in the Law Society of Nunavut’s Code of Professional Conduct that are unique to that province. It concludes with an article from Dr. Ilia Roskoshnyi, a recent Postdoctoral Fellow at UM Law, on artificial intelligence and the future of the legal profession.

Robson Crim is entirely responsible for Issues 4-6 and is edited by Dr. Richard Jochelson, Dean of UM Law, and Associate Professor Brandon Trask. The Issues are comprised of 13 articles on topics ranging from a critique of the Riot Act to the reasonable expectation of privacy in the artificially intelligent surveillance state. Articles are provided by members of the Crown Prosecution services of Manitoba and Ontario, graduates from the Faculties of Law of Western University and University of New Brunswick, and professors from UM, University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law, and Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law. These contributions, whether by practitioner, student, or professor—as with submissions to all of the MLJ’s dimensions—undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process.

The seventh and final issue of Volume 47, written entirely by Alvin Esau, examines the private lives and public careers of the men who carried out capital punishment by hanging in the early 20th Century. Esau’s book follows seven of post-confederation Canada’s hangmen, detailing research that tends to show the pseudo-psychopathy, scandalous lives, and obnoxious personalities linked to the heavily stigmatized profession. It is a unique perspective on the hangmen themselves, rather than those who were hanged, authored by a true scholar in the field of Canadian true crime, which the MLJ is delighted to publish.

As always, the Executive Editors-in-Chief would like to thank the student-editorial teams at the MLJ and its Robson Crim dimension for their tireless work in ensuring Volume 47 is as academically rigorous and useful as ever. Without their exceptional support, this journal would not have been possible.

Thank you to:

The MLJ Student Editors Fall 2024 to Summer 2025

• Avery Alexiuk 
• Andrew Bergen
• Serena Bevilacqua
• Simi Bhangoo
• Steven Csinsca
• Travsis Dech
• Joshua Dondo
• Yomna Eid
• Larissa Einarson
• Siena Mcilwraith-Fraticelli
• Apara Grace
• Kennedee Hills
• Brayden Juras
• Andreas Kastellanos
• Jayden Kyryluk
• Nicholas Ly
• Lauren Martin
• Sebastian Meiers
• Mathew O’Connor
• Heather Peterson
• Vilciya Rajput
• Carter Ross
• Daniel Rosenthal
• AubrieAnn Schettler
• Nawal Semir
• Selene Sharpe
• Vanessa Smith
• Dawn Steliga
• Jordan Wagner

Special thanks goes to Digital Editor, Lily Deardorff, for her coordination of Student Editors and guidance through the production process.

Issues of MLJ Volume 48, are currently becoming available in pre-print, and aims to continue to deliver readable and innovative legal commentary of the highest quality to communities both locally and globally.

“When I came here as a permanent resident with my wife and children, I was looking for a new challenge and opportunity,” he says.

A new academic challenge

He had started working towards achieving his practicing license with the National Committee on Accreditation and had written one exam for administrative law and was looking for a new academic challenge, and was considering the future possibility of becoming a professor of law at a Canadian University. An LLM would be a starting point, he thought.

His thesis title was “Mediation practice in Nigeria: experiences from Abuja and Ondo with lessons from Ontario, Canada”, completed with Professor Darcy MacPherson of the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law as his advisor.

Ayita completed his LLB in 2015 at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. While there, he received the Presidential Award as the best graduating student in Commercial Law, as well as the Attorney General of the Federation Award in the same subject during the 2015 convocation. He also won the National Essay Competition on the topic “Nigeria at 50, the past, the present and the future,” funded by Intercontinental Bank (now Access Bank), which was – significantly, how he obtained his first laptop. Additionally, he was the first runner-up in the continental essay competition titled “The Immorality of Self-Interest [The Morality or otherwise of Capitalism],” organized by African Liberty and IMANI in 2011.

He concluded his legal practice training at The Nigerian Law School in Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria in 2016. As a next step, he obtained a certificate in Arbitration at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London, UK in 2017 and then received certification in conflict and dispute resolution at the Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolutions in 2021. He further earned a certificate in Conflict Management Skills at the University of Toronto (2022) followed by certification in Reconciliation and Restoration at Forgiving For Restoring Canada. At this time in 2023, he completed some of the requirements of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada to pass his Bachelor of Laws Equivalency Examination and then commenced the Master of Laws program at the University of Manitoba in 2023.

Having practiced law in Nigeria and studied mediation and alternative dispute resolution both there and in Canada, Ayita found it impossible to ignore his calling to further his education and deepen his studies in law.

UM’s policies of accommodation and inclusion attractive

He was drawn to the University of Manitoba for his LLM having researched Canadian universities and learned that UM “has been established for more than a century and has produced a lot of policymakers,” as well as “those who are also at the forefront of access to justice in Canada as well as in the global community.” Additionally, he notes that UM’s policies of accommodation and inclusion were another thing that attracted him.

“I landed in Canada October 26, 2022,” he says, “so it’s like less than a month that I came in and about approximately a month that I applied to the school, so I was just trying to settle down.”

Teaching law someday was on his mind when he made the decision to apply for the LLM program. “Most of what I’ve been doing – about 80% of what I’ve done all my life has been the issue of building capacity teaching and imparting knowledge. And now I really want to do that. One of the motivations [to do the LLM] is to become a professor and to also influence policies in the area of access to justice, because access to justice is an ongoing crusade.”

Engaging in community

Beyond legal studies, volunteering in community is important to Ayita. During his time as a Master of Laws student, he served as a volunteer facilitator with the Speaker Bureau for the Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba for a year. He also served as class president for the LLM program from September 2023 to May 2025. He participated in the Community Venture/Salvation Army fundraising event in December of 2024 and took part in the university’s community seed planting initiative. Even before arriving in Canada, he volunteered as national coordinator for AFSEN (Alliance for Sustainable Environment Nigeria), focusing on environmental protection and sanitation. There, he led a team in sanitation activities, planted new trees, and educated teenagers on water use and waste disposal.

Speaking from his experience working as Director of Training and Development at the Mediation Training Institute in Nigeria and as a lawyer and conflict coach, he says, “Everybody wants to access justice in all facets of humanity such as divorce and in all your legal needs. You want justice to be served, and I believe going into this program will assist me to be able to have that proper foundation through research and development.”

Having knowledge and research skills to influence government policy is also in his sights. “I look forward to one day becoming a professor in any of the universities in Canada,” he says, “and also be able to influence policy in the decision-making in government.”

Focus on what matters

Ayita has observed, that policy and decision-makers tend to focus on exciting topics such as crime, which tend to get the most media hits. He speaks passionately about what is not getting enough attention when it comes to access to justice: “You don’t want to focus on housing, on the issue of environment, on things that are dear to people like family, but these are the areas that are most needed and people are yearning for access to justice.”

His thesis delves into how the tools of mediation may be used to achieve access to justice. Most of the challenges to access to justice when pursuing a path of litigation, he notes, include delay in proceedings, costs and the complexities of court procedures. Costs are both implicit and explicit, not to mention the psychological cost of litigation. “You realize that all these are not the same when parties have to go through the route of mediation,” he observes.

[G]oing through mediation, they realize that there are no more enemies but they want to work together to see how the parties involved can reach a truce that will most accommodate their differences that also align their interests.
– Oluwafisayo Stephen Ayita [LLM/25]

Mediation, he says, enables parties to overcome the many challenges that form barriers to access to justice including delay and procedural complexity. “It also helps the party to retain what is most important to them. We have realized because the process has been regarded as a kind of legal combat, where parties duel to death, that going through mediation, they realize that there are no more enemies but they want to work together to see how the parties involved can reach a truce that will most accommodate their differences that also align their interests.”

A highly recommended course of study

During his time at Robson Hall, Ayita has worked with instructors, faculty and staff including Natasha Brown [BEd/01; LLB/05], Director of Access to Justice and Community Engagement, and Dr. Michelle Gallant, who also works in conflict resolution. Dr. Donn Short, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies at the Faculty of Law, taught the mandatory graduate seminar for the LLM program, which teaches how to write a thesis and fundamental research skills. “The graduate seminar has been quite helpful,” said Ayita, who took it in his first term of the program. At the time, he explained, each student undertook four assignments related to their thesis including an annotated bibliography to teach them how to identify the sources they would be using for their main thesis. “The research seminar has helped me in particular and I believe it also has helped my colleagues to be able to bring together our aspirations.”

“All these have enabled me to be able to now understand how to carry out research as well as how I can use that to improve on my main thesis, such as this search format, the McGill Research format, the sources, how to write, and notes to include when you are paraphrasing, restate, quote, you know, then when you’re also making your own statement.

So the research seminar has helped me to be able to understand how to be able to go through the authorized format and avoid academic misconduct and fraud. It also has been able to [ensure] that all my work will be genuine. That’s very, very useful.”

Ayita recommends taking an LLM to anyone wanting an academic challenge and looking to deepen their knowledge of the law, “I have been encouraging people,” he said, calling Robson Hall one of the best law faculties in Canada whenever he mentions to people that he is studying here. “I’m proud to be here,” he said.

Ayita’s pursuit of academic challenges is not over yet. In September, he will be a member of UM’s first cohort of Internationally Trained Lawyers and will be taking one of the two Micro-Diplomas now offered in Canadian Private or Canadian Public Law, designed to help such lawyers qualify to practice law in Canada. Then, he will be fully able to practice law in Canada.

Learn more about UM’s LLM program.

Learn more about UM’s Internationally Trained Lawyer program.

Founded in 1992, the goal of The Wilson Moot is to explore legal issues concerning women and minorities, and promote the education of students and the legal profession in these areas. Past topics chosen for Wilson Moot problems include Charter implications of the taxation scheme for child support payments, freedom of religion in the context of state-funded education, and a challenge to the anti-terrorism provisions of the Criminal Code.

Manitoba competed in a group of 15 teams from across Canada and Australia. The University of Toronto won, with Osgoode Hall Law School (York) placing second and Bond University (Queensland, Australia), third. A University of British Columbia student won the Peter W. Hogg Memorial Prize (Top Oralist) and Thompson Rivers University won top team facta.

Team Manitoba consisted of Avery Alexiuk (2L), Tess Poulton (2L), Maia Bacchus (3L), Kirsten Nynych (3L), who were coached by Madison Pearlman [JD/18] (Law Society of Manitoba), and Charles Murray (Manitoba Justice, Constitutional Law section). The Moot gave each student the chance to watch oral advocacy and creative problem-solving in action, and allowed them to engage in honing their own advocacy skills at the Federal Court.

“The Wilson Moot was a wonderful opportunity to practice our oral and written advocacy skills,” said Nynych. “We gained valuable feedback from our extremely dedicated coaches who also brought in several guest judges leading up to the competition. I think the Wilson moot in particular, broadened our view of how Charter claims may change as society develops and enabled us to make creative and novel arguments because of how the problem was framed.”

“This experience has affirmed how much I enjoy legal advocacy, and I’m excited to keep developing as an advocate and representing the university of Manitoba in the Laskin moot during my 3L year,” said Poulton.

In a LinkedIn post, Team Manitoba’s Avery Alexiuk reflected on this “unforgettable experience arguing complex Charter issues alongside some of the brightest legal minds from across Canada and abroad.”

“I am incredibly proud of our team for our hard work, perseverance, and commitment over the past few months,” said Alexiuk. “Our performances would not have been possible without our coaches, Charles Murray and Madison Pearlman. We are so grateful for your time, guidance and unwavering support!”

Speaking on behalf of the coaches, Pearlman said, “Coaching the Wilson Moot this year, alongside my co-coach Charles Murray, was such an exciting opportunity and a fulfilling experience. It was great to work with a passionate and committed team of students and to support them in developing and honing their advocacy skills. Mooting is an invaluable, practical learning experience for students and helps to prepare them for their future legal careers. Robson Hall’s return to the Wilson Moot this year was not only a chance for this year’s students to engage with complex Charter rights issues and social policy matters, it hopefully opened the door for future students to do the same.”

Alexiuk also thanked moot program coordinators, Professor Darcy MacPherson and Director of Clinics Elizabeth McCandless for support and resources, as well as members of the Manitoba legal community who served as guest judges at practice sessions.

The Clinical Experience Committee extended congratulations to Linnea Kosokowsky (1L) and Meagan Gillis (1L), winners of the 2025 Robson Hall Mini Moot. They demonstrated outstanding preparation, poise, and persuasive advocacy throughout the competition. The Committee also congratulated runners-up William Ho and Eric Wagner, who showcased excellent legal reasoning and advocacy skills. 

The Committee and students sent a heartfelt thank you to Fillmore Riley LLP for sponsoring the event and for providing the Fillmore Riley Flawless Reasoning Prizes. Thanks also to MLT Aikins, Taylor McCaffrey, Pitblado Law, Myers LLP, and Thompson Dorfman Sweatman for also sponsoring the competition, and to all the judges and students who participated.

—

Edwin Arthur Braid, C.M., Q.C. (1934 – 2020), also known as ‘Art’, was a beloved former Dean and Professor at Robson Hall, the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law. He was also a graduate of the UM Faculty of Law, class of 1960. Art was widely respected for his kindness, intellectual rigor, and dedication to teaching, but above all, he was deeply passionate about business law. His legacy continues to inspire future generations of law students, particularly through the Art Braid Business Law Case Competition.

Robson Hall’s Business Law Group, organizers of the 2025 Art Braid Business Law Case Competition.

The Business Law Group (BLG), a student group focused on corporate and commercial law at Robson Hall, first introduced the competition two years ago as a way to offer students a practical learning experience in transactional practice. The event, which continues to be a resounding success, has led to a continued partnership with the Marcel A. Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law, allowing the BLG to run the competition for its third consecutive year.

The competition was a valuable opportunity to engage students in the process of legal reasoning, a central value for Art Braid. Teams of two to four students were given a hypothetical contract and asked to identify any red flags, legal issues that could potentially render the contract void, and propose any creative or necessary changes. Students presented their solutions to a panel of judges made up of experienced lawyers from the Manitoba Bar.

Following the presentations, attendees gathered in the Northern Lights Lounge at TDS for refreshments and remarks, culminating in the announcement of the winning team.

Professor Darcy MacPherson gives a moving tribute to Art Braid.

Darcy MacPherson, a Professor at Robson Hall and Research Director at the Desautels Centre, shared heartfelt comments about Art Braid’s lasting impact on the law community. Professor MacPherson emphasized Art’s passion for corporate and commercial law and his unwavering belief in preparing students for the business world. He also highlighted Art’s commitment to pro bono work and his philosophy of giving back: “There’s something special about using your legal skills to help those in need. That was the essence of Art Braid – he freely gave his time and expertise to help others.”

The judges noted that this year’s competition was exceptionally close, with all teams displaying outstanding reasoning and presentation skills. Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Art Braid Business Law Case Competition: Jordan Wagner (3L), Eric Wagner (1L), and William Ho (1L), who triumphed over the finalists: Eric Martin (1L), Tyler Rubigny (1L), Thomas James-Davies (1L), and Alessandro Imbrogno (1L).

Jordan Wagner (3L) presents his team’s case to judges at the 3rd annual Art Braid Cup.

Feedback from the student participants was overwhelmingly positive, and the BLG is excited to continue refining the competition in the years ahead.

The BLG extends its deepest gratitude to the family and friends of Art Braid, whose ongoing support helps sustain his legacy. We also offer sincere thanks to the Marcel A. Desautels Centre for its generous funding, Thompson Dorfman Sweatman for hosting the event, Professor Darcy MacPherson for his moving tribute to Art, Dr. Laura Reimer, Program Director of the Desautels Centre, Dr. Richard Jochelson, Dean of Law, and the Faculty of Law for their unwavering support. Additionally, we would like to thank the competition judges – Steven Dressler [JD/21] (MLT Aikins), Celyna Yu [JD/22] (TDS), Don MacDonald [LLB/83] (Pitblado), and Caroline Christie [BA/12 (UM), JD/16 (UND)] (Pitblado)  – for their time and expertise. Finally, our appreciation goes to the entire BLG Executive team and all the students who participated, making this year’s competition a continued success.

Without the ongoing support of these individuals and organizations, the Art Braid Business Law Case Competition would not have grown into what it has become in these three short years.

This year, the Kawaskimhon did a number of things differently. Instead of conducting negotiations between the colonial government and Indigenous people, it involved all Indigenous organizations negotiating a treaty amongst themselves. As well, table awards were given out for the first time to honour team work at each table. Manitoba’s team of Lathlin and Jackson brought home one of those table awards.

The specific problem at this year’s moot involved each team representing an Indigenous community coming together to protect the water. As Dreilich-Girard explained, each table consisted of six teams, each representing different Indigenous organizations and governments, all with the goal of protecting the Lake Winnipeg Watershed. “Throughout the negotiation, we worked to move beyond colonial legal frameworks, and opted to create a Water Treaty inspired by the Buffalo Treaty. This treaty recognized principles such as kinship, reciprocity, respect, relationships, regeneration, and responsibility. It also integrated ceremony as a way of honoring and upholding these commitments.”

“In creating the treaty, we acknowledged and recognized the ongoing work being done in community such as the great work being done at the Turtle Lodge. We emphasized the need for a Grandmothers’ Council and ensured that the treaty, along with all related documents and communications, would be available in the languages of all signatory nations. Additionally, we called for the renewal of relationships and commitments to be marked during the solstice. One of the most significant aspects of our treaty was Article #7, which spoke about the importance of future generations being included in all discussions and decisions, with an open seat at every discussion and gathering to welcome new community members and individuals who wish to join the conversation.”

Dreilich-Girard observed that “This opportunity saw us utilize what we’ve learned in the classroom while integrating ceremony and teachings.”

Kawaskimhon Team Manitoba (left to right): Coach Marc Kruse [JD/15], Director of Indigenous Legal Learning and Services; Mary-Charlet-Lathlin (3L); (back left) Raven Morrisseau (2L); Chloe Dreilich-Girard (2L); Janell Jackson (2L); Coach Daniel Diamond, Assistant Professor, UM Law.

Thanking her teammates, Dreilich-Girard said, “Together, we successfully mirrored the partnership our “clients” have, and navigated the negotiation process while supporting each other’s visions and goals.

The moot’s keynote speaker was Aimée Craft, a Full Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Common Law, who holds the University of Ottawa Research Chair Nibi miinawaa aki inaakonigewin: Indigenous governance in relationship with land and water. Her talk highlighted the “incredible work being done by communities to protect water, including the development of a Water Treaty,” said Dreilich-Girard.

The team thanked their coaches Kruse and Diamond for their support throughout the Kawaskimhon including bringing them Thunder Bay’s iconic Persian donuts.

Finally, Dreilich-Girard extended kihchi marsii to her and Morrisseau’s table moderator, Jamie McGinnis, Manager of Legal Services, Human Rights Legal Support Centre in Thunder Bay. “Her guidance was instrumental in helping us navigate the negotiation with respect, reciprocity, kinship, relationships, regeneration, and responsibility all in mind.”

“It takes a village to coach a Moot Team,” Clarke observed, remarking on the generosity and dedication of the Manitoba legal community to help train the next generation of lawyers. From the beginning of January until the team left for Toronto, Clarke said they practiced twice a week at the Manitoba Court of Appeal in front of five panels of Crown and defence lawyers, and a panel of Provincial Court Judges. “The final practice panel was in front of three Manitoba Court of Appeal Justices, including the Chief Justice of Manitoba, The Honourable Marianne Rivoalen, herself,” said Clarke.

The Gale Cup has been Canada’s premier appellate moot on criminal and constitutional law since 1974.  The assigned moot problem for 2025 was R v Bykovets, 2024 SCC 6, focussing on Section 8 of the Charter, in particular, the privacy of IP addresses of Canadians. While Manitoba did not bring home any prizes, Clarke said, “I think I speak for everyone when I say we walked away with something much more practical than a prize – a fantastic learning experience to add to our resumes and tool kits as we prepare for articling interviews, and articling for Denise.”

In a LinkedIn post, Harris expressed pride in the team’s work. “I would like to thank my co-counsel, Derek Zaporzan, and my teammates Kaitlyn Clarke, Andrew Bergen, and Denise Sarmiento for their hard work, effort, and support throughout our preparation,” he wrote. “I’m incredibly proud of our determination, creativity, and progress over the past few months and of the advocacy skills we have honed along the way.”

Clarke and Sameer expressed deepest thanks to their coaches, Smith and Queau-Guzzi, on behalf of the team. “We are deeply grateful for your guidance, feedback, tireless effort, and unwavering dedication since our very first meeting. Your impact on our skills and professional development will extend far beyond this competition,” Harris wrote.

In addition to acknowledging the contributions of numerous lawyers and justices who took time out of their busy schedules to help with practices, the team also thanked University of Manitoba Faculty of Law moot coordinators, Professor Darcy MacPherson and Director of Clinics, Elizabeth McCandless, for their support and guidance.

The mission of the MLJ, as succinctly explained by Dr. Schwartz, is to bring “world-class scholarship to interests in our community.” This world-class scholarship is evident in the MLJ’s placement among top-ranked journals in Canada, according to Google Scholar citation metrics, and consistent winning of awards in the highly competitive SSHRC program for scholarly journals.

Volume 46 contains the inaugural issue of The Review of Enterprise and Trade Law dimension: “To get TRETL where it is was a massive undertaking,” explained Dr. Schwartz. “It is the culmination of work going back almost twenty-five years. It began with the creation of the Asper Review of International Business and Trade Law, which on its own became one of the top-ranked journals in Canada. Over the years, the Asper Chair collaborated with the Desautels Chair on projects such as our franchise law conference and book, which had a significant impact on the legislation here in Manitoba. With TRETL, we now have a combined effort of the two chairs to produce a regular publication reflecting the mandate of both. A further synergy has been achieved by fully integrating this journal into our thriving MLJ program.”

Readers of Volume 46 will find several issues forming part of the journal’s Underneath the Golden Boy dimension, which is concerned with legislation and public policy. Issues 1 and 3 are the first two of a trilogy focussing on our legal system in times of crisis: Issue 1, Canada’s Emergencies Act: Beyond the Rouleau Report, deals with the Emergencies Act and the controversy surrounding its use while Issue 3, Online Dispute Resolution: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, looks at the recent health crisis through both academic articles and oral-history interviews with local lawyers. The third and final issue of this trilogy, yet to be released, will focus on the perspectives of leading lawmakers and political figures in Manitoba in relation to the COVID crisis. Issue 2 steps away from the crisis lens and broadly reviews general developments in public policy and administration.

The three criminal law issues edited by Dr. Richard Jochelson and Assistant Professor Brandon Trask – 4, 5, and 6 – published under the Robson Crim dimension of MLJ, are wide-ranging. They include articles on wrongful convictions, legislative measures targeting proceeds of crime (even maple syrup), and incarcerees’ access to healthcare. These contributions, as with all of MLJ’s dimensions, are authored by students, faculty, and practicing professionals, and undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process.

This dimensions-based approach allows the MLJ to focus on local issues through clear and specific lenses, while leaving the door open to national or international discussion of important fields more inherently (inter)national in scope.

The Executive Editors-in-Chief would like to thank the student-editorial teams at the MLJ and its Robson Crim dimension for their hard work in bringing this volume to fruition. As put by Professor MacPherson, “We congratulate and thank all the students for the time that went into getting this entire issue out the door. We really believe our readers will find something within its pages that is both academically rigorous and useful.”

Thank you to:

MLJ Student Editors

Selene Sharp

Vicky Liu

Apara Grace

AubrieAnn Schettler

Avery Alexiuk

Brayden Juras

Brent Tichon

Diana Gutierrez

Heather Peterson

Joshua Dondo

Steven Csincsa

Vilciya Rajput

All of the editors – both faculty and students – would like to thank Lily Deardorff, MLJs Digital Editor, for her co-ordinating efforts, guidance, and persistent positivity.

With Volume 47 already beginning pre-print, the MLJ is poised to continue delivering cutting-edge, readable, and independent legal commentary.

The torch of the Desautels Review was passed from former Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Virginia Torrie, to the MLJ’s Co-Editors-in-Chief Dr. Bryan Schwartz and Professor Darcy MacPherson. The excellent work done through Desautels by Dr. Torrie’s team has been invaluable and provides a strong foundation for TRETL, as does the Asper Review’s reputation as a leading publication in the realm of international business and trade law. The range of papers included in this issue set the stage for the many issues yet to be covered.

Photo credit: Joey Senft on Unsplash.

Contributors Sarah Richardson and Virginia Torrie each take different looks at an integral aspect of life, business, and economic trade in Manitoba: modern farming. Their respective articles are literally “barn burners” with Richardson raising a discussion of the regulatory and legal protections – or lack thereof – afforded to farmers and their livestock facing the very real issue of barn fires. Torrie looks back almost a century to the Great Depression and its impact on prairie farmers through the ensuing enactment of the Farmers’ Creditors Arrangement Act. Her article takes an empirical look at FCAA applications and whether this program has kept “the farmer on the farm” as it aimed to.

Darcy MacPherson discusses the remediation-agreement regime and the scandal within the SNC-Lavalin Affair. He asks whether said regime does enough to provide appropriate legal guidance to executive actors, and should a Prime Minister dancing the “Cabinet Shuffle” undermine decisions made by the previous Attorney General. MacPherson finishes by outlining concerns in the organization and wording of Subsection 715.32(2), and its reliance on “one-way factors.”

Joel Badali focusses on employment law in First Nations communities, the uneven application of Wilson v. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, and the principle therein that First Nations employers ought to be held to Provincial employment standards in all but specific cases. He looks to instances of inconstant application (i.e. in schools and Human Rights regimes), the effects that the competing jurisdictions would have, and argues for a more consistent application of Provincial jurisdiction.

Bradley Bryan also looks to Indigenous issues, specifically the constraints placed on Indigenous governments & Indigenous economic development corporations by limited partnership law. He outlines how inconsistent interpretation of legal rights and responsibilities between limited partnerships, limited partners, and Indigenous governing bodies has led to difficulties for Indigenous governments hoping to use limited partnerships for investments while protecting themselves from liability. Bryan illustrates through the lens of recent cases how this is currently hindering reconciliation and efforts at “inclusion without assimilation.”

Martin-Joe Ezeudo’s case comment on Ontario’s Libfeld v. Libfeld picks apart the convoluted web of business instruments and relationship/relational breakdowns over a multi-generational development empire, in order to explore the merit of the decision. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice was tasked with fairly untangling the four remaining brothers’ assets, “winding-up” an unusually structured partnership – one littered with corporate holdings, about 350 purpose-built corporate entities, and worth between $2.5-$4 billion.

Finally in a notable collaboration between professor and student, MacPherson and recent law graduate, Matthew London [JD/2024] offer a review of John Carreyrou’s book, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies Inside a Silicon Valley Start-Up, a tale of the rise and fall of Theranos Inc. and its founder Elizabeth Holmes. This review provides a substantive summary of the work, as well as critical and theoretical insight to legal principles not fully delved into by this piece of popular literature, and why it should matter to a Canadian audience. For anybody who followed the Theranos scandal, this review is a must-read.

Read the MLJ’s Volume 46, Issue 7, The Review of Enterprise and Trade Law (2024) online on the Manitoba Law Journalwebsite.

Volume 46, Issue 3, Online Dispute Resolution: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, is part oral history, part academic exploration of ODR. The issue begins with an introductory word from Darcy MacPherson, reminding us that, though many of us would have rather not hit “pause,” or seen the programming of our daily lives change, crisis is, and was, an opportunity for positive change through adaptation and recognition of our shared needs.

The first article sets the stage for the issue by diving into the possibility of developing a more rigorous, post-COVID system of ODR in Manitoba, one bringing together existing and novel applications of ODR, drawn from across Canada and the UK, into a comprehensive whole. The next piece, co-authored by our Faculty’s Dean Richard Jochelson, now-Judge David Ireland, and Brandon Trask et al peers into the possibility of developing a system of virtual jury trials – they take an empirical look, through news-media articles, at Canada’s courts’ reactions to, and concerns with, resuming jury trials during the pandemic.

The oral histories – interviews with some of Winnipeg’s leaders in collaborative family, child protection, civil, administrative, labour and employment law, mediation, arbitration, and legislation – make up the bulk of this special issue. The stories they tell, and lessons they provide, are both insightful and entertaining, full of both skillful flourishes and the occasional faux pas.

Kris Saxberg touches on everything under the civil-law sun, from child protection and the needs of Indigenous communities relative to current tech systems, to administrative law, to many Canadians’ favorite comedy trio, “The Trailer Park Boys,” and the “right” to smoke and drink in (virtual) court. Greg Evans digs into the collaborative potential of a family law practice, the “perfect” Family Law class (it involves people yelling on the phone), practice management and competency in the tech era, and the positives and pitfalls of access to online legal services.

Cynthia Lazar shares her seasoned perspective on virtual negotiations and collective bargaining, the pitfalls of virtual testimony, and how to elicit that sweet “Legally Blonde” gotcha-moment, while Pamela Leech and Dr. Schwartz discuss the bane of many a practitioner or professor’s career – screen share – as well as post-COVID technology they would like to see stick around.

Deputy Minister Dave Wright closes out the issue with a birds-eye view of the pandemic and how justice technology has or hasn’t advanced (and jealousy of B.C.), how crisis forced long-awaited reform, and the challenges that endure into the present. All of these perspectives, proposals, and anecdotes come together to provide a snapshot of a moment in legal history that was unprecedented in the modern era, but that might form a valuable precedent moving forward, helping us, our clients, and our educators adapt, overcome, and ultimately thrive in the at-times-questionable circumstances we find ourselves.