Billions of dollars invested, not a penny lost.

PAGE 9

REVEALING
INFORMATION

JEREMY HAINSWORTH VANCOUVER

British Columbia’s 146 provincial court judges are suing the provincial government for refusing to increase their pay and benefits in accordance with the 2010 Judges Compensation Commission final report.

The Provincial Court Judges
Association, in an Oct. 12 petition
to the Supreme Court of British
Columbia, said the government’s
rejection of the
report’s recom-
mendations was
unreasonable and
in bad faith.
“Its response to
the JCC consisted
of irrational and
unreasonable
expressions of
rejection and dis-
approval,” the
petition says.
The commis-
sion noted
enhancements
for salaries and benefits were
unsupportable for 2011-12 and

2012-13 but said it was reasonable to expect the government to be in a position to support increases for 2013-14. It noted judges’ workloads are expanding with a caseload that is increasingly complex and varied.

The legislature rejected increases in salaries and benefits for the judges, as well as an increased pension accrual rate. The government noted in its Government Response to the Report of the 2010 Judges Compensation Commission that provincial court judges saw their compensation rise from $161,250 in 2004 to $231,138 in 2010, a cumulative increase of 43.3 per cent.

In a motion in the legislature to
reject the increases, then attorney
general Barry Penner called them
“unfair and unreasonable.”
In its response document, the
government noted its “net-zero”
public sector compensation man-
date, a policy which has been
adhered to across the board in
recent contracts.
“Government has determined
that it must limit compensation
increases paid by public funds. A
compensation arrangement for
judges that provides protection
against inflation is
not consistent
with this deter-
mination,” the
document says.
“Maintaining
judges’ salaries at
$231,138 through
fiscal year 2013-
14 will not result
in a salary that
falls below a level
necessary to
attract high-qual-
ity candidates to
the provincial
bench or that would otherwise
harm judicial independence.”
But, argued the judges, the gov-
ernment argument failed to take
into account that, while judges are
paid from the public purse, they
are not public sector employees
but rather, an independent branch
of government.

The judges are seeking a certiorari order quashing the May 2010 resolution of the B.C. legislature rejecting seven of 15 recommendations of the commission. They seek a declaration that the government response to the commission does not conform to the standards of The Judicial Compensation Act and embodied in the constitutional principle of judicial independence for

DEAN JOBB

If you read this in the online edition of the newspaper, feel free to post a link to it from a website, in a blog or tweet, on your Facebook page or wherever you please on the Internet—you have no legal liability for anything defamatory it might contain.

In a ruling hailed as a victory for freedom of speech online— and a concession to the difficulty of imposing legal responsibility in cyberspace — the Supreme Court of Canada says those who create hyperlinks to defamatory material cannot be sued for republishing the libel.

A majority of the court (six of
nine judges), in dismissing a libel
claim against a B.C. blogger who
posted a link to material a for-
mer Green Party official con-
sidered defamatory, recognized
that hyperlinks are a vital tool in
making information accessible
on the web. Justice Rosalie
Abella, writing for the majority,
held that links are “content neu-
tral,” in the same way a footnote
simply directs readers to second-
ary source material. Unless the
creator of a link explicitly repeats
and republishes defamatory
material from the original source,
she said, links “should never be
seen as ‘publication’ of the con-
tent to which it refers.”
“The Internet cannot … provide
access to information without
hyperlinks,” she wrote, and “sub-
See Hyperlink Page 8 See Money Page 26

Web link libel push cut off by top court over pay raises

Jeanne Parkin at her home in Toronto, beside a photo called La vie … une
hesitation by Marie-Jo Lafontaine. Parkin is a long-time art consultant for
some of the top law firms in Canada. See story on page 21

Reflections of good taste

KARA DILLON FOR THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
“Its response to
the JCC consisted
of irrational and
unreasonable
expressions of
rejection and
disapproval.

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

Vol. 22, No. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION December 6, 2002

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6, 2002

VOL. 22, NO. 27 NEWS FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION DECEMBER 6,

STB_LW_basebar_09_ 11_Layout 1 9/1/11 4:55 PM Page 1

in showdown

What is considered part of the job, and what is discriminatory?

Clarity lacking
for Facebook
disclosure relevance
PAGE 14

MICROSITES

Use microsites to
connect to your clients
PAGE 14
2002
ONLINE ETIQUETTE
Tips for avoiding
gaffes at work online
PAGE 23

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