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UPFRONT 6 www.canadianlawyermag.com WEST UPDATE NEWS BRIEFS Law societies studying articling system To understand the issues faced by articling students, three law societies polled lawyers about the types of training and mentoring to which articling students are exposed, the discrimination and harassment they experience and how to better train them for a modern legal practice. Thirty-two per cent of the 549 students and new lawyers who responded to the Law Society of Alberta's survey said they had faced discrimination or harassment during recruitment or articling. The most common description of harassment was "being asked about marital status, plans for children and sexual orientation," said the Law Society of Alberta. Oil industry benefiting from CET: study A study released in October by L'Institut de recherche et d'informations socio- économiques found that Canada's oil exports to the European Union have increased since Canada signed the Canada-European Union comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. The boost for the struggling oil sector comes while the overall trade deficit has also increased, counter to the government's promise for the deal, and, overall, exports to the European Union are down 22.1 per cent, the IRIS said. The other winner, post-CETA, is the minerals sector, said the study. CETA was signed in October 2016. B.C. midwifery regulator can't prevent woman from calling herself 'death midwife,' court says The College of Midwives of B.C. sought a permanent injunction against alternative, holistic death-care practitioner Pashta MaryMoon to prevent her from calling herself a death midwife. MaryMoon refers to herself as a death midwife on websites, including that of the Canadian Integrative Network for Death Education and Alternatives, an organization she founded, and Twitter. MaryMoon is not a member of the college and so the college argued she was violating the Health Professions Act with use of the term "midwife." Justice Neena Sharma found that, although MaryMoon was violating the HPA, the HPA infringed her freedom of expression under s. 2(b) of the Charter. Decision draws acceptability line in investigations of personal injury plaintiffs In the B.C. Supreme Court case, the court ruled against the plaintiff because the investigation was not done to intentionally upset him and because there was no direction prior to this case to define what is an overly intrusive investigation, according to an article by Mike Adlem, a partner at Gowling WLG, and Ryan Adlem. Generally, while investigators can obtain social media information posted publicly, they cannot breach social media privacy settings; although they can conduct surreptitious surveillance, they cannot continue when the plaintiff becomes aware of it; and although investigators can do "incremental" phone interviews of witnesses while accurately identifying themselves, they cannot misrepresent themselves or arrive unannounced to a witness' home, the authors write. SCC certifies class action against tech giants The Supreme Court will allow to proceed a class action brought by B.C. businessman Neil Godfrey, who alleges major electronics manufacturers are operating a global, criminal price- fixing cartel and overcharging for optical disc drives. The court found the two-year limitation period for filing could be extended by the discoverability rule and by that of fraudulent concealment. New legal- training bootcamp expanded to University of Calgary Institute for the Future of Law Practice Program trains law students for the modern profession NOW IN its second year, the Institute for the Future of Law Practice Program — a summertime legal-training program for law students — has expanded to the University of Calgary, with positive reviews from students. The IFLP is based on the idea that law schools are not equipping students with the practical, technological skills they need to valuably contribute to the workplaces they will enter. The program consists of a three-week bootcamp, plus a paid internship. The learning modules include lessons on business funda- mentals, professional communication, project management, process improvement, innova- tion, technology, knowledge management, data analytics and AI, among other topics. Second-year University of Calgary law student Daniel Frederiks did his undergrad at the University of British Columbia in cognitive systems. While studying what Frederiks says is a cross between computer science and neuro- science, he dealt with ethical issues stemming from emerging technology, such as AI, elder- care robots and drones. This led to his interest in negligence and product liability, which led to his decision to go to law school. Initially, Frederiks says, he wasn't sure if a traditional law practice would interest him and he didn't want to spend his first law school summer at a downtown Calgary corporate