And in other news, Highway 17 is washed out on both sides of Wawa (that’s two communities down-lake from Marathon). This might take quite a while to re-build. What a mess. Flooding forces Wawa to declare state of emergency | CBC News
The CanaDoper Café (2012 edition of The great, ongoing Canadian current events and politics thread.)
It’s a really wintery night here tonight - cold, windy, and it was snowing a bit today before. On the other hand, we’re not having a Frankenstorm, and our weather is due to turn nice again next week. 
Glad to hear about all the other good stuff, though.
Yes, I am familiar with Wawa, having spent a few days there, and also having. I also saw the news report. Those look like bad breaks–how long to fix, do you think?
Just read this now. I’m in Canadian law school now. Our Dean blames U of T for “Americanizing” the law degree designation. Someone asked him if we could call ourselves “Doctor,” to which he snarkily replied “you can call yourself Reverend for all I care!” 
Like all the 2Ls right now, we’re on pins and needles because of the (potential) changes to articling. At this point I don’t care if they change it or not. I just want certainty before I start going out and kissing ass at twenty different law firms, lol. I think the proposed two tier system is bad bad news.
In fairness, the first Canadian law degree has more in common with the first American one. We used the same Langdellian system of law school study, we require (in most cases) an undergraduate degree to study law, we require the LSATs, and so on. No different from what it took to get into Harvard or Yale.
However, we used the British undergraduate designation: LL.B. This, to many people in the UK and elsewhere (for example, Australia), means that a Bachelor of Laws is a first degree. To the best of my understanding, British and Australian law students do not require a B.A. or similar to be admitted to law school, as we do. I myself was rather surprised to find that, when I was admitted to law school, it was as an undergraduate studying for a bachelor’s degree, in spite of the fact that I already had a B.A. and really could not be admitted without one. Our American counterparts had J.D. degrees–why should we, if we had the same entrance requirements and studied the same way, not have the same?
Still, I’ll hang onto my LL.B. If nothing else, it gives me five letters after my name, instead of four.
What changes are being proposed?
Edit by me:
“…driven through on Highway 17 more than a few times.”
A touch on my mouse pad on my laptop may have inadvertently deleted the full sentence. Sorry for any confusion.
Yesterday, Convocation put it over to Nov. 22.
Spoons, here’s what Convocation is considering.
Atonio, just “keep calm and carry on” on the assumption that you will article, for at most there will only be an alternative pilot project by the time you go through.
As far as kissing ass at twenty different law firms goes, you might consider increasing that by an order of magntiude. Seriously. As Cat Stevens put it, “If I could meet 'em I could get 'em, but as yet I haven’t met 'em; that’s how I’m in the state I’m in; baby what a mess I’m in.”
If you only contact a few dozen, your chances are a lot slimmer than if you contact a few hundred. Remember that most students have their sights set on a few dozen major firms in downtown Toronto and other major cities, so these firms get swamped with applications, whereas elsewhere folks are scratching their heads wondering why there are few or no articling students in town. Obviously cold calling/mailing is not sufficient on its own, so get in touch with the articling committes of the various county and district bar associations. (And don’t worry about there being any shortage of jobs for junior lawyers who have passed the bar – there are more than enough jobs for juniors available, and the job situation for lawyers here is in no way at all comparable to what those poor bastards in the USA are currently facing.)
BTW, for folks who are applying to law school, the deadline for appplications to Lakehead University’s new law school’s first class is the end of this month. They are focused on teaching pratical skills so that graduates will be employable upon graduation. This would be a huge advantage for folks trying to get an articling job, for the problem that law firms face when deciding to hire either an articling student or a junior lawyer is that the newbies are usually so incredibly unskilled that they lose the firm a lot of money. A job applicant who can be productive right out of the box will have one hell of an advantage at finding work over someone who who does not know how make use of the theory learned at law school. Note that most firms have far more work than they know what to do with, but most articling students only add to the burden rather than ease it, so having practical skills will turn an articling student from a liability to an asset.
Wow, that looks nasty! And it’s going to be a real challenge to get that fixed before winter hits!
Looking at those photos, I’m amazed there’s nothing in that report about serious injuries or deaths.
I’ve been involved on similar washouts in BC. This one is average, but the topography allows for ample detour room, which means the highway shouldn’t be closed for more than a day or two.
It looks like new pipe will need to be placed at three sections. I’ve put in big pipe before and it can take about 12 hours per section with a good sized team (more if it is a multi-plate).
I could see it open in 5 days with the proper resources. Probably less.
Thanks, Spoons and Muffin.
I’m in a different position than most of my colleagues. I shudder at the thought working on bay street, and I didn’t do anything with Toronto or Vancouver OCIs. My goal has been decidedly to stay and work in Ottawa, which means about 20 or so firms, sole/duo practitioners, and the DoJ that I must ingratiate myself to. In a perfect world, I would secure a clerkship with the Federal Tax Court, but somehow I feel like I had a better shot on the Lotto Max last night than doing that.
My only concern about the changes to the articling–specifically, the majority view of creating a “two tier licensing system” with articles, and then the alternative being some kind of volunteer/accreditation school–is that A) it looks like you would still be doing a mini-article, but just not getting paid for it; and B) the few profs I have that are practicing lawyers in the community tacitly admit that since “we all did article when we were your age,” there’s going to be a stigma following these people out of the tier II program before they even get their first legal job. Either get rid of articling or don’t; but I don’t like the idea of doing an in-between fix. That’s my two cents, YMMV.
Local folklore ( I have no idea if it is true but it has been repeated often enough) is that the hotel in Wawa was started by hitchhikers who couldn’t get a ride out. The wisdom is always that you have to get a ride through Wawa because no one will stop for you there. (Look at the map, and figure out if you want to risk a stranger with you on those stretches of highway.
In other news I am not driving across Canada or the USA next week. I am going back to Thunder Bay, dealing with some house issues, tying up a few loose ends and dealing with boxes in my parents basement, then driving to Winnipeg (yay!) and shipping my car to Vancouver from there. The original quotes I got were in the $1400-$1700 range for shipping my car, but only $700 or so from Winnipeg. So, yeah, that’s how I am going to do it. Sorry, Spoons I guess we will meet up some other time, just not this year.
The “tsunami that wasn’t” up in Haida Gwaii reminded me another reason to renew my Ontario College of Nurses registration this year. I am registered in BC and my Ontario registration is still active, until Dec 31st. If I keep my Ontario license I always have the option of going back to practice in Ontario, and quickly if there was an earthquake or other disaster here in Vancouver. Of course finding a job in Thunder Bay isn’t so easy with that big hospital by the lake being all but empty. Any new ideas on what is happening to the LPH, Muffin?
No problem. I likely couldn’t have met in Great Falls anyway, as I recalled that my passport was due to expire; and a quick check of it showed that it did indeed expire a short time ago. Anyway, safe travels, and I hope all the arrangements go smoothly!
Nothing new. Just St. Joe’s running a lot of programs out of there, including programs that require temporary residence, but the problem remains that people who really should not be residing in the community are being pushed out into it.
The old Sister Margaret Smith addictions residential treatment building downtown disappeared this fall. I figured that it was beamed up by drug impaired aliens.
I expect that the highway will be marginally open sometime this week (with proper rebuilding taking longer), but the repairs to the roads in the region will take a lot longer. Here is a page with photos of the many road failures, along with a map that pinpoints them, and a Flickr page of photos of the washouts.
Canada has a Doper as its latest permanent resident–me! I finished the landing process yesterday and am still adjusting to the idea that I actually live with my husband now…
Congrats! Are you enjoying practising in TO?
That’s (the site of the Sister Margaret Smith Clinic) is where they are putting the new 38 bed Rehabilitation (psych) unit. Not the dementia unit. From what I hear there still isn’t a plan for the tertiary patients with BPSD. That’s why I got out of there, while my co workers are still wondering just when the axe is going to fall. They have stopped admitting patients who were unmanageable in long term care. There is no plan for how these people will be managed. I would hate to have an elderly parent/relative with severe dementia in town currently.
What is BPSD?
Bipolar something or other would be my guess, based on the context!