Fall 2002 Report

Firm & Professional Notes

Richmond J. Bayes, Lee Ann M. Martin and David L. Voechting have been appointed sessional instructors for courses in securities law, comparative law and commercial law, respectively, offered by the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba.

Richmond J. Bayes , Brian T. D. Bowman and Michelle R. Redekopp have been elected Chairs of the Securities Law Section, the Technology and Intellectual Property Law Section, and the Business Law Section, respectively, of the Manitoba Bar Association.

Kevin R. Bolt and E. Wells Peever, Q.C. were presenters at a Law Society of Manitoba continuing legal education seminar on Securing Debt: Mortgages, Collateral Mortgages and Guarantees.

Aaron J. Bowler and one of the firm's articling students, Krista Boryskavich, co-authored a paper entitled “Hollywood North: Tax Incentives and the Film Industry in Canada” which will be published in the forthcoming Fall 2002 edition of the Asper Review of International Business and Trade Law.

David M. Carrick , Robert T. Gabor, Q.C. and Robert M. Hendry recently made a presentation entitled “Hi-Tech Start-Ups: Legal Considerations” as part of the MBA speaker series for the Asper Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Manitoba. Together with Brian T. D. Bowman , David M. Carrick and Robert M. Hendry also made a presentation entitled “Pre-Investment Due Diligence: Attracting Investment For ICT Companies” as part of the Investment Accelerative Program for STAP Manitoba (Industry Canada).

Allan F. Foran and Brian T. D. Bowman recently presented a paper entitled "Privacy Legislation and its impact on HR Information and Technology" to the International Association for Human Resource Information Management, Great Prairie Chapter. Allan also presented a paper co-authored by Lucia M. Stuhldreier entitled " Benefit Plans - Current Legal Issues" to the Canadian Pension Benefits Institute.

The Firm welcomes Roger T. Gallant who is joining Murray E. Thrift and Robert M. Hendry in our patent practice this fall. Roger has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, a Master's Degree in Theoretical/Computational Chemistry and an MBA and will be focusing on the area of biotech patents.

Betty A. Johnstone was honoured with presentation of the Section Activity Award by the Manitoba Bar Association for Co-Chairing the very successful CBA National Construction Law Section Bi-Annual Conference which was held in Winnipeg.

J. Guy Joubert has been appointed as a Commissioner of the Automobile Injury Compensation Appeal Commission.

Steven J. Kohn was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Health Sciences Centre Foundation.

A.J. (Telly) Mercury, Q.C. has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Deer Lodge Centre Foundation.

J. Timothy Samson, Q.C. delivered the Toast to Iceland at the 113th annual Icelandic Festival held in Gimli, Manitoba in August.

Barbara M. Shields addressed the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters with a presentation on the new Administrative Monetary Penalty System under the Customs Act.

The Firm congratulates Lori T. Spivak on becoming President of the Manitoba Law Society in May of this year. Lori has practiced at Aikins since her call to the Bar in 1982 in the area of civil litigation and administrative law. She serves as an adjudicator pursuant to The Human Rights Code of Manitoba. Since 1993, Lori has served as a member of numerous committees of the Law Society, and more recently as a Bencher and as Vice-President. She has contributed extensively to the Society's legal education activities and served on the Boards of various community organizations. In her new position as President of the Law Society, Lori is preceded by both current and former members of the Firm, including Sir J.A.M. Aikins, K.B., Q.C., LL.D., former Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench E.K. Williams, G.S. Thorvaldson, Q.C., former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Brian Dickson, A. Lorne Campbell, Q.C., Justice Peter S. Morse, former Provincial Court Judge Frank D. Allen, Justice of Appeal Martin H. Freedman, Knox B. Foster, Q.C., Colin R. MacArthur, Q.C., Justice of Appeal Barbara M. Hamilton and Herbert J. Peters.

G. Bruce Taylor recently presented a paper entitled “Tools for Restructuring the Troubled Business” as part of the Law Society of Manitoba's continuing legal education program “Advising Financially Troubled Businesses” and a paper entitled “Environmental Considerations in Insolvency - Isolate and Insulate” at the Canadian Institute's Advanced Insolvency Law and Practice Conference (Calgary). Both papers were prepared by Deborah L. Mahoney. Bruce also made a presentation to the Canadian Association of Insolvency Law and Practice Conference concerning the United States Bankruptcy Code.

Todd W. Thomson has rejoined the Firm after practicing with Goodman Carr in Toronto for the past year.

Joel A.Weinstein, Q.C. has been nominated for the University of Winnipeg's Distinguished Alumni Award. Joel also delivered a paper dealing with recent developments in real estate taxation at the Annual Canadian Tax Foundation National Conference in Toronto. Robert C. Lee and Florence I. Carey assisted in the preparation of the paper.

Richard L.Yaffe has been appointed for a third term as a member of the Steering Committee of the Canadian Arts Summit. The Summit comprises the board chairs and the artistic and executive directors of the 40 largest visual and performing arts organizations across Canada.