As the year draws to a close, we thought we'd look back at ten of the most popular posts from Stikeman Elliott's Knowledge Hub in 2018. The Knowledge Hub posts frequent updates offering valuable insight into legal issues in the news. We hope you've enjoyed our discussions over the past year and look forward to keeping you informed throughout 2019.

1. Seven Legal Technologies Every Lawyer Should Know About

Andrea Alliston, leader of our Knowledge Management Group, discussed seven hot legal product technologies: what they are, what they do, and why you should care.

2. Weed in the Workplace: A Primer for Employer Action

Early in the year, Canadian employers were wondering how the October 2018 legalization of cannabis would affect them. Tamara Ticoll of our Toronto Employment Group provided these insights.

3. Federal Privacy Breach Notification Rules Finalized; In Force November 2018

In April, David Elder and Rona Ghanbari provided our readers with an analysis of new rules applying to security breaches relating to personal information governed by PIPEDA.

4. Que Sera, CERA: The Canadian Energy Regulator Act

The new Canadian Energy Regulator, announced by the federal government in February, was the subject of this post by three members of our Calgary-based Oil & Gas team: Dennis Langen, Vincent Light, and Prateek Gupta.

5. The New United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement: Key Highlights

The text of the finalized USMCA – which, if ratified, will replace NAFTA – was released in October. Jean-Guillaume Shooner and Stuart Carruthers highlighted some key changes that Canadian businesses need to be aware of.

6. Whistleblower Law: In-house Counsel Eligibility Clarified and Anti-retaliation Protections Enacted

Proposed changes to the OSC whistleblower program and a new civil cause of action for retaliation were discussed in this February post by securities lawyers Laura Levine and Julien Robitaille-Rodriguez.

 7. Absorptive Mergers Gain a Foothold in Canadian Plans of Arrangement

This post looked at a trend toward using Canadian plans of arrangement to effect U.S.-style "absorptive" mergers, in which one entity continues to exist, having "absorbed" the other. Mike Mestinsek, Geoff Holub, Keith Chatwin and David Price jointly authored our analysis.

8. Regulatory Changes Coming for Quebec's Construction Industry: Key Anti-Corruption Measures Take Effect on September 4, 2018

Details of Quebec's Bill 162, implementing recommendations of the Charbonneau Commission into construction-industry corruption, were considered in this post by Maude Brouillette.

9. The Pendulum Swings Back? Thinking about the OSFI Reinsurance Framework Discussion Paper

In July, we brought you a detailed commentary by Stuart Carruthers and Andrew Cunningham on a landmark OSFI discussion paper that will shape the regulation of reinsurance for years to come.

10. The Sun Shines for Lenders: Solar Power in the Court of Appeal

Commercial loans employing annualizing formulas to comply with the Interest Act were largely vindicated by this Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in September.

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