THE ADVOCATE 795
VOL. 79 PART 5 SEPTEMBER 2021
follow from a certain theme or plot situation”. The court noted that the
plaintiff’s “theme is one of long standing: an alien trying to return home is
pursued by hostile governmental authorities and rescued by friendly
humans. The following characteristics are all indispensable elements to the
treatment of this science fiction theme: an alien arrives on earth in a spaceship;
all humans are afraid of the unknown alien; governmental authorities
are trying to capture or destroy the alien; one human becomes friendly with
the alien and tries to help it return home safely; and the alien leaves earth
on a spaceship immediately before death. These characteristics are indispensable
elements to the treatment of this type of science fiction theme and
are, as a matter of law, simply too general to be protectible.”
Two nude sunbathers in Australia were recently fined $1,000 each for
breaching Sydney’s COVID-19 rules. Despite a lockdown order while the
city battled an outbreak of the Delta variant, the two decided to go sunbathing
au naturel. After being spooked by a deer (also technically naked),
they fled into the dense bushland where they promptly lost their way. Having
called for assistance that resulted in a helicopter search, one was then
found naked carrying his backpack while the other was located later on and
only partially clothed. The NSW Police Commissioner claimed: “it’s difficult
to legislate against idiots.”
Bernard I. Pinsky, Q.C., was recently awarded the Jim and Vicki Chu Community
Safety Leader Award by the Vancouver Police Board and the Vancouver
Police Department. This award honours outstanding contributions
toward crime prevention and community safety in Vancouver.
Sandra L. Case was reappointed to the board of Kwantlen Polytechnic University
for a term ending December 17, 2021.
The Court of Appeals of Tennessee explained, in a signage-related case, that
One Nashville Place is also known as the “R2-D2 Building”. Completed in
1985, it is a “25-story octagonal building” that sits “in the heart of downtown
Nashville”. “When viewed from a distance, the architectural shape of the
building resembles the iconic and loveable Droid named R2-D2, a character
from ‘a galaxy far, far away’ in the Star Wars franchise created by George
Lucas”: 150 4th Ave. N. Tenant, LLC dba WeWork v. Metropolitan Nashville
Board of Zoning Appeals (4 December 2019).
On June 30, 2021, Donald A. Silversides, Q.C., marked the 50th anniversary
of his call to the B.C. bar. Don is the fellow on the cover of the May 2019
issue of this magazine.