Last month, the Federal Court of Appeal, in Antle v Canada, 2010 FCA 280 [Antle 2010], upheld the Tax Court of Canada decision in Antle v. The Queen, 2009 TCC 465 [Antle 2009], finding that an offshore spousal trust was not valid. Both courts agreed that the primary purpose of the spousal trust was to […]
The Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") has granted leave to appeal in R v Bacon, 2010 BCCA 135, a case in which an accused British Columbia man says that his Charter rights were violated by police who found drugs and weapons in his house and car. The decision will be of significance as it will […]
New and Improved: Recent Canadian Law Firm Mergers Recent weeks have seen two major mergers involving Canadian firms. First, Lang Michener LLP merged with McMillan LLP in a move creating a new national heavyweight. One week later, Montreal-based Ogilvy Renault LLP merged with Britain’s Norton Rose LLP, turning the firm into what is arguably Canada’s […]
The Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") has released its decision in NIL/TU,O Child and Family Services Society v BC Government and Service Employees' Union, [2010] 2 SCR 696 [NIL/TU,O]. TheCourt.ca had first brought the British Columbia Court of Appeal case to light nearly two years ago here. In its judgment, released November 4, the SCC re-visited the test […]
The assertion of Crown sovereignty is a question that has never been resolved in Canadian constitutional jurisprudence. The mindset of original settlers was that Aboriginal peoples did not count as inhabitants of the land, so discovery applied in order to assert sovereignty. As Canada moves to an era of equality of all peoples, ignoring a […]
As someone who came of age in the late 1990s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the past decade was always omnipresent. No sexual education class was complete without a candid discussion about HIV transmission, and the importance of practicing safe sex. But even though HIV was always a part of the conversation, I frankly felt a […]
On September 22, 2010, Toronto Police Constable Adam Josephs launched a lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court: Adam Josephs v. YouTube et. al (2010) CV-10-410890 (Ont. Sup. Ct.) (“Josephs v. YouTube”). In the suit, Constable Josephs sues video sharing website YouTube for $1.25 million. He seeks damages for defamation of his reputation and disclosure of […]
Airport Security: The Bigger Picture The defining characteristic of liberal democracies is, of course, the respect they ascribe to individuals as rights bearers, chief amongst which is often a right to autonomy or some degree of privacy. Obviously, however, liberal democracies also face challenges to national security. Given the significance we attribute to both individual […]
Fair is foul, and foul is fair: an overview The latest development in the David and Goliath saga that is The Canadian Government v Alan N Young is as intriguing as always, yet also somewhat disheartening. It pits Osgoode Hall’s venerable criminal law professor in his role as Co-Founder/Director of the Innocence Project, an organization […]
The pressing need to modernize the federal Bank Act, SC 1991, c 46 [Bank Act] was recently highlighted in the Supreme Court of Canada’s ("SCC") decision in Bank of Montreal v Innovation Credit Union, [2010] 3 SCR 3. In this case, the SCC was forced to engage in legal acrobatics in order to remedy a legislative […]