On December 15th, 2017, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, will retire after a long and historic career. Along with the task of selecting a new Supreme Court Justice to fill the vacancy, the Prime Minister will be required to appoint McLachlin’s successor as the new Chief Justice. This […]
On July 13, 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada released Wilson v Alharayeri, 2017 SCC 39 [Wilson], in which it unanimously reaffirmed that a corporation’s directors, as opposed to the corporation, may be personally liable in an oppressive action. This provided much-needed clarity on the scope of potential personal liability of directors and officers under […]
In June 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada (“the SCC”) ruled in R v Bradshaw that the test for using corroborative evidence to establish substantive reliability of hearsay evidence is a strict one. If it is being used to establish the reliability of a hearsay statement, the corroborative evidence must (a) go to the material […]
In Tran v Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness) 2017 SCC 50 [Tran], the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) applied principles of statutory interpretation to answer two questions: First, does a ‘term of imprisonment’ under section 36(1)(a) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, SC 2011, c 27 [IRPA] include conditional sentences? Second, is the […]
When parties sign a contract, they have usually settled on an agreement that they find to be mutually beneficial, and are therefore happy to do business with one another. However, issues can arise when parties jump headfirst into an agreement without consideration for how to terminate it. For some contracts, such as a one-time sale […]
After the underdog Ecuadorians’ victory in Chevron Corp v Yaiguaje, 2015 SCC 42, which established that judgements against foreign corporations can be enforced against Canadian subsidiaries, the Goliath Chevron Corporation has struck back with a potentially debilitating blow to the Ecuadorians seeking enforcement of their $9.5 billion award with a motion for security costs. A […]
On October 13th, The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) heard arguments (and subsequently made a decision) in R v Bourgeois, 2017 SCC 49 [Bourgeois], an as of right appeal dealing with the circumstances in which it is justified for an appellate court to intervene and declare a trial decision an unreasonable verdict pursuant to section […]
Every so often, a legal dispute--not (yet) at the Supreme Court, but winding its way through the system--captures the attention of the Canadian public. When this happens, it is not because of the specific legal issue posed and addressed (although obviously this is a component), but because the specific facts of the case attract a […]
The Supreme Court of Canada (the SCC) has long recognized the utility of aspirational values in better understanding the substantive rights guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
This is the first of a two-part post outlining the constitutional issues in R v Gerard Comeau, an interprovincial trade case to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada on 6 - 7 December 2017. In anticipation of the hearing, the posts offer a brief overview and analysis of the constitutional issues likely to be […]