Civil Procedure

To Disclose or Not to Disclose: SCC Grants Leave in Transportation Safety Board of Canada v Kathleen Carroll-Byrne, et al.

In Canada (Transportation Safety Board) v Carroll-Byrne, 2021 NSCA 34 [Carroll-Byrne], the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (“the Board”) sought to appeal the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia’s (“NSSC”) interlocutory decision (Carroll-Byrne v Air Canada, 2019 NSSC 339 [Air Canada]) to allow the conditional release of the contents of the cockpit voice recorder (“CVR”) of […]

A New Standard for the Limitations Clock in Grant Thornton LLP v. New Brunswick

For novice and expert lawyers alike, the rules surrounding limitation of actions can be confusing. Generally, statutes of limitation across Canada limit the commencement of claims to within two years of discovering the claim. However, the question of what it means for a claim to be discovered, and whether common law rules of discoverability should […]

SCC Grants Leave to Appeal for Beaver Lake Cree Nation’s Advanced Legal Cost Claim in Anderson v Alberta (Attorney General)

In the last three decades, Indigenous nations have increasingly chosen to address systemic injustices facing their communities through litigation. However, as many Aboriginal law cases are complex and novel in nature, Indigenous nations had to bear the associated legal fees as the cases moved through Canadian courts. Anderson v Alberta (Attorney General), 2020 ABCA 238 […]

Transnational Canadian Corporations Can Be Liable Under Customary International Law For Human Rights Abuses: The Phoenix Flies in Nevsun v Araya

Content warning: mention of slavery, torture, false confinement, murder, and rape Can Canadian courts adjudicate international human rights violations committed by Canadian companies abroad? Usually, the spectre of limited corporate liability within an asymmetrical transnational legal regime precludes this and allows such abuses to continue. However, in an unprecedented decision released in February 2020, a […]

1704604 Ontario Ltd. v Pointes Protection Association: SCC Has its Say on Anti-SLAPP Legislation

The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC” or “the Court”) in early September  released its much-anticipated decisions in 1704604 Ontario Ltd. v Pointes Protection Association, 2020 SCC 22 [Pointes] and Bent v Platnick, 2020 SCC 23 [Bent]. In Pointes and Bent, the Court was tasked with interpreting s. 137.1 of the Ontario Courts of Justice Act, […]

SCC Grants Leave to Appeal for Sealing Order in Sherman Estate

The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) recently granted leave to appeal in the Sherman Estate’s legal battle to keep its probate application private. The appeal will provide the court with an opportunity to revisit the stringent legal test for sealing orders, an issue that has gone largely undiscussed for nearly two decades. Sealing orders, which […]

A Valid Arbitration Agreement is a Valid Arbitration Agreement

Consumers sign contracts to gain access to all kinds of goods and services, such as credit cards, cell-phone service, and internet. Increasingly, sellers and suppliers are putting arbitration clauses into these contracts, requiring buyers to resolve their disputes through arbitration. This is not necessarily because sellers are enamoured with the virtues of arbitration. Instead, they […]

The Corporate Veil Comes at a Cost: Shareholder Claims Against Third-Parties

In Brunette v Legault Joly Thiffault, 2018 SCC 55 [Brunette], the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) clarified a long-standing rule that bars shareholders from bringing a cause of action against a third party for faults committed against a corporation in which they hold shares. In doing so, the Court also reconciled corporate law principles from […]

Lost in Translation: Language Rights in Federal Courts

As the two official languages of Canada, French and English form the bedrock of our legal system, and their usage is a constitutionally protected right found in both the Constitution Act, 1867 (“Constitution”) and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“Charter”). With such a high level of recognition and protection, one might assume the […]

Vancouver Airport Authority v Commissioner of Competition: “Public Interest” Privilege Comes Crashing Down to Earth

“Privilege” is a common-law doctrine that prevents the compulsory disclosure of documents or information that is against the public interest. As Justice L’Heureux-Dubé explains: The doctrine of privilege acts as an exception to the truth-finding process of our adversarial trial procedure. Although all relevant information is presumptively admissible at trial, some probative and trustworthy evidence […]