Gay Marriage Blame Game In a very quick turn of events, the same sex marriage debate closed just about as quickly as it was reopened last week. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a legal argument stating that a lesbian couple who married in Canada in 2004 could not get the divorce they were seeking […]
The patentability of business methods has been a major source of controversy in Canadian patent law. While the Federal Court of Appeal ("FCA") had the opportunity to clarify the patentability of business methods in Canada (Attorney General) v Amazon.com, Inc, 2011 FCA 328, it left many questions unanswered, only affirming that business methods were not […]
If you’ve read a newspaper in the past two months, you’ll know that Canada’s right-to-die debate has come back to life. Leading the revival is B.C. resident Gloria Taylor, a 63-year-old grandmother - and reported motorcycle enthusiast - who was diagnosed with ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2009. As is often the case for […]
Only two weeks into the New Year, 2012 is already shaping up to be a watershed year for corporate citizenship in Canada. This week, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice will hear the case of the biggest corporate flameout in Canadian history, starring Nortel Networks Corp [Nortel]. Pre-trial motions started last week in the criminal […]
In the Supreme Court of Canada’s ("SCC") recent opinion on the federal government’s proposed Securities Act, the Court held that the proposed Act was not a valid exercise of federal power under the general branch of the trade and commerce power in section 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867 (see Reference Re Securities Act, 2011 SCC […]
The Supreme Court recently released its opinion on the federal government’s proposed Securities Act, deciding that the proposal is not a valid exercise of federal power under the general branch of the trade and commerce power (see Reference re Securities Act, 2011 SCC 66). Rather than rejecting the idea of a national securities regulator per […]
When deciding cases relating to tax planning - or the minimization of a taxpayer’s tax burden - judges face the daunting task of reconciling a tension between longstanding common law principles and s. 245 of the Income Tax Act, RSC 1985, c.1, the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR). On the one hand, Lord Tomlin’s holding in […]
In November of last year, Justice Binnie, for a unanimous Supreme Court of Canada, denied an appeal brought by the Lax Kw’alaams First Nations, along with other First Nations groups “whose ancestral lands stretch along the northwest coast of British Columbia between the estuaries of the Nass and lower Skeena Rivers” (see Lax Kw'alaams Indian […]
On Christmas Eve in 2001, a car crash left Robert Kusnierz with numerous injuries, the most serious of which required the amputation of his left leg below the knee. Kusnierz sues his insurer, Economical Mutual Insurance Company, for a declaration that he sustained a “catastrophic impairment” under clause 2(1.1)(f) of the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule – […]