On 31 October 2014, the Federal Court of Appeal (“FCA”) released Forest Ethics Advocacy Assn v Canada (National Energy Board), 2014 FCA 245 [Forest Ethics]. In the decision, Justice Stratas considered an “inseparable triumvirate” of interlocutory decisions by the National Energy Board (“NEB”) related to a proceeding on the approval of the Lin 9B Reversal […]
In Febles v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2014 SCC 68 (“Febles”) the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) made an important ruling with respect to refugee claimants that possess criminal records. Article 1F(b) of the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (“the Convention”), July 28, 1951, [1969] Can. T.S. No 6 and section […]
In Stilwell v World Kitchen Inc, 2014 ONCA 770, the appellants, World Kitchen Inc. ("World Kitchen") and Corning Inc. ("Corning") appealed a jury award of $1,157,850 for negligence relating to product liability. In the result, the Court of Appeal affirmed that a significant degree of deference is owed to civil jury awards.
In Wilson v R, 2013 NBCA 38 [Wilson], the New Brunswick Court of Appeal provides a thoughtful judgment that develops the law of evidence surrounding the criminal standard of proof in judge-alone cases. In a unanimous decision, Richard JA of the Court of Appeal examines the trial judge's reasons, locates a reasoning error previously recognized in judge-and-jury […]
Jian Ghomeshi was fired from CBC on October 26, 2014 after CBC received evidence that he had caused physical injury to a woman. In response, Ghomeshi filed a $55 million lawsuit alleging defamation and breach of confidence against his former employer. He also submitted a union grievance alleging wrongful dismissal and defamation. Many legal experts […]
In Tran v Kerr, 2014 ABCA 350, the Alberta Court of Appeal (“ABCA”) clarified the circumstances under which a lawyer, involved in a fraudulent real estate transaction, is liable for the losses of the ultimate purchaser, a straw buyer. In this case, Kerr was a lawyer who represented the straw buyer, Tran, in addition to other […]
On August 1, 2014, Canada’s highest court released its reasons in Sattva Capital Corp v Creston Moly Corp, 2014 SCC 53, marking an end to a series of long and protracted proceedings intended to be confined to arbitration. The highlight of the decision was the Supreme Court of Canada’s (“SCC”) limitation on the circumstances when […]
On November 7, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) heard oral arguments for the case Her Majesty the Queen, et al v Hussein Jama Nur, et al [Nur] and Her Majesty the Queen, et al v Sidney Charles, et al [Charles] regarding the constitutionality of the section 95 Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46 […]
In R v Hart, 2014 SCC 52 [Hart], the Supreme Court of Canada ("SCC") set out a new framework for the admissibility of confessions elicited during “Mr. Big” operations. (I wrote about the decision in a previous post.) In this post, I will look at the companion decision in R v Mack, 2014 SCC 58 […]
On July 31, 2014, the Federal Court of Appeal ("FCA") released its judgment in X(Re), 2014 FCA 249, largely upholding a Federal Court finding that limited the scope of powers that may be exercised by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service ("CSIS") while carrying out surveillance of Canadians abroad. The matter arose after the Federal Court became aware that CSIS […]