On November 4, 2021, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC” or "the Court”) released the decision of H.M.B. Holdings Ltd. v. Antigua and Barbuda, 2021 SCC 44 [H.M.B. Holdings]. In an increasingly virtual world, it can be difficult to determine whether a company is “carrying on business” in Canada. The SCC considered this issue in […]
The Haldimand Tract is the site of a contentious and ongoing land dispute between the Six Nations of the Grand River (“Six Nations”) and the Canadian government. The Haldimand Treaty of 1784 granted a large parcel of land to Six Nations, including what is now Caledonia and Haldimand County (Justin Chandler, “Broken Promises, Unceded Land”; […]
2021 was a momentous year for the country’s highest court as we bid adieu to the trailblazing Justice Rosalie Abella, retiring after 17 years on the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC” or “the Court”). We witnessed the swearing in of Justice Mahmud Jamal, the first racialized puisne justice to be appointed to the SCC in […]
The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) will revisit the applications of several unsuccessful refugee claimants when it hears Canadian Council for Refugees, et al. v Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, et al, SCC 39749. In doing so, they could make a powerful statement about Canada’s perception of the United States (“U.S.”) as a safe country […]
Can the police target an online community that is known to match interested parties with underage escorts? The Supreme Court’s (“SCC”) latest grants of leave to appeal from R v Haniffa 2021 ONCA 326 [Haniffa] and R v Dare, 2021 ONCA 327 [Dare] will be a welcome advancement to how entrapment is conceptualized in online […]
It has been common practice in Ontario for an owner of a construction project to pass off most or all of the responsibility of following workplace health and safety requirements to a third party hired to direct the project (R v Greater Sudbury (City), 2019 ONSC 3285 [Greater Sudbury], para 34). However, the Ontario Court […]
Introduction The Ontario Court of Appeal [“ONCA”] opens the case of R v Morris, 2021 ONCA 680 [“Morris”] with a revolutionary admission that “it is beyond doubt that anti-Black racism […] continues to be, a reality in Canadian society, and in particular the Greater Toronto Area” (Morris, para 1). The appellate court’s powerful declaration is […]
Families come in all shapes and sizes, and the primary caregivers of a child in a given family aren’t necessarily always the child’s parents. The law, however, has struggled to grasp the diversity of family structures in the context of custody hearings. The Prince Edward Court of Appeal (“PECA”) faced this dilemma in BJT v […]
In Canada v. Canada North Group Inc., 2021 SCC 30 [Canada v CNG], the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) considered whether courts can order a super-priority charge that takes primacy over Her Majesty’s interest under s. 227(4.1) of the Income Tax Act, RSC 1985, c 1 (5th Supp.) [ITA]. The decision turned on robust statutory […]
Content Warning: Sexual assault and intoxication The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) has clarified that capacity is a precondition for consent in sexual assault offences in R v G.F., 2021 SCC 20 [G.F.]. As the two are “inextricably joined,” the majority ruled that trial judges are not required to consider the two issues in any […]