The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) is set to address critical questions regarding mortgage obligations which create issues of estoppel in the appeal [41296] of Patrick Street Holdings Limited v 11368 NL Inc., 2024 NLCA 11 [Patrick Street].The case raises significant issues about the application of estoppel doctrines and stands to have wide-ranging implications for […]
The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) is set to hear an appeal out of the Quebec Court of Appeal (“QCCA”) on where the prescription period for the creditor’s right to seize band property was interrupted by a notice of execution. The SCC will require the parties in Mohawk Council of Kanesatake v. Sylvestre, 2023 QCCA […]
In British Columbia (Attorney General) v Council of Canadians with Disabilities, 2022 SCC 27 [Council of Canadians SCC], the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) clarified how courts should apply the legal test for deciding whether to grant or deny public interest standing. Public interest standing is “an aspect of the law of standing” that “allows individuals […]
The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC” or “The Court”) has modified the threshold of “impecuniosity” where a First Nations government seeks advance cost awards in litigation against the federal or provincial governments. In the unanimous decision of Anderson v Alberta, 2022 SCC 6 [Anderson], the Court determined that a First Nations government which has access […]
If one is engaged in public discourse, are comments that might damage another’s reputation protected? This is the question to be taken up in Glen Hansman v Barry Neufeld, SCC Case No. 39796, and a central concern of anti-SLAPP legislation, which seeks to strike a balance between protecting reputation and the value of rigorous debate. […]
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 […]
UPDATE: The SCC ruled on this case from the bench, allowing the appeal for the reasons of Justice van Rensburg at the Ontario Court of Appeal. How does a patient who suffered an unforeseen injury during surgery prove that their surgeon was negligent? Can the injury itself provide circumstantial evidence that the standard of care […]
The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) will hear Bela Kosoian, a woman arrested in a Quebec subway station for failing to hold an escalator handrail. Leave was granted on Thursday, November 15. I will discuss the background, legal framework, and procedural history of this case – which was recently featured in headlines internationally—before offering some […]
On October 17, 2017, the Ontario Court of Appeal (“ONCA”) released Airia Brands Inc v Air Canada, 2017 ONCA 792 [Airia], an important decision in which the ONCA clarified and restated the test for determining when Ontario courts can assume jurisdiction over class actions involving absent foreign claimants. This decision provided much-needed clarity on the […]
Does an owner of a garage owe a duty of care to teenagers who steal and drive the garage’s serviced cars? On October 5, 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) heard submissions on this unusual question in the case of James Chadwick Rankin cob Rankin’s Garage & Sales v JJ by his Litigation Guardian, […]