The COVID-19 pandemic has shocked the country in its revelation of the systemic frailties plaguing Canada’s long-term care (“LTC”) system. Individuals over the age of 70 have made up almost 90% of the country’s deaths from COVID-19, and in the first wave of the pandemic, deaths in Canadian LTC facilities accounted for 80% of the […]
The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC” or “the Court”) decided a major case on lawyer civility in June 2018 in Groia v Law Society of Upper Canada 2018, SCC 27 [Groia]. The case revolved around a Law Society disciplinary hearing decision from 2013 that would have seen Toronto securities litigator Joseph Groia (Groia) fined and […]
On January 17, 2017, the Divisional Court at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled on College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario v Peirovy, 2017 ONSC 136 [Peirovy], creating questions about the degree of deference courts should afford to disciplinary committees in self-governing professions. Peirovy has since been granted to leave to the Ontario […]
Newspapers once again find themselves on the losing side of libel suits. On July 13, 2010, in Flood v. Times Newspaper Ltd. [2010] EWCA Civ 804 (“Flood”), the England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) (“EWCA”) overturned the trial decision and held that a newspaper was unable to claim qualified privilege for online reporting […]
On April 7, 2010 the Ontario Court of Appeal (“OCA”) revisited the “thin skull” principle in Frazer v Dr. Haukioja, 2010 ONCA 249 [Haukioja]. The court decided issues related to medical professionalism after Grant Frazer took a vicious spill on his motorcycle and broke his ankle. The following action against his physician, Dr. Haukioja, resulted in […]
Limits of journalistic press freedom for qualified-privilege and fair comment are hotly debated in jurisdictions around the world as courts try to balance the public interest in freedom of information with private reputational interests battling defamation. Last year, TheCourt covered Grant v. Torstar Corp., 2009 SCC 61 ("Torstar Corp."), a decision that ranked as the top […]
On February 2 the Ontario Court of Appeal ("ONCA") rendered its decision in Leering v College of Chiropractors of Ontario, 2010 ONCA 87 [Leering], a professional ethics/discipline case concerning the stiff prohibition on sexual relations between medical professionals and their patients.