Civil Litigation
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September 23, 2025
Getting to ‘yes’: Settlement approvals for persons under disability
No settlement involving a person under disability, which includes the elderly incapable of managing their property and personal care, is binding on that incapable person unless the court approves of the settlement. That is because, while settling disputes before a hearing is encouraged by our judicial system, the legislature also recognizes that the incapable person would not have been able to properly consent to the settlement, and the court ought to review settlement for appropriateness to safeguard the incapable person’s interests.
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September 23, 2025
No benefit of hindsight: Ontario Court of Appeal clarifies framework for rectification
Rectification is an equitable remedy that corrects mistakes in written agreements. The recent case from the Ontario Court of Appeal, Pyxis Real Estate Equities Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2025 ONCA 65, provides an important reminder of how rectification operates in the tax context and the importance of obtaining good tax advice.
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September 22, 2025
Court upholds certification denial for major junior hockey abuse class action as unmanageable
The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld the refusal to certify a class action alleging decades of systemic abuse in major junior hockey, deferring to a motion judge’s conclusion that the case would be unmanageable.
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September 22, 2025
Court orders building demolition over permit, contamination issues
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ordered the demolition of a development due to the company going on with construction despite soil contamination and the lack of a building permit.
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September 22, 2025
Federal regulators warn of privacy, copyright risks from AI-generated media
Canadian regulators are concerned that the rapid spread of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated synthetic media could increase the spread of disinformation and deceptive content, erode privacy and raise issues of copyright ownership and use.
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September 22, 2025
Alberta lawyer loses bid to overturn law society rules
An Alberta lawyer has been dealt a blow in his attempts to get a judicial review of rules and conduct requirements of the provincial law society he says led legal professionals to adopt political objectives.
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September 22, 2025
CIVIL PROCEDURE - Parties - Class or representative actions - Certification - Definition of class
Appeal by Doan from order of Federal Court dismissing her motion to certify the underlying action as a class proceeding. In the underlying action, Doan alleged that Clearview engaged in widespread copyright infringement and violations of moral rights by collecting, copying and storing images of human faces taken in Canada without the consent of the individuals who took the images or who hold copyright and/or moral rights in those images.
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September 22, 2025
Canadian government should abolish immigration detention
A 39-year-old Somali man, Abdurahman Hassan, died at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre in June 2015 after being transferred from the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ont., where he had been restrained by 10 individuals attempting to control him.
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September 19, 2025
SCC rules 5-4 in favour of Toronto homeowners’ adverse possession claim against municipal parkland
In a far-reaching adverse possession judgment that rejects a judge-made immunity for municipal parkland facing matured possessory claims in Ontario, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled 5-4 that two Toronto homeowners own a piece of adjoining municipal parkland that was fenced into their backyard decades ago by the home’s previous owner.
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September 19, 2025
Federal Court rejects non-lawyer representation in Jordan’s principle case involving 250 children
The Federal Court has dismissed a motion in which a non-lawyer sought to represent 250 children. The matter engaged Jordan’s principle in order to provide funding to an organization that offered behavioural services.