Civil Litigation

  • May 05, 2026

    Anti-SLAPP decision clarifies line between ‘public’ and ‘private’ expression

    Ontario courts continue to refine the boundaries of the province’s anti‑SLAPP regime, particularly at the threshold stage where a defendant must show that a proceeding arises from an expression relating to a matter of public interest. While the test is designed to be a modest one, recent decisions demonstrate that its application can still present difficulties where the line between “public” and “private” expression is blurred.

  • May 05, 2026

    NATURAL JUSTICE - Duty of fairness - Procedural fairness

    Appeal by Minister of Education and Child Care (Minister) and the Lieutenant Governor in Council (collectively, Province) from two interlocutory orders. The orders were issued in a judicial review proceeding brought by the former trustees of Board of Education of School District No. 61 (Former Trustees).

  • May 04, 2026

    Court denies leave to appeal for out-of-province subpoenas in class action

    The British Columbia Court of Appeal has rejected a leave to appeal application for non-party subpoenas in a class action relating to prepaid purchase cards.

  • May 04, 2026

    Bill C-223 won’t ‘fix’ relocation law, it’ll distort the burden of proof

    Let’s start with the burdens of proof in the 2021 amendments which I discussed in my October 2025 article (“Bill C-223: Bad ideas on child relocation”). The burdens of proof are intended to give structure to the analysis of the best interests of the child, based upon what we do and don’t know about the impact of relocation upon children.

  • May 04, 2026

    The confluence of AI, intellectual property and estate planning: Preventing calamity

    If part one of this three-part series (see below for link) was the amuse-bouche, this second article is the main course — served with a side of existential dread and a garnish of legal ambiguity. Welcome to the confluence of artificial intelligence, digital replicas and personality rights, where estate planning gets delightfully thorny and occasionally surreal.

  • May 04, 2026

    Negotiation becomes a process game in an AI world

    Lawyers untrained in the science of negotiation might assume that negotiation is a contest of personalities. The better talker, quicker thinker, the more persuasive presence: these are the traits incorrectly associated with strong negotiators.

  • May 04, 2026

    Ontario’s government wants to keep you in the dark: What are they hiding?

    Roughly every four years, voters elect a government and grant it significant powers and responsibilities. But winning an election does not mean one has been given carte blanche to act as they see fit until the next election. Governments must exercise public power in accordance with the Constitution, and voters have the right to know how elected officials are using this power. Ontario’s rushed amendments to freedom of information and privacy laws enacted a few days ago through the government’s Bill 97, Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2026 directly attack both of these fundamental democratic principles.

  • May 04, 2026

    CIVIL PROCEDURE - Striking out pleadings or allegations - Failure to disclose a cause of action or defence - Costs

    Appeal by Strata from a chambers judge’s refusal to strike the respondents’ negligence claim. The underlying litigation concerned disputes over governance of a strata property, including allegations against the 2019 and 2020 Strata Council members relating to conflict of interest issues, lease renewals with Victoria Regent Hotel Ltd., and a 2021 Release.

  • May 01, 2026

    SCC upholds limits on parliamentary privilege of National Security & Intelligence Committee members

    The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected 8-1 a law professor’s constitutional challenge to s. 12 of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) Act, which eliminates all parliamentary privilege immunity claims that might otherwise have been advanced by committee members or ex-members in defending themselves against allegations that they improperly disclosed information obtained through their role on the statutory committee that oversees Canada’s national security and intelligence apparatus.

  • May 01, 2026

    Law delaying redrawing of Quebec voting boundaries an infringement of voting rights: SCC

    The Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed there was an unjustified infringement on Quebec residents’ voting rights due to a law that interrupts the process of determining electoral boundaries.