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October 07, 2025
There was a celebratory mood at the opening ceremony for the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2025-26 court year, but Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Sean Fraser and other legal leaders delivered a sober message to the Ottawa courtroom packed with lawyers and judges.
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October 07, 2025
As artificial intelligence (“AI”) and other technologies become increasingly sophisticated, it seems all but certain that success in the future will belong to those practitioners who find a way to incorporate technological advances into their practice.
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October 07, 2025
In a cautionary case for litigation lawyers who use generative artificial intelligence (AI) for court submissions, a Federal Court associate judge recently hit an immigration lawyer with personal costs for submitting two defective AI-generated precedents and for breaching the Federal Court’s requirement to disclose any generative AI use in court filings.
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October 06, 2025
Saskatchewan has brought into force legislative changes that will allow “non-lawyer legal professionals” to deliver certain services to the public — something officials with the province’s law society say will enhance access to justice for “underserved” residents.
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October 06, 2025
In an earlier article in our series on business succession, Murray Gottheil quoted these words from author Leo Tolstoy: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
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October 02, 2025
The federal government is quietly implementing a regulatory framework that should alarm every lawyer in Canada, regardless of practice area. Under the guise of addressing immigration “ghost consultants,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has crafted administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) that grant it unprecedented authority to discipline lawyers — the same lawyers who routinely challenge that department’s decisions in court.
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September 29, 2025
The B.C. Supreme Court has rejected a claim to 25 per cent of the proceeds from a property sale, brought by individuals whose father had been promised a quarter share of the land if it had been successfully subdivided.
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September 26, 2025
On Sept. 25, judges, attorneys general, leaders of law associations and others met for Ontario’s opening of the courts ceremony, discussing various strategies that have been and will be undertaken to improve access to justice. This included digitization and reformation of the Rules of Civil Procedure.
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September 25, 2025
A registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) is structured to allow eligible Canadians to accumulate income tax-free in an account. Withdrawals are taxable but can be made at a relatively low tax rate compared to that paid for investments outside an RRSP. The account is meant to facilitate investment for retirement purposes and considerable tax savings can be realized.
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September 23, 2025
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 19, 2025
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 18, 2025
Once upon a time, I had a client named Jack whose mother had granted him a power of attorney (POA). Some years later, Mom’s capacity became questionable. Jack’s sister, Jill, wanted to have Mom create a new POA in her favour that would terminate Jack’s POA. The future of a family business hung in the balance.
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September 17, 2025
“Non omnis moriar” (Not all of me will die) — Charles Jennens (1773)
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September 17, 2025
In a first for Canada, the University of Toronto’s law school has launched a new program that will look at the evolving legal treatment of pets and animals. The animal law program at U of T’s Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law will offer a comprehensive engagement with the complex legal frameworks surrounding animal rights, welfare and protection.
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September 17, 2025
If every family is dysfunctional, and each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, then to fix them, we need to have more than one tool available. And if the type of thinking that fixes problems is different than the type of thinking which created them, then to work with families on business succession we need to look for solutions in places that the families have not considered.
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September 16, 2025
With MPs back in the capital for the fall, the first two days in the House of Commons were busy ones for legislators. On Sept. 16, 2025, Justice Minister Sean Fraser disclosed some of the Liberal government’s immediate plans and timing for new criminal justice legislation, while Finance and National Revenue Minister François-Philippe Champagne informed the Commons today that he will deliver a somewhat tardy federal budget on Nov. 4, 2025 — not in October, as Liberal House Leader Steven MacKinnon stated when he laid out the minority government’s fall agenda at a press conference the previous day.
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September 15, 2025
In an earlier article, I wrote about taking responsibility for planning for the succession of personal and business affairs and threatened that my wife, Maureen McKay, and I would write subsequent articles to explore this topic.
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September 15, 2025
If a copy of a will is discovered after a person passes away but the original cannot be found, the question that typically arises is whether the copy can be admitted to probate.
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September 12, 2025
My wife, Maureen McKay, is the love of my life, so it is only natural that I want to be sure that she will be well taken care of when I pop off. And since I am now 70 years old and she is quite a bit younger than I am, it only makes sense that I would try to put some things in order to make it easier for her to go shopping when I nod off for the last time.
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September 11, 2025
Lawyers dealing with elder issues face an uncomfortable dynamic when those responsible for seniors take advantage.
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September 10, 2025
The Ontario Bar Association (OBA) has a new leader at its helm. Katy Commisso took over the top job from former president Kathryn Manning at the beginning of September after serving a term as the first vice-president of the OBA, which is the professional association for Ontario's lawyers, judges and law students. She will serve for the 2025-26 term. Commisso, a native of Burlington, Ont., said she did not grow up wanting to be a lawyer.
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September 09, 2025
The Federal Court rejected an insurer’s bid to avoid defending and paying claims from a fatal boating accident, ruling that it was estopped from denying coverage after delaying and taking steps that prejudiced the insured’s access to evidence.
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September 03, 2025
Legal experts, advocacy organizations and prominent Canadians are asking Ottawa to urgently legislate and implement measures to counter the digital risks to Canada’s autonomy and democracy posed by artificial intelligence (AI), foreign interference and U.S. tech giants’ dominance of domestic digital infrastructure.
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September 03, 2025
The Court of Appeal for Ontario’s recent decision in Metske v. Metske, 2025 ONCA 418 provides an important lesson to farming families and their professional advisers: good intentions and family loyalty, while laudable, are no substitute for clear, enforceable agreements. The decision narrows the scope of proprietary estoppel in the agricultural context and underlines the commercial reality that a succession plan must be both documented and financially achievable.
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September 02, 2025
As Manitoba’s law society takes stock of its most recent fiscal year, the regulator’s new president aims to continue the work of minding lawyers’ well-being as part of a new strategic plan. Law Society of Manitoba (LSM) president Kyle Dear recently sat down with Law360 Canada to discuss the recent release of the law society’s 2025 annual report — a 31-page snapshot of the regulator’s latest fiscal year, which ran from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025.