Family
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July 07, 2025
A common mistake in statutory interpretation
In the training that I deliver on statutory interpretation, I caution against relying on prior interpretations of a statutory provision or a related provision without first doing your own interpretive analysis of the provision. In Pepa v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2025 SCC 21, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned a tribunal decision that made this mistake.
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July 04, 2025
High-conflict divorce drives up legal costs unnecessarily
While high-conflict family law trials are not the norm, they continue to overwhelm the justice system in numbers that seem to be escalating. J.P. v. K.S., 2025 BCCA 112 is such a case.
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June 30, 2025
Saskatchewan furthering commitment to national plan tackling gender-based violence
Saskatchewan is providing more than half a million dollars to several initiatives as part of the province’s ongoing rollout of a national plan to eradicate gender-based violence — with a chunk of the funds going toward an event promoting the “exchange of ideas” between lawyers, law enforcement and advocates.
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June 30, 2025
Alcohol-related driving offences in Canada: Immigration risks and visa application challenges
Canada’s impaired driving laws are among the strictest in the world for the threshold of blood alcohol concentration that can trigger criminal inadmissibility under our justice and immigration laws. The legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) threshold for impaired driving is 0.08 per cent and has significant and potentially harsh consequences for both permanent residence holders and temporary immigration applicants. A single conviction for impaired driving under the Criminal Code is treated as “serious criminality” rendering an applicant inadmissible to Canada under Canadian immigration law.
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June 30, 2025
Saskatchewan regulator’s 2024 report highlights mental health, AI, competency
Saskatchewan’s legal regulator was active last year in continuing its goals of increasing competency, minding members’ mental health and guiding lawyers in the use of artificial intelligence. The Law Society of Saskatchewan (LSS) laid out progress in these areas and others as part of its recently released annual report for 2024.
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June 30, 2025
Can Clare’s Law protect women from abuse?
The first Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, better known as Clare’s Law, was passed in England and Wales in 2014. Named for Clare Wood, who was killed by her abusive former boyfriend, it provides a way for potential victims of intimate partner violence to find out whether their partner has a history of such violence.
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June 27, 2025
SCC clarifies appeal right from removal orders in immigration judicial review case
In an immigration and statutory interpretation decision that sheds light on administrative law and how to analyze reasonableness in judicial review cases, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that foreign nationals may appeal removal orders to the Immigration and Refugee Board’s Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) if their visas were current on arrival in Canada, even if their visas expire after their arrival here.
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June 27, 2025
B.C. Court of Appeal increases damages award to parents who lost son, citing potential contributions
The B.C. Court of Appeal has increased damages awarded to parents who lost their 17-year-old son in a car accident to include compensation for the unpaid work their son was likely to undertake during his university years.
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June 27, 2025
Justice Leslie Dellapinna retires from N.S. Supreme Court
The Honourable Leslie J. Dellapinna is retiring from the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia (Family Division) after more than 24 years on the bench.
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June 27, 2025
Ontario Divisional Court confuses relocation law
In Diallo v. Bah, 2025 ONSC 2106, released May 28, the Ontario Divisional Court has undercut, or possibly even overruled, a long-standing precedent for the resolution of interim or temporary relocation cases. Said Justice Harriet Sachs for the court: “The factors set out in Plumley, which was decided in 2014, have been overtaken by the amendments to the Divorce Act. The reasoning in Barendregt makes this clear.”