September 28, 2026
Ask any lawyer to name the most important advocacy tools and you will hear their checklist — knowing the law, skillfully drafting documents, studiously preparing for hearings and delivering forceful oratory. Almost no lawyer mentions that staying silent, pausing before speaking and delivering a relational message are the most important advocacy tools.
September 28, 2026
Section 84.1 of the Income Tax Act, the intergenerational transfer rules, has since 2024 contained a working exception for sales of a private company to a child’s corporation. Paragraph 84.1(2)(e) deems the vendor and the purchaser corporation to deal at arm’s length where the conditions of either ss. 84.1(2.31) or (2.32) are met, which switches off the deemed dividend and leaves the vendor with a capital gain eligible for the lifetime capital gains exemption — $1,275,000 for 2026. The conditions are not tax conditions. They are a statutory description of a vendor who has left the business, and the vendor’s counsel, not the accountant, is the one who has to make the client match it.
September 28, 2026
On Aug. 5, 2026, the Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) released two survey reports as part of its ongoing review of protection orders in the province. One surveyed 80 people with lived experience of the system. The other surveyed 257 legal and social service professionals who work inside it.
September 28, 2026
Brynne Thomas and Sian Shin have returned to Epstein Cole as associates in Toronto after previously working with the firm as summer and articling students.
September 28, 2026
Alberta has announced four judicial appointments, including one applications judge to the Court of King’s Bench and three justices to the Alberta Court of Justice.
September 25, 2026
Supreme Court of Canada Justice Suzanne Côté has significantly impacted the top court’s jurisprudence and culture since her appointment almost 12 years ago, says University of Alberta constitutional law professor Gerard Kennedy.
September 25, 2026
Supreme Court of Canada Justice Suzanne Côté is thinking about what life after the bench might look like, she tells Law360 Canada. The court’s impactful and most prolific judge, who turned 68 this week with no apparent loss of drive or energy, says she is healthy and still loves the work that has earned her a reputation as a trailblazer and original thinker.
September 25, 2026
An Alberta Court of Appeal decision illustrates the discretion available to a sentencing judge under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in determining how to consider a young offender’s pre-sentence custody (R. v. I.A., 2026 ABCA 298).
September 25, 2026
In 2024, British Columbia took a seismic step away from treating family pets as ordinary property under the law when couples separate. Amendments to B.C.'s Family Law Act took effect on Jan.15, 2024 and introduced specific factors that courts must consider when determining which spouse should be granted ownership or possession of the family's companion animal. (See: B.C. Gov News.)
September 25, 2026
Shelley-Anne Stacey and William Vey lived together for three and a half years. They never married and had no children. The Appeal Court determined that the uncontroverted evidence was that there was a brief relationship that was not stable, with no children or common family obligations. Stacey moved into Vey’s Richmond Hill, Ont., home in July 2015. Two years later, Vey sold the home and the couple moved into a new home in Alliston, 90 kilometres north of Toronto.