Family
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September 23, 2025
Navigating the changing landscape of gift exclusions in family law
Giving gifts to family members has long been part of normal estate and financial planning. In Ontario — and in many other jurisdictions — parents often transfer money or assets, such as shares in a family business, to their children.
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September 22, 2025
Ontario appoints two new judges to provincial court
Attorney General Doug Downey has announced the appointment of two new judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective Sept. 25, 2025: Justice Rachel Elizabeth Young and Justice Ghazala Shaheen Zaman.
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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.
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September 19, 2025
Manitoba investing in relocation of women’s centre
Manitoba’s government is investing in added capacity and additional programming at a newly relocated centre for victims of gender-based violence. The province’s government will be providing $100,000 “for improvements to the new location” of the Western Manitoba Women’s Centre (WMWC).
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September 19, 2025
For the legal profession, some things were better in the not-too-distant past
Can I have a show of hands, please? Who thinks that uploading cases to Case Center five minutes before a motion is to be argued is civil conduct? Is this even a debatable matter? Believe it or not, recently, opposite counsel admonished me for even thinking that such conduct is uncivil. When I dared to complain, I was told not to be so “personal”! Oh, where have we gone wrong?
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September 19, 2025
The Friendly Bar Series, No. 12: This little piggy went to the bar — paths, practice and professionalism
Every lawyer in Ontario remembers their call to the bar. Whether it was in January, June or September, the ceremony is a mixture of ceremony and nerves, family pride and personal relief. The gowns are pressed, the oaths are sworn, and suddenly the profession grows a little larger, a little younger and a little louder.
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September 18, 2025
Business succession: Behold, the powers of attorney
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 18, 2025
B.C. government policy paper recommending major changes to family law legislation
The B.C. government says it is planning to update its family law legislation after issuing a wide-ranging policy intentions paper recommending major changes to address issues like coercive behaviour and parenting arrangements.
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September 17, 2025
CBA offers Parliament ‘better way’ forward to reform beleaguered immigration and refugee system
As parliamentary debate resumed yesterday over the Liberal government’s proposed ad hoc fixes for Canada’s creaky immigration and refugee system, the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) is offering legislators a detailed roadmap for wholesale modernization that charts an effective, fair and constitutionally sound way forward, members of the immigration bar say.
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September 17, 2025
The future of estate law: Human AI prompts for the protection of creative legacies
“Non omnis moriar” (Not all of me will die) — Charles Jennens (1773)