In-House Counsel

  • July 30, 2026

    Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program reset: Applicant pathways, employer-led workforce selection

    Ontario has entered a new phase in provincial immigration. In June 2026, the province amended the regulations governing the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program, closed the former stream structure, and introduced the Ontario Workforce Priority stream as the first phase of a broader redesign intended to align nominations more closely with labour-market demand, employer retention needs and program integrity.

  • July 30, 2026

    A bird’s chirp: Donald Trump’s most recent Canadian tariff

    George Santayana’s famous bon mot “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is part of a longer passage that is particularly relevant to President Donald Trump’s bizarre conclusion that bad forestry practices in Manitoba should be met with a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian exports to the U.S., to be paid primarily by American importers and consumers.

  • July 29, 2026

    Court grants permanent injunction against company for illegal sale of injectable peptides

    Health Canada has been granted a permanent injunction against Canlab Research and its representatives that prevents the company from selling unauthorized injectable peptides in Canada.

  • July 29, 2026

    Who controls the chatbot? Bill C-34’s answer depends on how the service is built

    Bill C-34, An Act to enact the Digital Safety Act and the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, introduced in the House of Commons on June 10, 2026, proposes to regulate certain chatbot services not only for what they say, but for how they behave across sustained interactions with users.

  • July 28, 2026

    What’s in a text? Ironstone v. VPI and the perils of casual promises

    In early 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the globe scrambled to procure large quantities of personal protective equipment (PPE). Sourcing the equipment proved challenging; like the countries in the PPE rush, manufacturers were utterly unprepared for the size and scale of the orders they received, with impossibly short turnaround times.

  • July 27, 2026

    All flash, no cash: Being confident in the legal profession

    There was once a law firm with a corporate department consisting of a law clerk and one absolutely awful senior corporate lawyer who I will call Carl. Carl was smart. He just had no practice management skills. He was a cluster-fuzz of negligence claims, just waiting to blow up.

  • July 27, 2026

    Major changes coming to federal privacy oversight

    On June 15, the federal government tabled its long-awaited, updated privacy reform law, Bill C-36, the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act (PPCDA). The bill, together with the government’s proposed new online harms legislation, Bill C-34, can be seen as setting forth some specifics onto the generalities of its national AI strategy, “AI for All,” announced June 4.

  • July 24, 2026

    From Wallace to Wilsher: Is there still a role for notice period extensions?

    The law governing damages arising from the manner of dismissal appeared to be settled nearly two decades ago. In Honda Canada Inc. v. Keays, 2008 SCC 39 (Honda), the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the approach that had developed under Wallace v. United Grain Growers Ltd., (c.o.b. Public Press), [1997] 3 S.C.R. 701 (Wallace), and replaced it with a framework focused on “actual damages.” Under Honda, damages flowing from an employer’s bad faith conduct in the manner of dismissal were to be assessed according to the same principles and in the same way as moral damages rather than through an extension of the employee’s notice period.

  • July 24, 2026

    Feds launch public consultation to strengthen AI transparency

    On July 23, the federal government launched a public consultation “seeking views on how to strengthen transparency for AI systems and AI-generated outputs.”

  • July 23, 2026

    Ottawa seeks comments on wide-ranging package of draft tax proposals

    Ottawa is seeking public comments on a package of draft tax proposals, including an amendment that would reinstate accelerated capital cost allowances for eligible liquefied natural gas (LNG) equipment and related buildings at low-carbon LNG facilities.