In-House Counsel

  • September 03, 2026

    Ottawa rolls out ‘national framework’ aimed at guiding the building of data centres in Canada

    Ottawa has unveiled what it calls “a nationally recognized baseline” of five principles — backed by major U.S. and Canadian artificial intelligence and other technology industry players — to help municipal governments and communities assess proposals to build AI data centres in their localities.

  • September 03, 2026

    Employers’ association calls for Canada Labour Code changes

    The association Federally Regulated Employers – Transportation and Communications (FETCO) said it is urging the federal government to quickly make amendments to the Canada Labour Code provisions relating to collective bargaining in light of the U.S. trade dispute.

  • September 03, 2026

    Roland Hung named chair of Torkin Manes’ privacy and cybersecurity group

    Torkin Manes has named Roland Hung chair of its Privacy, Data & Cybersecurity Group in Toronto.

  • September 03, 2026

    Closing the loopholes: The HEAR Act of 2025 and the battle for merits-based art restitution

    In the early years of art restitution, after the signing of the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art in 1998, several museums in the United States launched pre-emptive strikes against claimants of looted artworks who expressed an interest in discussing or resolving their claim. Examples include the Toledo Museum of Art v. Ullin, 477 F. Supp. 2d 802 (N.D. Ohio 2006); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston v. Seger-Thomschitz, 623 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2010) and The Museum of Modern Art v. Schoeps, 549 F. Supp. 2d 543 (S.D.N.Y. 2008). The first two cases were dismissed in favour of the museums and in the latter case an out-of-court settlement was reached.

  • September 02, 2026

    B.C. Court of Appeal adopts open-access legal citation guide

    The B.C. Court of Appeal has issued a practice directive adopting the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide (COAL), a free, publicly accessible legal citation guide, as its preferred method for civil and criminal filings in an effort to advance access to justice.

  • September 02, 2026

    Ottawa extends temporary excise tax relief on gasoline, diesel & aviation fuels to next year

    To help address Canadians' rising costs from global oil disruptions and U.S. tariffs, the federal government has extended to next year its temporary suspension of the federal fuel excise tax on gasoline, diesel fuel, and aviation fuel, including leaded and unleaded aviation gasoline.

  • September 02, 2026

    SOCAN sues AI music platform Suno over allegedly infringing music outputs

    Canada’s largest member-owned music rights organization, SOCAN, has filed a lawsuit against Suno Inc., alleging that its AI music-generation platform generated and streamed outputs that copy songs in SOCAN’s repertoire, infringing the performing rights in those works.

  • September 02, 2026

    When the estate freeze thaws: Familial breakdown, minority oppression and judicial remedies

    An estate freeze puts tax liabilities on ice, but heated family dynamics can melt away the tax benefits of the freeze.

  • September 02, 2026

    Geo-blocking, copyright and the right to make works available online

    In Anne Franks Fonds v. Anne Frank Stichting Case C-788/24, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the highest court of the EU, considered the right to make a work available on a website and the impact of technical protection measures implemented to restrict access to the work. The decision should be helpful to online content providers.

  • September 02, 2026

    How escalation actually works under Canada’s anti-money-laundering penalty regime

    One provision of Canada’s anti-money-laundering penalty regime is quoted more often than it is read. Section 4(2) of the Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulation provides that a series of minor violations identified on a notice of violation “shall be considered to be a serious violation” where the penalties total $400,000 or more. That sentence has appeared, in substantially that form, in law firm bulletins, compliance explainers and vendor guides published since the regime was overhauled in March 2026.