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May 04, 2026
Lawyers untrained in the science of negotiation might assume that negotiation is a contest of personalities. The better talker, quicker thinker, the more persuasive presence: these are the traits incorrectly associated with strong negotiators.
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May 04, 2026
First-year property law, 1988. Two hundred students. I could feel the energy in the room of young people excited to have made it into UBC law school. Professor Tod enters and slams the door. Walks over to the podium and scans the room while saying, “All title is vested in the Crown.” I felt like he was looking directly at me or even searching for visibly First Nation students as if to say, “We will not be tolerating any uppity Indians in this course!”
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May 01, 2026
In Canada, privilege protections are analogous but termed differently. Solicitor-client privilege safeguards confidential communications between a client and lawyer (or agents) made for obtaining or giving legal advice. Litigation privilege covers documents created predominantly for anticipated or ongoing litigation, including third-party inputs if directed toward that purpose. Both require intent to maintain confidentiality and reasonable steps to do so.
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May 01, 2026
For years, cybersecurity in Canada’s defence sector was largely a matter of self-declaration. That changed on April 14, 2026, when the Government of Canada officially introduced Level 1 of the Canadian Program for Cyber Security Certification (CPCSC). Mandatory requirements take effect in select defence contracts starting summer 2026. Suppliers that can’t demonstrate compliance at contract award risk losing work they’ve already won.
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May 01, 2026
Heralding a significant shift in the Canadian legal landscape, the British Columbia Supreme Court has rejected the legal profession’s constitutional challenge to the B.C. Legal Professions Act — legislation that would end more than 150 years of lawyer self-governance and self-regulation by benchers elected from the provincial bar.
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May 01, 2026
On April 2, Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks released proposed amendments to various producer responsibility regulations under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016. Comments on the proposed amendments can be submitted via the Environmental Registry of Ontario until May 2.
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April 30, 2026
The Ontario Court of Appeal has allowed a mine operator to pay disputed royalty funds into court, overturning a ruling that found no adverse claims to support interpleader relief amid a battle for control of the owner of the mining rights.
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April 30, 2026
Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced a new measure called Team Canada Strong, a $6-billion nationwide effort to “recruit, train and hire 80,000 to 100,000 new Red Seal trades workers in the next five years.”
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April 30, 2026
Death, as it turns out, is not the end of the revenue stream. If anything, it may be the beginning of a particularly vigorous second act. Consider the perennial earners on Forbes’ list of highest-paid dead celebrities: Michael Jackson still moonwalks to the bank, Dr. Seuss continues to rhyme his way into licensing deals, Richard Wright and Syd Barrett echo through classic rock royalties, and the Notorious B.I.G. remains, well, notorious — and profitable. The moral? Mortality is inevitable; monetization, apparently, is optional but highly recommended.
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April 30, 2026
Increasingly, U.S. government entities appear to be utilizing technology to screen visa and other immigration benefit applicants. In some cases, this has become very public and transparent. For example, most people are aware that phones and other electronic devices can be screened when coming into the United States.
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April 30, 2026
Artificial intelligence (AI) and associated algorithms increasingly underpin routine business functions and often form part of a company’s product or service offering. In June 2025, Microsoft found that 71 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) surveyed were actively using AI or generative AI for core operations; among digital-native firms, the rate reached 90 per cent. Behind the scenes, AI models are responsible for making material business decisions, running equipment and offering services to third parties — including health care decisions, dynamic pricing, forecasting, supply chain optimization, customer chats and routing, applicant screening, identity validation, fraud detection and marketing campaigns.
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April 29, 2026
The Ontario Court of Appeal has granted a township’s motion for a stay of an order forcing it to issue a fill permit, ruling that denying the stay could render the municipality’s appeal moot.
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April 29, 2026
B.C.’s attorney general is calling on Ottawa to take immediate action to protect the public — and especially young people — from online harm. In a letter addressed to the federal ministers responsible for AI and Canadian Heritage, B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma says Ottawa should bring in online harms legislation that sets minimum safety standards for youth using the internet as soon as possible.
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April 29, 2026
On April 2, 2026, Bill 9, An Act respecting the reinforcement of laicity in Québec became law. While much of the public discussion has focused on the public sector implications, private sector employers should pay close attention: the legislation enacts a new Law promoting social cohesion and regulating accommodations for religious reasons (Loi favorisant le vivre-ensemble et encadrant les accommodements pour un motif religieux) that directly applies to them and fundamentally changes the rules governing religious accommodation in the workplace.
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April 29, 2026
Cyberattacks during M&A can quietly erode value, create regulatory exposure and derail integration. Here’s what Canadian buyers, investors and boards should demand from cyber and privacy due diligence.
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April 28, 2026
The Carney government says it plans to make it a criminal offence to operate a cryptocurrency automated teller machine (ATM) and that it will push ahead with controversial amendments to enable “law enforcement” to search and seize mail.
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April 28, 2026
In my last article, I wrote about visualization in law. But visualization is not limited to diagrams or tables. Text itself is visual, and its organization can improve reader engagement and comprehension. This is typography.
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April 28, 2026
Maintaining complete and accurate patient health records is a core responsibility of all regulated health professionals in Ontario. Beyond documenting what occurred during an appointment and supporting continuity of care, proper recordkeeping is both a legal and professional obligation. Failure to meet these standards can result in serious regulatory, employment and financial consequences.
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April 27, 2026
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have been working on modernizing food regulation and have made significant changes throughout 2025 and early 2026. This article outlines key updates to food additive, enzyme and supplement approvals and ingredient and labelling requirements.
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April 24, 2026
The Federal Court has upheld a decision allowing a plaintiff to amend its pleading despite breaching a litigation undertaking, emphasizing that the remedy for such a breach is discretionary.
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April 24, 2026
The Ontario government has fast-tracked legislation through the provincial legislature that makes significant changes to the province’s freedom of information (FOI) laws, a move observers are calling “undemocratic” and dangerous.
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April 24, 2026
On April 2, the British Columbia Court of Appeal released a landmark ruling in Nuchatlaht v. British Columbia, 2026 BCCA 137. The court granted the Nuchatlaht Aboriginal title to the entirety of the area claimed in the case — approximately 210 square kilometres of Nootka Island off the west coast of Vancouver Island.
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April 24, 2026
Requests for medical information often sit at the centre of workplace accommodation disputes. Employers need enough information to understand an employee’s limitations and determine whether accommodation is possible. At the same time, medical information is highly private, and arbitration boards are careful to ensure that requests do not go further than necessary.
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April 23, 2026
Organizations across Canada are increasingly turning to anonymization as a way to extract value from data while managing privacy risk. Done correctly, anonymization can place a dataset outside the reach of Canada’s private-sector privacy legislation, freeing organizations to use the data for analytics, product development and operational purposes without the obligations that would otherwise govern the handling of personal information.
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April 23, 2026
In corporate structures, the company is its own legal person, with its own assets, liabilities and rights of action. That separation is what gives shareholders the benefit of limited liability, but it also means they cannot simply step into the corporation’s shoes when something goes wrong.