In-House Counsel
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March 16, 2026
Supreme Court of Canada’s surreal reasoning in Case and Loyer
When a person tells you, “I had a dream last night,” most people understand exactly what that means. The speaker is about to recount the swirl of mental imagery, sounds and emotions experienced during sleep. The story of missing a train, falling from the sky or walking into a classroom naked is not understood as a report of reality but as an account of imagination. Dreams are, almost by definition, the mind untethered from the ordinary constraints of perception and memory. The Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí described dreams as “hand-painted dream photographs.”
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March 16, 2026
Employers ignore mental health issues at their peril
Employers who think they are being clever by rushing to dismiss an employee, or quickly accepting a resignation before the employee explicitly raises mental health accommodation, often create liability for themselves.
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March 16, 2026
How I learned to stop worrying and love the bot
Over the past several decades, law became intertwined with numerous technologies that we simply incorporated into our workflow. We anticipate more creative destruction with generative AI, but with AI, we look into the mirror and sense the mirror looks back. Something more seems to exist than just the simple context window interface, and we tend to anthropomorphize. If all Roomba owners put googly eyes on their machine, most would believe the little guy was truly alive.
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March 13, 2026
Feds reboot new police powers, obligations to give police & CSIS ‘lawful access’ to digital data
Following public outcry and stiff political opposition to its sweeping “strong borders” omnibus bill (Bill C-2), the minority Liberal government has migrated the expanded “lawful access” powers and new obligations for electronic service providers to assist police and CSIS investigators from C-2 into standalone legislation (Bill C-22).
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March 13, 2026
Cross-border clarity: How U.S. franchise reform could affect Canadian brands
The American Franchise Act (AFA), a bipartisan bill currently moving through U.S. Congress, could help bring clarity to franchising as a business model, with implications for Canadian operators.
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March 12, 2026
B.C. ban on arbitration clauses in consumer contracts is retrospective, not retroactive: court
The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled that amendments to the province’s Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (BPCPA) banning arbitration clauses in consumer contracts do not apply retroactively, upholding a stay of proceedings against Rogers Communications Canada Inc. in favour of arbitration.
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March 12, 2026
Health Canada adds five fentanyl precursors to list of permanent controlled substances
Health Canada’s addition next month of five chemicals to the list of permanent controlled substances that are precursors to the manufacture of fentanyl prompted a question to Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, asking why Canada, unlike the U.K. and the U.S., does not also list under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) the animal tranquillizers that frequently contaminate fentanyl.
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March 12, 2026
Sound of silence sinks deal: Settlement agreements need sharper drafting
The Ontario Superior Court’s decision in Cross v. Cooling Tower Maintenance Inc., 2025 ONSC 7203 is a useful reminder that settlement agreements must be drafted with care, especially where salary continuance, mitigation obligations and repayment provisions are involved. If counsel intend a breach to trigger serious consequences, those consequences must be set out clearly. Courts will enforce the agreement the parties made, not the one that one side later wishes it had drafted.
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March 11, 2026
Ontario court certifies class action against Johnson & Johnson over baby powder cancer risk
The Ontario Superior Court has certified a nationwide class action concerning allegations that Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based baby powder increased the risk of ovarian cancer and was marketed without adequate warnings.
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March 11, 2026
Ottawa extends temporary work-sharing EI measures to help employers avert mass layoffs from tariffs
The federal government is extending temporary special measures under the employment insurance work-sharing program until March 31, 2027, from March 6, 2026, to help employers facing unexpected slowdowns avoid layoffs and maintain stability for their workers.