In-House Counsel
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March 22, 2024
Competition Bureau launches reporting tool for collusion related to 2026 World Cup contracts
The Competition Bureau has launched a reporting tool to encourage reporting of potentially collusive agreements between competitors biding on contracts linked to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which Canada will jointly host with the United States and Mexico.
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March 22, 2024
Ottawa looks to reduce percentage of temporary residents to five per cent of population
Citing the need to “ramp things down,” in part to address Canada’s “affordability challenge” in such areas as housing, Immigration Minister Marc Miller says the federal government wants to stem the rapid growth in temporary residents by reducing their number over the next three years from 6.2 per cent of Canada’s population (2.5 million people in 2023) to five per cent.
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March 21, 2024
Ottawa cuts back on temporary foreign workers; reduces permitted percentage of ‘low wage’ workers
The federal government has announced it is “adjusting” its temporary foreign worker program which has experienced “a surge in demand” due to the post-pandemic economy, low unemployment rates, and record-high job vacancy rates in 2022.
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March 21, 2024
Federal minimum wage to increase to $17.30 per hour
The federal minimum wage is increasing from $16.65 per hour to $17.30 beginning April 1 to better align with inflation, the government has announced.
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March 21, 2024
Electoral reform bill targets dark money, foreign interference, deep fakes, other AI misinformation
Ottawa’s proposed overhaul of the Canada Elections Act includes new false and misleading speech offences and administrative monetary penalties (AMPs); new and expanded prohibitions targeting foreign interference and the misuse of AI and deep fakes to fuel disinformation and voter suppression; and new third-party contribution rules the federal government says will “increase transparency and mitigate dark or foreign funds in Canada’s election system.”
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March 21, 2024
Limits of testamentary freedom
Spence v. BMO Trust Company, 2016 ONCA 196, is a topical case which has featured in our articles as recently as January 2023. This case serves as a reminder that testamentary freedom — a will-maker’s right to dispose of his or her property as he or she sees fit — is not without limit.
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March 21, 2024
Politicization of tribunal appointments worse than that of judicial appointments | Brian Cook
Recent moves by the current government to politicize the process of appointing judges have caused significant concern. The process for appointing adjudicators who sit on Ontario’s adjudicative tribunals is much worse. The government has been criticized for making political appointments to the committee responsible for making judicial appointment recommendations. There is no such committee, and virtually no other form of oversight for appointments to adjudicative tribunals.
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March 20, 2024
Banking regulator updates climate risk policy as RBC faces renewed call to reduce oil funding
Canada’s financial services watchdog is updating a policy designed to make climate threats facing the sector more transparent — even as Canada’s largest bank faces renewed accusations of greenwashing.
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March 20, 2024
Scope of proposed B.C. health care cost recovery legislation ‘incessantly broad,’ legal expert says
The B.C. government has introduced legislation which says will give it the tools necessary to recover the costs associated with what it calls “health-care wrongs,” but some in the legal community are raising concerns that the proposals are overly broad and would significantly change established tort law.
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March 20, 2024
Montreal cosmetics firm fined $500,000 for marketing products containing ‘forever chemical’
A Montreal-area cosmetics manufacturer is facing a $500,000 federal fine for marketing cosmetics containing a common silicone polymer classified as a “forever chemical.”