In-House Counsel

  • October 02, 2026

    Court denies law firm access to nearly $777K in frozen funds over incomplete disclosure of assets

    An Alberta court has denied lawyer Jeffrey Rath and his professional corporation, whose assets are frozen under a Mareva injunction, access to nearly $777,000 for living expenses and legal fees.

  • October 02, 2026

    Dissolved without notice: The creditor gap in administrative strike-offs

    Canadian corporate law devotes 22 sections of the Canada Business Corporations Act (Part XVIII) to winding up a corporation in detail: liquidation, creditor claims, distribution of property and, where necessary, court supervision.

  • October 02, 2026

    Paycheck protection loans: U.S. companies with foreign affiliates at risk for clawback, repayment

    The False Claims Act allows the U.S. government to pursue civil lawsuits to recover treble damages, interest, penalties and legal fees when a borrower knowingly or recklessly submits a materially false statement to induce the government to provide a financial benefit (i.e., a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan and forgiveness).

  • October 02, 2026

    New England Clean Energy Connect: Findings and recommended clarifications

    1. Principal findings

  • October 02, 2026

    Seeing is no longer believing: Deepfakes in criminal trials

    A single underscore sent an innocent man to prison. In a child sexual abuse material investigation, police were looking for “fus__ro_dah.” But they sought records for “fus_ro_dah.” That was Brandon Klayme’s username. One missing underscore sent the investigation to the wrong person. The discrepancy went unnoticed at trial. Klayme was wrongfully convicted and spent 18 months in custody before the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal declared him factually innocent in R. v. Klayme, 2026 NSCA 59.

  • October 01, 2026

    New Saskatchewan defamation laws take effect

    New Saskatchewan legislation reflecting the digital age and protecting residents against “online misinformation” have come into force.

  • October 01, 2026

    CSA publishes proposed IT system integrity rule, seeks stakeholder comment

    The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) has published a proposed information technology system integrity rule for comment, which would “establish a single framework for the information technology (IT) systems of market infrastructure entities.”

  • October 01, 2026

    Limited shareholder expectations under parental control do not carry over to sibling control: court

    The British Columbia Court of Appeal has upheld an oppression finding against a family company, ruling that a shareholder’s limited expectations while her father controlled the business did not restrict her entitlement to equitable treatment after her brother assumed control.

  • October 01, 2026

    Court finds chief electoral officer overstepped in cancelling election

    The Federal Court has allowed a judicial review in a case where a chief electoral officer in a First Nation community cancelled an election the day before it was supposed to be held due to concerns of unfairness in the process.

  • October 01, 2026

    Naysayers of complainant rights are making things worse for complainants

    There is a growing tendency within parts of the legal profession to portray the criminal justice system as complainant-unfriendly, if not outright complainant-hostile.

  • October 01, 2026

    New England Clean Energy Connect: Contract deficiencies and litigation issues

    The New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) contract’s central weakness is the absence of a workable structure for an energy-only transaction during system stress. The parties appear not to have established how an energy-only commitment should operate when the seller has inadequate energy, capacity or water reserves to serve all demands.

  • October 01, 2026

    New England Clean Energy Connect: Hydro-Québec’s resource position and planning history

    Hydro-Québec is a Crown corporation owned by the Quebec government. Unlike most U.S. utilities, its finances and policies are strongly shaped by the provincial government and the governing party’s policy objectives. Quebec has a regulatory agency, but it is also part of the provincial governmental structure.

  • September 30, 2026

    The snitch in your driveway: How your car could tell a different story in court

    At the car dealership, we ask about horsepower, fuel economy and whether the monthly payment will ruin our weekend. We do not usually ask whether the vehicle remembers where we went last Tuesday. It might.

  • September 30, 2026

    Contractual obligations of the deceased

    For executors, managing a deceased’s commercial covenants requires fulfilling the dead’s obligations without exposing the trustee to personal liability. It is incumbent on lawyers to inform, advise and protect their clients regarding these obligations.

  • September 30, 2026

    Exclusive: SCC’s Côté J. talks advocacy, key cases & rule of law as her 12th anniversary approaches

    Supreme Court of Canada Justice Suzanne Côté says she finds intervener advocacy on Zoom to be as effective as oral submissions made in the courtroom, but she is also alive to contrary arguments made by legal organizations, such as the Canadian Bar Association and The Advocates’ Society.

  • September 30, 2026

    Reviewing the New England Clean Energy Connect litigation filings

    On Sept. 8, 2026, the parties to the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) agreements filed federal complaints concerning Hydro-Québec’s interruption of deliveries to Massachusetts during the first two months of the 20-year agreement.

  • September 29, 2026

    Bell’s disability benefits cutoff before planned return was prima facie discrimination: court

    The Federal Court of Appeal has found that a Bell employee established a prima facie case of disability discrimination after the company terminated her employment and ended her disability coverage before she began a planned gradual return to work.

  • September 29, 2026

    Shareholder denied access to corporate documents: Your rights under Quebec, federal law

    A group of shareholders restricts a minority shareholders’ access to the company’s financial statements. The objective isn’t administrative, but rather tactical: to keep the minority in the dark about the company’s actual financial condition, pressure them into selling below fair market value, or conceal irregularities like excessive compensation and disguised dividends.

  • September 29, 2026

    Federal Court of Appeal clarifies rules for CRA requests for unnamed persons

    The lengthy decision in Canada (National Revenue) v. Zeifmans LLP, 2026 FCA 147 in part involves a detailed analysis of the legal concepts of abuse of process and improper collateral attack as well as the relevant decisions in Canada (Customs and Revenue Agency) v. Artistic Ideas Inc., 2005 FCA 68 and Redeemer Foundation v. Minister of National Revenue, 2008 SCC 46.

  • September 29, 2026

    Legal experts explore risks and benefits of AI’s growing role, rapid adoption at Canadian firms

    Canadian lawyers are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence tools to streamline legal work, but industry leaders say firms must carefully assess privacy and data-retention risks. While AI could lower the cost of legal services and help serve more clients, it cannot replace human judgment and client relationships, they say.

  • September 29, 2026

    Writs of mandamus in U.S. immigration law: What they are, when to use them

    In general, a writ of mandamus (“mandamus”) is a formal court order that requires a government official, an agency or a lower court to take a specific action. The action must be within the duties of the office, agency or court, and there must be a legal requirement that the action be performed. Mandamus is extraordinary relief and is effectively utilized when there is a clear legal duty to be performed, a clear right to relief on the part of the petitioner, and the petitioner appears to have no alternative to obtain the relief they deserve.

  • September 29, 2026

    Negotiation damages for online trademark infringement

    In this case, the plaintiffs were a group of associated Swatch companies (Swatch) that owned a series of trademarks including Swatch, Tissot and Longines, registered for use with watches and in some cases smartwatches. The claim related to digital watch faces (apps) that could be downloaded to Samsung’s smartwatches from the Samsung Galaxy app store (SGA store).

  • September 28, 2026

    Intergenerational business transfer capital gains exception: What the vendor gives up matters

    Section 84.1 of the Income Tax Act, the intergenerational transfer rules, has since 2024 contained a working exception for sales of a private company to a child’s corporation. Paragraph 84.1(2)(e) deems the vendor and the purchaser corporation to deal at arm’s length where the conditions of either ss. 84.1(2.31) or (2.32) are met, which switches off the deemed dividend and leaves the vendor with a capital gain eligible for the lifetime capital gains exemption — $1,275,000 for 2026. The conditions are not tax conditions. They are a statutory description of a vendor who has left the business, and the vendor’s counsel, not the accountant, is the one who has to make the client match it.

  • September 28, 2026

    Business valuations and M&A during tariff uncertainty

    The United States has launched tariffs under the Trump regime, and possibly future regimes, to counteract its decline as the world’s leading superpower. These tariffs impact valuation of any business engaged in global trade. To value such businesses, one must consider where the business operates, and whether that jurisdiction adjusted (i.e., Australia or Ireland, etc.), complied or negotiated a deal (i.e., the EU, Japan, U.K. and others), or retaliated (i.e., China or Canada).

  • September 25, 2026

    Feds issue call, offer money to women entrepreneurs operating non-profit projects

    As part of the federal government's Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES), Ottawa is inviting proposals for a project called the WES Ecosystem Fund.

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