Real Estate
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March 21, 2024
Does subject matter expertise matter? | Avril Hasselfield
The law is complex, with each area having its own nuances. It is in a client’s best interest to retain an experienced mediator to help them settle their disputes, but is it also necessary to have a mediator who is an expert in the subject matter being litigated?
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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
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
Alberta tribunal correctly adopted ‘broad and liberal interpretation’ of expropriation law: court
Alberta’s top court has upheld a decision by the province’s Land and Property Rights Tribunal (LPRT) which dealt with the issue of whether a franchisor who neither owns title to nor leases land can be an owner through possession or occupation of that land, or have an interest in it, under provincial expropriation legislation.
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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
Alberta brings legislation to protect seniors in life-leasing contracts
The Government of Alberta has tabled legislative amendments aimed at ensuring consistency in contracts with housing operators involved in life-leasing for seniors.
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March 20, 2024
Home Construction Regulatory Authority freezes assets of builder suspected of illegal home sales
The Ontario Home Construction Regulatory Authority (HCRA) is freezing the assets of a builder suspected of illegal building and selling.
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March 18, 2024
Appeal and judicial review of a tribunal decision | Sara Blake
The Supreme Court of Canada has breathed life into an Ontario statutory provision that has been mostly ignored since it came into effect in 1972. Section 2(1) of the Judicial Review Procedure Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. J.1 (JRPA), authorizes the Divisional Court to grant relief on judicial review “despite any right of appeal.” For 40 years, Ontario courts consistently overlooked this provision, instead preferring to exercise their discretion to deny a remedy on judicial review because it regards a right of appeal to the court as an adequate alternative remedy.
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March 15, 2024
Cross-generational Indigenous trauma | Tony Stevenson
It is the year 2024 and the last residential school closed in 1998. Fellow First Nations demand that the school grounds be thoroughly investigated for the identity of the thousands of anomalies that have been found through radar ground searches. Several non-First Nations also want those anomalies to be verified as well so that their own opinions of these residential stories were made up to get government money. Unfortunately, their intentions are that of a very negative opinion that has been drummed up by their own inherited ignorance from the generations that came before them.
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March 15, 2024
New partner for Robins Appleby
A 2019 call in the firm’s commercial real estate and development group, Rachel Puma has been named partner at Robins Appleby.