Wills, Trusts & Estates

  • October 14, 2026

    Reid, Gallo join Alexander Holburn to lead family law group

    Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP (Alexander Holburn) has launched a family law group in Vancouver with the addition of partners Jane Reid and Rosemary Gallo.

  • October 13, 2026

    CIVIL PROCEDURE – Actions - Lis pendens (certificate of pending litigation) - Quashing or dismissal of

    Appeal by Harjit from orders dismissing his civil claim and cancelling a certificate of pending litigation against his late father Swinder’s residential property.

  • October 08, 2026

    McEwan Partners welcomes associate Megan Walwyn

    Megan Walwyn has joined McEwan Partners as an associate in Vancouver.

  • October 08, 2026

    AI and the future of estate planning: Will estate lawyers become obsolete?

    With the rapid progress of artificial intelligence in the legal field, we often hear the same question arise again and again: will AI replace the need for estate planning lawyers? It’s a fair question now that legal tech is able to draft a variety of documents, conduct legal research and review huge volumes of information in seconds.

  • October 08, 2026

    Foreign-funded advocacy after FITAA: Registration and tax exposure across organizational forms

    Part one of this series traced how charities and non-profit organizations are governed by two different, and now increasingly divergent, tests for advocacy activity under the Income Tax Act.

  • October 07, 2026

    Feds say bill coming to allow advance directives for MAID but will bar MAID access to mentally ill

    Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser says the Liberal majority government will introduce “in weeks” groundbreaking legislation to permit persons with serious medical conditions to consent in advance to medical assistance in dying (MAID), i.e. before they lose their capacity to consent to the procedure. The planned bill would also bar MAID access on an “indeterminate basis” to persons whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness, he said.

  • October 07, 2026

    Scarfone Hawkins adds 4 associates to Hamilton office

    Scarfone Hawkins LLP has welcomed James Price, Reilly McIlhone, Tania Robinson and Andrew Spelman as associate lawyers in its Hamilton office.

  • October 06, 2026

    Melting the estate freeze: Why Appeal Court’s decision in Lang-Newlands upends post-freeze trust planning

    Intergenerational estate freezes have long served as a bedrock mechanism for Canadian business owners seeking to defer tax and shelter wealth across generations. For years, corporate planners and family litigators assumed that routing future growth through a post-marriage discretionary family trust would cloak that interest as an excluded “gift after marriage” under Ontario’s Family Law Act (FLA).

  • October 06, 2026

    From the 10% rule to the purpose test: Two different advocacy regimes under the Income Tax Act

    This is the first of a two-part series on the compliance landscape facing organizations that engage in policy advocacy, whether structured as 1) registered charities, 2) non-profit organizations or 3) commercial entities.

  • October 02, 2026

    Supreme Court kicks off busy fall session with new judge from the west and impressive new digs

    The Supreme Court’s fall session is packed with interesting appeals in diverse areas of law including class actions, contracts, Crown immunity and Charter rights. The top court’s session begins Oct. 5 with an “opening of the court” ceremony in the West Memorial Building at 344 Wellington Street in Ottawa.

  • 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

    Hafeez Khan appointed to Manitoba Court of King’s Bench

    Hafeez A. Khan has been appointed a judge of the Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba, Family Division, in Winnipeg.

  • October 01, 2026

    Mental health, AI on radar of Manitoba law society president

    Mental health, job stress and keeping up with AI remain “front of mind” for the new president of Manitoba’s law society.

  • October 01, 2026

    Estate planning and Canadian citizenship by descent

    Many people may be surprised and pleased to learn that there is a new path to becoming a Canadian citizen. The Government of Canada passed Bill C-3, An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act (2025), on Dec. 15, 2025. Before this legislation came into effect, Canadian citizenship by descent was limited to the first generation born outside Canada. For example, Emily was born or naturalized in Canada, and she could pass her citizenship to her child, Duncan, born outside of Canada.

  • 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 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 25, 2026

    Exclusive: Supreme Court of Canada Justice Suzanne Côté mulls her post-bench future

    Supreme Court of Canada Justice Suzanne Côté is thinking about what life after the bench might look like, she tells Law360 Canada. The court’s impactful and most prolific judge, who turned 68 this week with no apparent loss of drive or energy, says she is healthy and still loves the work that has earned her a reputation as a trailblazer and original thinker.

  • September 25, 2026

    David Postel new partner at WEL Partners

    David Postel has joined WEL Partners as a partner, where he acts for clients on the estates, civil, and commercial lists throughout Ontario in trusts, estates and related matters. According to a statement from the firm, Postel’s practice also deals with family wealth disputes over control of closely held businesses.

  • September 24, 2026

    An estate lawyer’s guide to the estate litigation galaxy

    As estate planning lawyers, we constantly orbit the estate litigation galaxy, navigating to keep our clients’ estates from being pulled into the black hole of court. This article is a guide for both estate planning lawyers and their clients to stay in “safe orbit” and navigate smartly around some of the most common estate litigation in the galaxy, with a nod to the late 1970s comedy science-fiction series A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

  • September 21, 2026

    Ottawa’s flagship bill on ‘Building Canada Strong’ aims for labour reforms, faster project reviews

    The Carney government says its proposed “Building Canada Strong” legislation and supporting Cabinet directive will ensure that federal reviews and decisions on major project proposals are completed within one year of a “comprehensive” submission by the project’s proponents. The 243-page Building Canada Strong Act (Bill C-39) was introduced in the House of Commons Sept. 21 by Transport Minister and Government House leader Steven MacKinnon.

  • September 18, 2026

    Six myths about appointing guardians for your minor children if you die

    People often put off preparing their wills for many reasons. What often brings about a mindset shift is the birth of a child. Suddenly, parents start asking questions they may not have considered before: What happens if I die? Who will take care of my child if my child is still a minor? Who will make important decisions for them?

  • September 18, 2026

    RESIDENTIAL TENANCIES - Landlord’s remedies - Eviction order - Termination by landlord

    Appeal by the appellant from a decision dismissing her appeal from an order terminating her tenancy and evicting her from the unit. The appeal involved the interpretation of the statutory provisions and procedures under ss. 48 and 71.1 of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).

  • September 16, 2026

    Ottawa & judges dispute if Carney gov’t gave meaningful effect to judicial pay commission’s work

    A behind-the-scenes bid by federal chief justices to make future recommendations from the federal independent judicial pay commission process binding on Ottawa is on hold as representatives of Canada’s 1,200 federal judges and Federal Court associate judges sue the Carney government for allegedly not giving “meaningful effect” to the work and non-binding advice of the latest quadrennial Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission (Giardini Commission.)

  • September 16, 2026

    An executor’s duties and risks in becoming a corporate director

    When a deceased’s assets are concentrated in a private corporation, the estate trustee often feels pressured to become a director of the company. Is there a conflict? Is it a prudent course for a professional estate trustee?