In-House Counsel

  • November 19, 2025

    Liberal government unveils first budget bill, says criminal justice bill to come before Christmas

    The Carney government’s 2025 legislative to-do list got longer with the rollout of its first budget implementation omnibus bill, which proposes dozens of tax and other statutory measures.

  • November 19, 2025

    Ontario court rules forum clause survives corporate transfer in dismissal dispute

    The Ontario Superior Court has upheld a forum selection clause in an employment agreement in a dispute over the dismissal of an employee whose contract was transferred from a federal Crown corporation to its subsidiary operating under private management.

  • November 18, 2025

    Highly skilled immigrants most likely to leave Canada: report

    Highly educated and skilled immigrants are the most likely to leave Canada within five years of landing, according to a new report by the Conference Board of Canada and the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) released on Nov. 18.

  • November 18, 2025

    Additional pre-construction costs depend on agreement of purchase and sale

    The purchase of a pre-construction townhouse or other home often involves a written agreement of purchase and sale (APS) that is signed years before the completion of construction and occupancy of the property. Buyers may be surprised if the developer imposes additional charges at the time of closing. Whether such charges are permitted generally depends upon the specific wording in the APS.

  • November 18, 2025

    Federal Court finds Videotron infringed two Adeia interactive TV patents

    The Federal Court has ruled that Videotron infringed two Adeia patents related to interactive television technologies that track viewing progress and restrict fast-forwarding of certain content.

  • November 18, 2025

    Canadian Intellectual Property Office annual report highlights operational advancements

    The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)’s 2024-2025 annual report has been tabled, highlighting “significant advancements across all areas of operations, including various system upgrades, a reduction in trademark backlogs and speedier registration timelines.”

  • November 18, 2025

    Feds remove internal trade, labour mobility barriers across Canada

    On Nov. 17, the federal government announced the removal of barriers to internal trade and labour mobility though the “finalized regulations stemming from the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act.”

  • November 18, 2025

    The broken shield: Who is accountable when a Canadian’s life savings disappear?

    Canadian banks say they’re on the front lines of the fraud war. But for Ray Anholt, a now 90-year-old Victoria resident, these defences were paper-thin. His entire life savings, painstakingly acquired and entrusted to RBC and CIBC, vanished in a slick “bank investigator” scam that exposes some interesting holes in Canada’s so-called consumer safety nets.

  • November 18, 2025

    Proposed reforms of civil procedure: Refreshing reboot or more of the same?

    I was an articling student and had my work cut out for me. I worked on a client file to prove adverse possession for a right of way across a house that had existed since the 50s but was being enforced by a neighbour. I brought all the files I had researched myself — surveys of the land, blueprints rolled up, ancient texts, photos I took of the property, transcripts of examinations.

  • November 17, 2025

    The irrelevance of disability or death: Wrongful dismissal damages when employee can’t work

    At two recent mediations, an issue arose that does not come up often, and as a result is not front of mind for most counsel: how to calculate wrongful dismissal damages when the employee could not have worked during the notice period. In both cases, defence counsel sought to discount damages to reflect what the employee would have earned had they actually been working, while plaintiff counsel insisted on full compensation for the entire notice period.