In-House Counsel
-
October 16, 2025
Appeals: Can parties ‘consent’ to them?
When it comes to reviewing the orders of lower courts in Canada, appellate courts have broad jurisdiction. Far from a rubber-stamping process, all appeals involve the assessment of the lower court’s reasoning through the application of standards of review.
-
October 16, 2025
Ontario introducing legislation to expand ‘as of right’ provisions for health care workers
In a push to attract more healthcare professionals to the province, Ontario will introduce legislation next week to “support greater worker mobility across Canada.”
-
October 15, 2025
Biometric data and workplace surveillance
The most common use of biometric data by Canadian employers is to monitor employees in the workplace. The legitimate extent of such monitoring is one of the fundamental legal questions of the 21st century – while biometric surveillance can make workplaces more efficient, it also implicates the most basic rights of employees. Canadian legislators have created a complex legal regime to address the task of balancing the right to privacy of employees with the right of employers to efficiently manage their workforce and run their business.
-
October 15, 2025
Doug Ford shouldn’t boast about his parking lot shenanigans
Members of the public were taken aback earlier this week to hear Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford loudly boasting about threatening to give a stranger “a beating like he’s never got before.” Criminal lawyers were even more shocked by the premier’s telling of the tale, which he summed up with “that’s what you have to do.” According to comments attributed to him in a Toronto Star piece on Oct. 14, Ford was outraged, indeed filled with rage during the incident, when he also threatened to “kick [the person’s] ass all over the parking lot.”
-
October 15, 2025
Federal Court overturns TMOB ruling for narrowing confusion test to past use
The Federal Court has set aside the Trademarks Opposition Board’s (TMOB) dismissal of a trademark opposition, ruling that the board erred by limiting its confusion analysis to the opponent’s actual use of its mark rather than the full scope of its registration.
-
October 15, 2025
CSA extends deadline for ETF regulation feedback
The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) has decided to extend its call for comment for the consultation on the exchange-traded fund (ETF) regulatory framework.
-
October 15, 2025
New interpretation bulletins issued by Canada’s lobbying commissioner are unconstitutional
In a news release dated July 16, 2025, the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada issued two new interpretation bulletins.
-
October 10, 2025
SCC clarifies when Quebec 10-year ‘extinctive prescription’ period reboots for collecting on judgments
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 9-0 in a Quebec appeal that filing and serving a notice to seize property counts as a judicial application interrupting the 10-year deadline to collect payment on a judgment — thereby restarting for a further 10 years the “extinctive prescription” period (comparable to a limitation period in the common law provinces) that applies to rights resulting from most money judgments under art. 2924 of the Civil Code of Québec.
-
October 10, 2025
Court affirms dismissal of employer’s breach of fiduciary duty claim against former employee
The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling rejecting an employer’s claim of breach of fiduciary duty by a former executive who launched a competing business, affirming findings of only a minor breach and no evidence of resulting financial harm.
-
October 10, 2025
When fired ‘at any time’ doesn’t mean game over: Li v. Wayfair Canada ULC
Termination clauses have long been the horror genre of employment law. Draft them too generously toward the employer, and the courts will strike them down faster than you can say contra proferentem. Draft them too cautiously, and you hand the employee common law notice on a silver platter.