July 08, 2026
Mediation doesn’t always end with a handshake. After 39 years of handling commercial and employment disputes, I can tell you that a failed mediation is not necessarily a failure of the process; often, it is useful information. It tells you something about where the parties actually stand, and it forces a decision that matters as much as anything that came before it: arbitration or litigation?
July 08, 2026
A decision of the EU General Court concerns the registrability of a three-dimensional trademark for packaging where the relevant legal issue was whether the shape consisted exclusively of features necessary to obtain a technical result. The General Court is the lower of the two courts that make up the Court of Justice of the European Union.
July 06, 2026
Prime Minister Mark Carney has appointed new leaders to head two of Canada’s major trial courts. On July 6, Justice Alan Diner was appointed chief justice of the Federal Court, the national superior trial court that decides disputes in the federal domain. He succeeds Paul Crampton, who retired from the post Oct. 31, 2025.
July 03, 2026
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will come into force between Canada and the United Kingdom on Sept. 1, Global Affairs Canada says.
July 02, 2026
The Federal Court of Appeal has struck a judicial review application challenging a preliminary Copyright Board ruling in an online royalty tariff proceeding, finding that the challenge was premature because the board’s process had not yet run its course.
July 02, 2026
The Supreme Court of Canada’s newest judge says his key areas of legal expertise are constitutional and criminal law, including the rules of evidence and procedure, though he has also presided over many civil and administrative law cases in his generalist trial court. Glenn Joyal, a former federal and Manitoba prosecutor and the longtime chief justice of the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench, was elevated by the prime minister to the top court on June 30, succeeding Supreme Court Justice Sheilah Martin of Alberta, the highly respected constitutional and criminal law litigator, academic and judge who retired from the bench May 30.
July 02, 2026
By introducing “AI for All,” Canada has signalled a choice for AI oversight: it will not legislate comprehensively, and it will not follow the EU. Released on June 4, 2026, the federal government’s “AI for All” strategy confirms that the previously tabled Artificial Intelligence and Data Act is not being revived and that no equivalent is coming in the near term. What Canada is building instead is a framework — one that signals direction without specifying rules.
June 25, 2026
The federal cyber security authority is calling on organizations across Canada to strengthen their cyber security practices to address emerging risks linked to frontier artificial intelligence (AI).
June 25, 2026
Earlier this year, the Divisional Court of Ontario found that procedures adopted by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) to determine its jurisdiction were unreasonable and contrary to law.
June 25, 2026
In a previous post, I discussed the requirement that parties obtain leave before filing additional evidence on an appeal from the Registrar of Trademarks to the Federal Court. The Federal Court has now applied the same test to refuse leave.