Wills, Trusts & Estates
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March 26, 2024
New associate at O’Sullivan
Nicholas André has been named an associate at O’Sullivan Estate Lawyers LLP, the Toronto-based wills and estates boutique.
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March 26, 2024
Removing an estate trustee: How bad is bad enough?
The courts in Ontario have repeatedly emphasized that they are reluctant to remove named executors or estate trustees at the request of beneficiaries of the estate. The principle of testamentary freedom provides that the testator’s wishes as to who should manage their estate should be respected except for the most extreme cases of malfeasance.
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March 22, 2024
B.C. legal institute recommending changes to update parentage rules in family legislation
A legal institute in British Columbia has set out a number of tentative recommendations to reform the rules surrounding parentage in the province, which it says will help the law keep pace with modern times.
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March 22, 2024
Ontario Court of Appeal overturns $1M damages award for breach of real estate sale agreement
The Ontario Court of Appeal has overturned an award of $1 million in relation to the breach of a sale agreement for a home, finding that a trial judge erred by awarding the buyer the difference between the contract price and the market value of the property at the time of trial.
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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
Limits of testamentary freedom
Spence v. BMO Trust Company, 2016 ONCA 196, is a topical case which has featured in our articles as recently as January 2023. This case serves as a reminder that testamentary freedom — a will-maker’s right to dispose of his or her property as he or she sees fit — is not without limit.
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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 19, 2024
Ottawa appeals declaration of constitutional requirement for timely federal judicial appointments
“Stay in your lane” — those words might encapsulate the thrust of the federal government’s message to the Federal Court in Ottawa's appeal of a recent groundbreaking judgment, which declared that the prime minister and federal justice minister are constitutionally obliged to fix the lengthy federal judicial appointment delays that have for years bedeviled litigants, lawyers and judges.
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March 18, 2024
Fiduciary accounting for Ontario trustees: Guide for executors, attorneys for property
The duty to account refers to the obligation of persons acting in a fiduciary capacity, such as a trustee, executor or attorney or guardian for property, to keep records of the assets and liabilities they are managing on behalf of others and be able to accurately report their activities and results when required. The obligation first arose from equity and common law.