By Fergus Schappert and Alicia York ( August 23, 2024, 12:13 PM EDT) -- Commercial agreements often include forum selection clauses to ensure certainty and predictability regarding the appropriate venue for the resolution of disputes. While such clauses do not always guarantee that parties will initiate proceedings in the specified jurisdiction, Canadian courts in non-selected jurisdictions will ordinarily enforce them, provided there is no “strong cause” against their enforcement, particularly when the agreement involves sophisticated parties. Therefore, these clauses remain advantageous even if one party chooses to disregard the forum selection clause and files a claim in a different jurisdiction....