In-House Counsel
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August 01, 2024
Esther’s legal odyssey: A call for accessible justice | Alexandar Pavlov
African Muslim women in Canada often face unique legal dilemmas, especially when involved in common-law relationships.
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August 01, 2024
Court approves sale of carwash, finding patent rights in facility were exhausted in earlier sale
The Alberta Court of King’s Bench has approved the sale of a car wash owned by an insolvent company, dismissing a former owner's claim that any new owner must enter into a licensing agreement with it due to patented technology in the facility’s design.
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July 31, 2024
AMPs for securities fraud can be debts released by bankruptcy discharge: SCC
Settling conflicting appellate case law over whether the exemption in s. 178(1)(e) of the federal Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act enables administrative money penalties (AMPs) and disgorgement orders imposed by a provincial securities regulator to survive a bankruptcy discharge, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 5-2 that $13.5 million in AMPs imposed by the BC Securities Commission on two undischarged bankrupts for fraudulent securities activity is a debt that can be released by a future discharge in bankruptcy. But it ruled unanimously in addition that approximately $5.6 million in related disgorgement orders would survive any discharge from bankruptcy the pair might obtain in future.
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July 31, 2024
Class action certified against medical imaging company for alleged financial misrepresentations
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has granted leave to commence a secondary market misrepresentation action against a company offering medical imaging services, certifying the case as a class action.
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July 31, 2024
Federal political parties collecting sensitive voter data in a regulatory void, warns report
In a British Columbia courtroom this past May, the country’s three main political parties came together in common cause: to maintain unregulated access to sometimes sensitive voter information collected by a mushrooming industry of political consultants.
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July 31, 2024
Court denies stay for non-disclosure of partial settlement, citing fundamentally distinct claims
The Ontario Court of Appeal has declined to stay an action concerning a faulty piping system in a disinfection facility against certain parties, rejecting the argument that the plaintiff had engaged in an abuse of process by not immediately disclosing a settlement with certain defendants.
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July 31, 2024
Attention Premier Ford: Call me | Norman Douglas
Dear Premier Ford: I think your heart is in the right place. I think maybe your head is not. Who is giving you their advice on the judicial system? I’m guessing it doesn’t include any judges or justices of the peace. What “you are hearing on the street” must be the voices of folks who read headlines and have never sat through one day in an Ontario courtroom.
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July 31, 2024
Competition Act amendments: Examining new merger control regulations
On June 20, 2024, Bill C-59, known as The Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023, received royal assent, enacting further amendments to Canada’s Competition Act (the Act). Over the last two years, the Act has been substantially reformed through three separate rounds of amendments. Cumulatively, these changes represent the most significant changes to Canadian competition law since 1985, when the Act was enacted.
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July 30, 2024
Federal Court reinstates trademark based on new evidence of sales in Canada
The Federal Court has overturned an administrative decision expunging a registered trademark based on evidence filed on appeal that established that the owner of the mark was the first link in the chain of distribution of third-party sales of the relevant products in Canada.
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July 30, 2024
Counsel contend Ottawa’s spate of judicial appointments might make novel constitutional appeal moot
Lawyers who won a groundbreaking Federal Court declaration that recognized a “constitutional convention that judicial vacancies on the provincial superior courts and federal courts must be filled within a reasonable time” contend Ottawa’s appeal should be dismissed as moot if the Trudeau government gets federal judicial vacancies down to the reasonable level set by Federal Court Justice Henry Brown last February.