Canadian Appeals Monitor Information and Commentary on Upcoming and Recent Appeal Court Decisions

Monthly Archives: May 2012

Order in the Court? The Van Breda Trilogy – Part III – Forum Non Conveniens

By Brandon Kain, Elder Marques and Byron Shaw on Posted in Conflict of Laws, Features, Media, Procedure, Torts

Among the significant changes introduced by the Van Breda Trilogy is guidance from the Supreme Court of Canada on the forum non conveniens test. Although in many respects the judgments in Van Breda, Black and Éditions Écosociété would appear to simply reaffirm the existing forum law, LeBel J.’s judgments are notable for three reasons. First,… → Read More

Providing Debt Financing Does Not Necessarily Equal Control: “Canadian-Controlled” under s.16(3)(c) of the Telecommunications Act Clarified

By Thomas Heintzman, Malcolm Mercer and Carole Piovesan on Posted in Case Comments, Communications

Subsections 16(1) and 16(3) of the Telecommunications Act currently require most telecommunications common carriers operating in Canada to be Canadian-owned and controlled. While the interpretation of Canadian-owned is fairly uncontroversial, there has been much debate about the meaning of Canadian-controlled. Globalive Wireless Management Corp. v. Public Mobile Inc. is a long-running case that has considered… → Read More

Dunsmuir and the Demise of Deference – or – why Ministers just can’t get no respect

By Daniel G.C. Glover and Curtis E. Marble on Posted in Administrative, Case Comments

Background In a judgment illustrating how the Dunsmuir analysis is to be applied to ministerial decisions, Mainville J.A. for the unanimous Federal Court of Appeal (the “FCA”) ruled that a Minister is not entitled to the same level of deference as an administrative tribunal when interpreting their ‘home’ statute(s). This decision arises out of an… → Read More

U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Adopt a Bright-Line Rule on Limitation Periods for Corporate Insider Profit Claims

By Sarah Shody on Posted in Case Comments, Corporate Law, Procedure, Securities

There is little law in Canada regarding if and how limitation periods applicable to statutory causes of actions in securities legislation can be tolled. For many public companies, this can create uncertainty regarding whether investor lawsuits are statute-barred. For example, the limitation period in s. 138 of the Ontario Securities Act, which covers causes of… → Read More