Articles 2021

The Ontario Superior Court recently reminded defendants that an aggressive defence can be costly, when it awarded judgment to a plaintiff of less than $63,000, and more than four times that amount for the plaintiff's costs.

The Ontario Court of Appeal upholds a decision striking out paragraphs of a defence under Rule 25.11, and says that allegations regarding the plaintiff's motive for commencing an action are generally irrelevant.

Erin Cowling of Flex Legal Network reviews Professor Backhouse's "double" biography of the first two women appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Following are this week’s summaries of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. The Court released two decisions concerning the fight over the proposed destruction and redevelopment of Glen Abbey Golf Club. Other topics covered this week included assessing damages for past income loss and prejudgment interest in a sexual abuse case and the legal test for Crown wardship on a summary judgment motion.

Following are this week’s summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

Topics this week included family law, costs in the wills and estates context, contractual interpretation, assessment of accounts in the condominium law context, and stay pending leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The headline decision this week is Toronto (City) v Ontario (Attorney General). Everyone will recall that the Better Local Government Act, 2018 reduced the number of Toronto wards in the middle of the election campaign. The City challenged the constitutionality of the change. On the appeal, four of the five members of the panel noted that the section 2(b) protection of expression does not extend to the effectiveness of the expression and was thus not unconstitutional

It was a fairly busy week at the Court of Appeal, with the Court releasing twelve civil decisions, nine criminal and provincial offences decisions, and one Ontario Review Board decision. Areas of law covered this week included agreements of purchase of sale of land, limitation periods, automobile insurance, personal injury, family, estates, contracts, employment and vexatious litigants.

There are four substantive cases this week.

It was a light, yet eventful week at the Court of Appeal for Ontario.