Articles 2023

What is ageism, and are we as estates practitioners guilty of it? This articles considers some common practices of estates lawyers that may be driven by unconscious bias against older people, and offers suggestions on how to adjust our practices to combat that bias.

At the January meeting of the Estates List Users Committee, topics discussed included wait times for probate applications and short scheduling appearances, and current practices for filing and putting materials before a judge.

In Del Giudice v Thompson, Perell J. provided valuable guidance to the class action bar regarding pre-certification communications with putative class members. This article reviews how the law in Ontario has developed and suggest that this decision—and in particular, Perell J.’s postface—offers a promising path forward.

Upcycled and reworked fashion has always been on trend, but has never quite been as popular as it has over the last year. With the pandemic pushing e-commerce to the forefront of retail, the ability to make, sell, or purchase reworked clothing has become increasingly accessible. While upcycled garments continue to serve as an artistic outlet and sustainable alternative to the apparel industry's massive waste problem, what does reworked fashion mean for trademark and IP owners?

The Technology and Construction Court in the United Kingdom recently considered the failure of a high-value digital transformation project and the eventual termination of the project agreement. The decision provides commentary on repudiatory breach, exclusion of liability for indirect damages, breach of warranty, and project delays, which provides a number of helpful points for consideration for technology lawyers.

With its recent decision in Desjardins Financial Services Firm Inc v Asselin, the Supreme Court of Canada highlighted and galvanized the suddenly stark jurisdictional differences between Canadian provinces, finding that, even as Ontario has taken legislative steps to raise the standard for class action certification, the existing law in Québec is to be interpreted on the loosest possible standard, short of authorizing frivolous claims.

It has been nearly nine years since the Ontario Court of Appeal’s unpaid overtime class action certification trilogy was released, settling the law regarding certification of unpaid overtime and employment misclassification class actions. With the benefit of the intervening years, what can be said now about the state of employment class actions in Ontario?

A recent Ontario case considered the test for determining whether deficiencies in a disclosure document are so material so as to amount to no disclosure at all, thereby permitting rescission within two years under section 6(2) of Ontario's Arthur Wishart Act. The decision notes that the test, which considers whether the deficiencies impair the ability of a franchisee to make an informed decision, is an objective one, but which must account for the particular facts of each case.

The Federal Government published a detailed response letter on March 30, 2021 to the Senate’s special report on the charitable and non-profit sector. The 20-page letter from the Minister of National Revenue reviews and responds to all of the 42 Recommendations. This article provides an overview of the Government’s extensive response to the Report and highlights comments of particular interest.