Articles 2023

There were a large number of Child and Youth Law court decisions and news stories in 2018. We’ve compiled this list to highlight the growing recognition of the many legal issues directly affecting children and the list for 2019 is already well along its way.

There were only four substantive civil decisions released. In two of them, the Court continued to provide guidance on the Anti-SLAPP provisions of section 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act.Other topics covered this week include contractual interpretation and costs.

The Business Corporations Act of Ontario (“OBCA”) currently requires corporations to prepare and maintain corporate books and records. However, corporations incorporated or continued under the OBCA need to be aware of new onerous amendments to the OBCA which quietly came into force on December 10, 2016.

This article explores the implication of growing Canadian household debt on estates in the context of the estate administration tax.

When a matter is decided at Tax Court, the winner may be entitled to costs. Recent cases award high costs that better reflect the actual expenses in conducting an appeal, in contrast to the low costs recommended under the Tariff in the Tax Court of Canada Rules.

Following are this week’s summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Topics included self-represented litigants costs, punitive damages, standard of care of a medical professional, extension of time to bring or perfect an appeal and appellate jurisdiction.

On February 6, 2019, the OBA Public Sector Lawyers Section held its Mastering Regulatory Inspections and Investigations program at Institute 2019. Speakers included Brian Osler, Shelly Feld, Bernard LeBlanc, Elyse Sunshine, Aviva Harari, Michael Denyszyn, and Bruce Matthews.

An article considering the impact of Dagg v. Cameron Estate on the use of life insurance by family law practitioners as security for a party's support obligations. The article also considers a recent application of these principles in Larmer v. Birnie.

The decision in Redwater Energy Corporation (Re) may, for now, resolve the uncertainty regarding the end‐of‐life obligations owed by an AER licensee debtor in an insolvency proceeding. This article describes the likely consequences of the decision for the federal insolvency regime, energy industry, debt financing, and directors of oil and gas companies.

The SCC’s decision in Orphan Well Association v. Grant Thornton Limited says there are end-of-life remedial obligations associated with a bankrupt’s non-productive wells that have to be addressed. These remedial obligations are a prioritization of the use of the bankrupt’s assets for compliance with its regulatory obligations to clean up under the terms of its licenses.This article provides an overview of the impact of the decision on insolvency professionals and secured creditors.