Articles 2023

The general anti-avoidance rule in section 245 of the Income Tax Act is essentially an interpretive rule. In Canada Trustco, the Supreme Court adopted a single, unified approach to the misuse or abuse analysis, which rejected “abuse of the Act read as a whole” as a separate test. In the recent GAAR Consultation paper, the Finance expressed concern over the unified approach and considered codifying the “scheme” approach in Copthorne to give more weight to “abuse of the Act read as whole.”

Blockchain was first theorized as a concept in the early 1990s. However, it took 20 years before blockchain was utilized to create Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, in early 2009. While the use of blockchain to create cryptocurrencies took nearly 20 years, its popularity has exploded since the creation of Bitcoin. 

In the era of globalization and technology overtaking traditional business form, the companies and individuals spending more on obtaining intangible property in order to protect its unique identity by way of marks or patents or logo. With companies and businesses operating across the globe, the question arises as to which country has gained the right to levy taxes on profits arising out of intangible assets or property.

This paper first lays out the current system for determining the allocation of multinational enterprises’ revenues for the purposes of taxation, followed by a layered example to aid in clarification, a discussion on the concerns the current system enables, a brief overview of the OECD’s response of Pillar One, and some of the practical implementation issues Pillar One faces, concluding with views on how to more easily achieve the Pillar One aims in a fashion that may be met with less resistance.

This article summarizes Cavanaugh v. Grenville Christian College, 2022 ONSC 5405, in which the court used s. 25 of the Class Proceedings Act, 1992, to address a unique factual problem: the defendants were judgment proof and had erratic insurance coverage that covered some class members' claims but not others.

This article summarizes Bowman v Ontario, 2022 ONCA 477, which provides guidance to lower courts and practitioners on conducting a correct analysis under the cause of action (s. 5(1)(a)) criterion of the Class Proceedings Act.

An interview with Karen Perron, president of the Ontario Bar Association.

An interview with Deborah Palter, immediate past-president of The Advocates’ Society.

An interview with Teresa Donnelly, who concluded her second term as treasurer of the Law Society of Ontario this past June.