Articles 2024

Recent updates in Ontario and Federal pension legislation, regulatory policy and caselaw.

What it means to use point-first writing, and why you should do it.

Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of January 9, 2023.

Teachers must behave professionally and respect boundaries in their relationships with students; however, a failure to do so is not necessarily just cause for dismissal. Before dismissal, the school board may be expected to provide guidance on the boundary between being a “caring adult” and inappropriate conduct.

This detailed case summary reviews the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision in Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario v. York Region District School Board. In this groundbreaking decision, the Court of Appeal held that section 8 of the Charter applies to the actions of principals conducting workplace investigations. Further, the Court found that the Board’s investigation violated the teachers’ reasonable expectation of privacy and constituted an unreasonable search under section 8.

2022 was an eventful year for privacy law in Canada. The Canadian privacy landscape saw significant changes, as stakeholders at all levels recognized the need to keep up with a data-driven world. This article summarizes the top five recent developments that businesses and stakeholders should be aware of.

The article discusses the constitutional challenge to An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, which was heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in December 2022.

Effective January 1, 2022, the City of Toronto has begun to levy an annual 1% property-value-based tax on vacant residential properties (the Vacant Home Tax or “VHT”). VHT was codified in the new Chapter 778 of Part 2 (General By-Laws) of the Municipal Code, which Part already contained, inter alia, the City’s property tax and land transfer tax provisions. 

In November of the past year, the Ontario Court of Appeal (the court of appeal) released a trio of decisions that marked an important development in Ontario privacy law.