Articles 2025

A review on the program "5G and Beyond: The Latest in Telecommunications Law".

Courts in Ontario and Alberta have recently issued several significant decisions in privacy class actions. These two decisions followed the prevailing trend of the dismissal of privacy class actions in Canada, in which courts have generally found that there is no evidence of harm, or that the information at issue did not rise to a level that would support the finding of a reasonable expectation of privacy, or both.

The new legislative requirement that common issues “predominate” over individual issues in order to certify a class action will serve to intensify attention on potential individual issues at certification. Although Ontario has little judicial authority on individual issues litigation, the authority to date shows that individual issues litigation can be structured to ensure that individual questions will be determined in accessible and effective ways, even in large, complex proceedings.

A recent unanimous decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Kaynes v. BP p.l.c. provides welcome guidance to the class actions bar, as it confirms the circumstances in which an early-stage Rule 21 motion to challenge a statute-barred claim may be appropriate, and clarifies when a claim for fraudulent misrepresentation is discoverable under the Limitations Act.

Following are the summaries of last week's Court of Appeal decisions.

On February 16, 2021, Bill 245, the Accelerating Access to Justice Act, 2021, was introduced by the Ontario government to “improve access to justice for people across the system. If enacted, Bill 245 will make the most sweeping changes to the expropriation process in Ontario in a generation. This article considers the impact of the major proposed changes.

This article discusses the federal government's recent publication of the Greenhouse Gas Offset Credit System Regulations. These proposed regulations aim to govern offset projects in order to allow industrial emitters subject to the federal Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act to meet their compliance obligations by investing in projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions.

The Supreme Court of Canada's two recent decisions in C.M. Callow Inc. and Wastech Services Ltd. revisited and clarified the principles of good faith contractual performance formulated in Bhasin. While it remains to be determined whether the common law duty of good faith is different from the franchise-specific duty of good faith and fair dealing, these general principles of contract law have important implications for parties to the franchise relationship.

The recent decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal in 1777453 Alberta Ltd. v. Got Mold Disaster Recovery Services Inc. provides important insight into the calculation of net loss damages upon the termination of the Franchisee-Franchisor relationship. This article provides a brief of the case and analysis of how the Court clarified damages from a net loss perspective, along with other issues.