Articles 2025

IP lawyer Amrita V. Singh analyzes recent Federal Court of Appeal decision regarding the correct jurisdictional vehicle for appealing the Registrar of Trademarks' decision to amend the ownership of a trademark registration.

A review of the concept of caveat emptor and the possibility of holding a vendor's agent liable for non-disclosure of a major latent as a form of deception in real estate transactions.

The Ontario Superior Court recently confirmed that a franchisee is not entitled to sue for damages under s. 7 of the Arthur Wishart Act (Franchise Disclosure), 2000, S.O. 2000, c. 3 (the “AWA”) when a franchisor voluntarily, but without obligation under s. 5 of the AWA, provides a disclosure document that contains misrepresentations. The decision in 2101516 Ontario Inc. v. Radisson Hotels Canada Inc., 2019 ONSC 3302 is good news for franchisors.

Topics covered this week included several family law decisions, international sale of goods and striking pleadings.

This week's summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario covered topics including custody and access, wrongful dismissal and Statutory Accident Benefits from a motor-vehicle accident.

Among the summaries for this past week’s civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario is Dermann v. Baker, 2019 ONCA 584, in which the Court considered the qualifying of certain witnesses as experts for the purposes of r. 53.03 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, the standard of review for a trial judge’s charge to the jury in a civil trial, and costs assessments in the context of payments made in advance, and offers to settle.

On May 29, 2019, the Administrative Law, Constitutional, Civil Liberties & Human Rights and Labour & Employment Law sections joined together for The Annual Update on Human Rights. The first presentation developed into a heated debate regarding changes within the newly reformed Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO). The panelists were Linda Lamoureux, executive chair of Tribunals Ontario, and Jonathan Batty, Human Rights Tribunal.

Following are the summaries for this past week’s civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

This week’s key decision was Reference re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. The Act was found to be constitutional. The Court determined the main thrust of the Act was to establish minimal national standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Act falls within Parliament’s power to legislate on matters of national concern for the peace, order, and good government of Canada, and the charges it imposes are not unconstitutional.

Canada’s subsidies of fossil fuels (particularly diesel) support over-fishing by industrial fleets, and undermine the progress of recent amendments to the Fisheries Act to rebuild devastated marine fish and shark populations. More attention and concrete action through World Trade Organization law reform is needed to transition Canada out of fuel subsidies and ultimately enhance fish and shark stocks.