The Complete Brief
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October 09, 2025
Theme of World Day Against Death Penalty 2025: Use of death penalty as tool to oppress
This Friday marks the 23rd World Day Against the Death Penalty. On this day, abolitionists around the world call on governments that retain the practice to abolish capital punishment. We also use the day to draw attention to individual cases of those facing execution and plead for clemency, commutation or a reconsideration of the case altogether. A theme this year in the cases we are highlighting is the use of the death penalty as a tool to oppress.
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October 09, 2025
Employment law: Suing during a notice period
Imagine this scenario: a 30-year employee is told their employment will end and given 12 months of working notice. They consult a lawyer, who advises that they are entitled to substantially more. They raise the issue, but the employer tells them bluntly that no further notice will be given and that they should get back to work. The employee then instructs their lawyer to file a Statement of Claim, which is then served while they are still working.
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October 09, 2025
REMEDIES - Equitable remedies - Specific performance
Appeal by Nova Fish from summary trial judge’s decision. Cold Ocean agreed to sell several trout farms to Nova Fish under an Agreement of Purchase and Sale (the Agreement). The trout farms were leased on property from the provincial government.
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October 08, 2025
PM wraps Washington visit focused on trade, Arctic security
Prime Minister Mark Carney concluded a working visit to Washington, D.C. on Oct. 8 that included a White House meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump focused on “key priorities in trade and defence.”
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October 08, 2025
Fraser calls provinces’ demand to scrap Ottawa’s SCC arguments on notwithstanding clause ‘untenable’
Attorney General of Canada Sean Fraser has pushed back against the demands of five premiers that Ottawa should drop its novel arguments at the Supreme Court that there are substantive constraints on governments’ powers to invoke the Charter’s s. 33 “notwithstanding” clause — arguments that those five provinces contend “represent a complete disavowal of the constitutional bargain that brought the Charter into being” in 1982.
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October 08, 2025
Proposed Uber Eats drip pricing class action to be arbitrated: Federal Court of Appeal
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal of a Federal Court decision that stayed a putative class action against alleged drip pricing practices by Uber Eats in favour of arbitration, agreeing with the lower court’s findings on consumer protection laws, incapability of performance and inequality of bargaining power.
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October 08, 2025
Federal Court rules port operator’s $17K liability cap applies to $6.4M claim over iron ore mix-up
The Federal Court has ruled that a port operator can rely on a $17,023 liability cap against a $6.4-million claim after it loaded about 21,000 tonnes of iron ore onto the wrong ship.
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October 08, 2025
Justice system doesn’t work if court orders become discretionary: lawyer
An Ontario court has given a warning that defendants should be wary of paying out settlement funds when facing a charging order. That was the finding by a three-judge divisional panel of the Ontario Superior Court in an action revolving around the enforcement of a charging order in a motor vehicle accident case.
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October 08, 2025
Feds introduce regulatory changes to cut red tape, support agricultural sector
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) introduced a “suite of regulatory changes” on Oct. 8 to reduce red tape and support “economic resiliency for Canada’s agricultural sector.”
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October 08, 2025
Troy McEachren joins McCarthy Tétrault’s tax group
McCarthy Tétrault has announced that Troy McEachren has joined the firm as a partner in its national tax group in Montreal.