Civil Litigation
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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
Substantial estate compliance: Limit of court’s curative power
In June 2025, my colleague, Michael G. von Keitz, wrote an article that reviewed a trio of cases (Salmon v. Rombough, 2024 ONSC 1186; Re: O’Neill Estate, 2024 ONSC 2228; and Urback v. Canadian Cancer Society et al., 2025 ONSC 3313) each of which further clarified the boundaries of substantial compliance legislation in Ontario.
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October 08, 2025
CIVIL PROCEDURE - Parties - Class or representative actions
Appeal by attorney general from Federal Court decision. There were two questions of law before the Federal Court. First, could the estate of a deceased member of a class action have claimed damages for breach of s. 11(h) Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms right? If the answer to this was yes, did provincial estates statutes providing for an “alive as of” date prohibit or limit recovery of those Charter damages?
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October 07, 2025
Federal Court rules CORE’s findings not justiciable, dismisses union’s review request
The Federal Court has dismissed an application for judicial review of a final report by the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), ruling that the ombudsperson’s findings are advisory in nature and therefore not justiciable.
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October 07, 2025
B.C. to boost compensation for victims of intimate image abuse
The B.C. government is bringing in higher compensation and updated privacy protections for people who have had their intimate images shared online without their consent.
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October 07, 2025
Attorney General Sean Fraser tells SCC the law needs to protect people with ‘no voice’
There was a celebratory mood at the opening ceremony for the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2025-26 court year, but Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Sean Fraser and other legal leaders delivered a sober message to the Ottawa courtroom packed with lawyers and judges.
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October 07, 2025
Small change, big impact: Ontario expands small claims jurisdiction to $50,000
As of Oct. 1, 2025, the monetary jurisdiction of Ontario’s small claims court has increased from $35,000 to $50,000 (exclusive of costs and interest). While it may appear a merely incremental change, the increase represents a significant procedural development in Ontario’s justice system, affecting not just new claims but potentially existing ones as well.