Civil Litigation
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October 27, 2025
Canada to amend Labour Code, launch new tax credit and expand union training
Canada has announced new measures included in Budget 2025, including expanding the Union Training and Innovation Program, introducing a temporary five-year Personal Support Workers Tax Credit, amending the Canada Labour Code to restrict the use of non-compete agreements and investing $97 million over five years to create a Foreign Credential Recognition Action Fund.
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October 27, 2025
Court issues fine in contempt case for social media videos
The Federal Court has issued a fine to a gym owner in a case of contempt where he posted social media videos conveying confidential information from a mediation.
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October 27, 2025
Recommendations for ethical, effective AI use in family law online dispute resolution, part three
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the landscape of dispute resolution, offering new tools to enhance efficiency, accessibility and consistency. In family law, where disputes are often emotionally charged and deeply personal, the integration of AI into online dispute resolution (ODR) presents both extraordinary promise and significant ethical challenges.
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October 27, 2025
What is ‘legal advice’ and why is it different than other advice?
How do we determine whether legal advice is good or bad? Outside of basic competence issues (missing statutory deadlines, for example), is there a difference between good advice, good legal advice, bad advice or bad legal advice?
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October 24, 2025
Federal Court upholds dog import ban from certain countries, rejects procedural challenge
The Federal Court has upheld federal orders banning the import of commercial dogs from high-risk countries over rabies concerns, finding the government acted reasonably and owed no procedural fairness to animal rescue organizations opposing the ban.
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October 24, 2025
Court upholds class action over CBSA’s placement of immigration detainees in prisons
The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a class action certification of a case alleging that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) unlawfully placed thousands of immigration detainees in provincial prisons instead of immigration holding centres (IHCs), despite them not being tried for any criminal offence.
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October 24, 2025
AI: Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer
Martin is a lawyer who has closed many residential real estate transactions. Back when he was starting out, Martin read the relevant statutes and regulations and prepared all the documents himself. For each transaction, Martin drafted a Statement of Adjustments, adding numbers in his head. Eventually he used a calculator, and then a software program. Then, he hired a law clerk and taught her how to do it.
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October 23, 2025
Court affirms narrow interpretation of leave requirement in certification orders
The Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that leave provisions in two mutual-fund class action certification orders did not bar new investor class actions, finding the requirement to seek court permission applied only to existing class members, not unrelated plaintiffs.
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October 23, 2025
The case for in-person appearances
I am no fan of in-person discoveries or mediation, purely from a selfish perspective of my time. Virtual discovery and mediation allow us to be more efficient with our time and our clients’ money. While I am not advocating for a return to all discoveries and mediations being in person, there is no doubt that something is missing.
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October 23, 2025
Cross-border financing: Critical considerations when converting security agreements
Canadian lenders engaged in cross-border financing frequently require their borrower’s U.S. affiliates to grant security interests in their assets. The standard practice involves using U.S.-law-governed security agreements for these U.S. entities. However, sometimes Canadian lenders or their Canadian counsel will request that a Canadian General Security Agreement be “converted” to a U.S. security agreement.