U.S. Marketing Materials Can and Will Be Used Against You in a Canadian Court

Health Canada determined that Texas-based LE-VEL BRANDS, LLC (“Le-Vel”), broke the law by selling its weight loss products to Canadians without seeking product licenses for their natural health products. The products had been distributed in Canada for some time, and Health Canada had flagged no health concerns. In deciding to issue a stop-sale order, Health Canada relied upon …

Canada Sanctions Iranian Officials for ‘Systematic Human Rights Violations’

Introduction On October 3, 2022, the Honourable Melanie Joly, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced that Canada was imposing sanctions on 25 Iranian officials and 9 Iranian entities/organizations that are directly involved with implementing “repressive measures [to] violate human rights and spread the Iranian regime’s propaganda and misinformation.”[1] This announcement comes just one week after …

US and Canada Request USMCA Dispute Settlement Consultations Over Mexico’s Energy Policies

Introduction On July 20, 2022, the United States (“US”) and Canada requested dispute settlement consultations with Mexico under Article 31.4 of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”). The US and Canada’s request for consultations arises from Mexico’s new energy policies, which the US and Canada allege favours Mexican state-owned enterprises, Federal Electricity Commission (“CFE”) and Petróleos …

Canada Denounces Russian Military Actions and Announces New Sanctions on Russia in Response to Escalation in Ukraine (Updated as of March 4, 2022)

On February 22, 2022, the Government of Canada announced that it was enacting new sanctions against Russia, one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops into Donetsk and Luhansk (two separatist regions in Eastern Ukraine) and Russia’s Parliament (“Russian State Duma”) formally recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk. The new sanctions under the Special …

Consumer Privacy Protection – What It Means for Cross-Border Businesses

As a cross border firm, we are legally “bilingual”. Meaning, we translate and interpret the requirements of U.S., Canadian, EU and other international privacy requirements into a comprehensible format for our clients. For example, from the Canadian perspective, we focus on “personal information”, from the EU perspective, the focus is on “personal data”, and both …

Everybody Is Jumping on the Privacy Update Bandwagon: Alberta Consulting on Critical Updates to its Privacy Laws

The province of Alberta has joined the Canadian Federal Government and a number of the other Canadian provinces, proposing to update its privacy laws. Currently, Alberta’s legal privacy framework includes the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP). These laws govern the collection, use, and disclosure …

Brace Yourself – Quebec’s Bill 96 Proposes Substantial Changes to French Language Laws

What happened? The Quebec Government made waves when they tabled Bill 96 – An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Quebec, on May 13, 2021. The bill amends the province’s Charter of the French Language by instituting some broad and significant changes to Quebec’s language laws. Once passed, Bill 96 would affirm …

UPDATE (March 1, 2021) – New COVID-19 Public Health Measures in Effect in Ontario

On March 1, 2021, new public health measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 went into effect in Ontario. These measures represent the Government of Ontario moving multiple public health regions to new levels of its COVID-19 Response Framework. Simcoe Muskoka District and Thunder Bay District move back to the grey zone (lockdown) due to …

Federal Government Proposes Overhauling Canada’s Rules for Corporate Consumer Privacy Measures

Introduction On November 17, 2020, Canada’s federal government introduced a bill to enact new legislation to strengthen protections for individuals from privacy loss due to the failures and limitations of corporate consumer privacy measures. The proposed legislation, known as the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (“CPPA”), would be the first major overhaul of Canada’s privacy law …

You’re Not Ganja Believe This, Health Canada, but the Edible Cannabis Regulations Are a Buzz Kill

Protecting the health and safety of Canadians is a top priority for the Government of Canada. This overarching objective has, of course, made its way into laws restricting the marketing, product development, and ingredients of edible cannabis products, which will soon be marketed and sold to Canadians. The new regulations (the “Regulations”) to the Cannabis …