Are written agreements and signatures required to make deals enforceable? Not always.

This column was originally published on RENX.ca. In the realm of real estate transactions, it’s well understood that for a purchase and sale contract to be legitimate, it must, at the very least, outline the identity of involved parties, describe the property in question and set forth the purchase price. There is also an implied mandatory …

Amendments to Canadian Securities Exchange Policies

On March 30th, 2023, the Canadian Securities Exchange (the “CSE”) announced that substantial amendments (the “Amendments”) had been made to their policies (the “CSE Policies”), which officially came into effect on April 3rd, 2023. Although the Amendments have an impact on all of the CSE Policies, the focus of this bulletin will be on “Policy …

A Bridge Too Far: Liability in Ontario for “Intrusion Upon Seclusion” Limited

The Ontario Court of Appeal (the “Court”) recently released three decisions in class actions about expanding on the tort of intrusion upon seclusion. The Court limited the tort’s application, particularly concerning parties who do not commit the “intrusion.”  This is consistent with other recent Ontario decisions, including another appeal decision in a class action recently …

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 …

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 …

Ontario Updates Director Residency Requirements

As of July 5, 2021, corporations incorporated under Ontario’s Business Corporations Act will no longer be required to have at least 25% of directors be resident Canadians. Effective July 5, 2021, subsection 118(3) of Ontario’s Business Corporations Act (“OBCA”) will be repealed, with the effect that corporations incorporated under, or continued into Ontario under the …

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 …

SUB-PAR CLAIM: FRANCHISEE’S BEEF WITH SUPPLIER LEAVES BAD TASTE

Highlights In general, a supplier’s obligation is to ensure the safety of its goods to the end consumer. A supplier does not owe a duty of care to other commercial parties in a supply chain. Courts are reluctant to recognize that commercial parties in a chain of contracts are provided additional rights outside of a …

Security for Costs

Security For Costs Explained As discussed in Volume 1, Number 4, an unsuccessful party at trial is generally required to pay 60 percent of the successful party’s legal fees.  Thus, if the successful party incurred costs of $100,000, the unsuccessful party is responsible to pay the successful party $60,000, in addition to paying his own …