The Complete Brief
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June 16, 2025
CBA awards Jeanne Mayrand-Thibert the Viscount Bennett Fellowship
The Canadian Bar Association (CBA)’s Fellowship Committee has selected Jeanne Mayrand-Thibert as the recipient of the 2025-2026 Viscount Bennett Fellowship.
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June 16, 2025
Appeal Court remedies unfair marriage agreement
In Bradley v. Callahan, 2025 BCCA 69, the parties’ September 1997 marriage agreement, some 35 pages, executed two days before their marriage, became the subject of intense litigation when their marriage ended in 2014, culminating in a 40-day trial and an appeal to British Columbia’s Court of Appeal in 2024.
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June 16, 2025
Openness, transparency focus of LSO treasurer candidates
The choice will be between continuity or change as benchers with the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) decide this week who will lead them over the next year.
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June 16, 2025
Indigenous legacies: Legal considerations for gifting cultural assets, possessory interests
Assisting Indigenous clients with estate planning can give rise to questions that simply do not come up when preparing wills for other clients, given the unique property interests that Indigenous clients may hold. Two such property interests that wills and estates practitioners may be unaccustomed to addressing in wills are cultural assets and possessory interests in reserve land.
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June 16, 2025
Ontario Court of Justice appoints 10 new judges
The Ontario government has announced the appointment of 10 new judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, effective June 16, 2025.
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June 16, 2025
POWERS OF MUNICIPALITY - Types of authority - Legislative - Special statutes - Expropriation
Appeal by appellant from orders of chambers justice regarding the extension of time to vacate a property following expropriation by the respondent.
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June 16, 2025
The Friendly Bar series, No. 1: Do not define a lawyer by one case
In the legal profession, it is all too common for lasting impressions of a colleague to be formed based on a single file or interaction. Whether it is a difficult case, a tense negotiation or an adversarial court conference, that one experience often comes to define a lawyer’s entire professional identity. Informal whispers such as “They are unreasonable” or “They are unprofessional — avoid them” circulate rapidly, ultimately hardening into a reputation that may be undeserved and unrepresentative.
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June 16, 2025
I care very little about what you think of me
Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember: the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you. — Zig Ziglar, American author and motivational speaker
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June 13, 2025
SCC rules admissibility of Crown-led ‘sexual inactivity’ evidence must be decided in a voir dire
Holding 9-0 that evidence of a complainant’s “sexual inactivity” forms part of their “sexual history” — and is therefore presumptively inadmissible at trial — the Supreme Court of Canada has also clarified that the common law screening procedure for Crown‑led sexual history evidence “should mirror” the s. 276 Criminal Code regime that applies in a voir dire for defence-led sexual history evidence.
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June 13, 2025
Supreme Court Kinamore ruling clarifies rules on sexual history in trials
A fair match in sports requires teams to confront each other on a level playing field. The analogy holds for the courtroom as well. Sexual offence trials in Canada have become increasingly complex, partly due to confusion surrounding the rules governing evidence of a complainant’s sexual history. These rules, designed to prevent reliance on discriminatory myths and protect complainants’ rights, have resulted in uncertainty and disruption during trials. In the recent case of R. v. Kinamore, 2025 SCC 19, Canada’s highest court sought to level the playing field.