Business
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November 11, 2025
New trial ordered in P.E.I. adjoining property dispute
A well-known line from Robert Frost’s poem Mending Wall says, “Good fences make good neighbours.” Sometimes, building a fence or wall is an overly simple solution. When neighbours take each other to court and accusations of criminal behaviour are made, even the trial can become unpleasant. It was this sort of feud that led to the Prince Edward Island Court of Appeal case R. v. Moore, 2025 PECA 6.
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November 11, 2025
Putting people at the centre of criminal justice advocacy
Last week, while I was up north for a trial where a relatively young client was facing significant incarceration, something small but deeply significant happened during a sentencing hearing.
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November 10, 2025
Competition Bureau ends investigation into algorithmic pricing in rental housing market
The Competition Bureau has finished its “civil investigation” into the use of algorithmic pricing software in the rental housing market. The investigation determined that revenue management tools have “not been used widely enough by landlords to substantially harm competition.”
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November 10, 2025
Judicial vacancies hit 5%, threatening more trial delays and backlogs
Ottawa is lagging again in filling the country’s federal benches, hitting a five per cent vacancy rate on Nov. 1, 2025 — mostly in the critical trial courts of Ontario, B.C. and Quebec, which are constitutionally obliged to conduct trials within a reasonable time or face the prospect of staying criminal cases.
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November 10, 2025
B.C. Court of Appeal restores cancelled covenants, rules road construction delay not abandonment
The B.C. Court of Appeal has reinstated restrictive covenants on certain lands in Kelowna B.C., ruling that a lower court erred in finding that a long-delayed roadway was “hypothetical” and that the covenants protecting its corridor had become obsolete.
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November 10, 2025
Canada’s 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan: Toward sustainable immigration
As I discussed in my Nov. 5, 2025, article, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) released the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, a comprehensive strategy aimed at stabilizing Canada’s immigration intake after years of record growth. Recently the government published a supplemental report to the plan with new information, which I’ve included in this updated article.
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November 10, 2025
Robert Dysart appointed to New Brunswick Court of Appeal
Robert Dysart has been appointed a judge of the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in Fredericton.
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November 10, 2025
Why we have regulatory bodies over professions like the law
Regulatory bodies exist to protect the public, uphold the rule of law and maintain the integrity of professions such as law. Because lawyers exercise power over people’s rights, freedoms and livelihoods, their work must be governed by high standards of competence, ethics and accountability. In Canada, law societies ensure that legal services are provided by qualified ethical professionals.
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November 10, 2025
The Guardians case: A cautionary tale in seeking interlocutory relief
When two of Canada’s largest providers of inpatient and outpatient mental health and addiction services clashed over the use of the term “GUARDIANS,” the plaintiffs sought an interlocutory injunction from the Federal Court. This decision highlights the formidable legal hurdles applicants face (Schlegel Health Care Inc. v. Edgewood Health Network Inc., 2025 FC 1639).
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November 07, 2025
Court permits pleading amendments in RBC closet indexing class action, dropping fraud claims
The B.C. Supreme Court has allowed plaintiffs in a closet indexing class action against RBC to amend their pleadings to expressly disclaim fraud and refocus their case on the defendants’ alleged failure to disclose the fund’s closet indexing strategy and related risks.