In-House Counsel
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October 10, 2025
SCC clarifies when Quebec 10-year ‘extinctive prescription’ period reboots for collecting on judgments
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled 9-0 in a Quebec appeal that filing and serving a notice to seize property counts as a judicial application interrupting the 10-year deadline to collect payment on a judgment — thereby restarting for a further 10 years the “extinctive prescription” period (comparable to a limitation period in the common law provinces) that applies to rights resulting from most money judgments under art. 2924 of the Civil Code of Québec.
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October 10, 2025
Court affirms dismissal of employer’s breach of fiduciary duty claim against former employee
The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling rejecting an employer’s claim of breach of fiduciary duty by a former executive who launched a competing business, affirming findings of only a minor breach and no evidence of resulting financial harm.
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October 10, 2025
When fired ‘at any time’ doesn’t mean game over: Li v. Wayfair Canada ULC
Termination clauses have long been the horror genre of employment law. Draft them too generously toward the employer, and the courts will strike them down faster than you can say contra proferentem. Draft them too cautiously, and you hand the employee common law notice on a silver platter.
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October 09, 2025
New law to allow B.C. to go after vape makers for public health costs
The B.C. government has introduced new legislation which would allow the province to recover public health cost from vaping product manufacturers and wholesalers, according to a release issued on Oct. 8.
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October 09, 2025
New federal Bill C-12 features immigration reforms carved out from contentious ‘strong borders’ bill
The federal government has removed about half of its controversial 140-page omnibus “strong borders” bill (C-2) and inserted excised measures into a newly introduced 70-page “immigration and borders” bill (C-12), which proposes many of the same immigration changes that critics had called on Ottawa to scrap.
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October 09, 2025
Court rules U.S. charities not qualified donees under ITA despite tax convention
The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld the revenue minister’s decision to revoke a foundation’s charitable status over its donations to U.S. charities, ruling that a Canada-U.S. treaty provides tax relief but does not make U.S. charities qualified donees under the Income Tax Act (ITA).
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October 09, 2025
Employment law: Suing during a notice period
Imagine this scenario: a 30-year employee is told their employment will end and given 12 months of working notice. They consult a lawyer, who advises that they are entitled to substantially more. They raise the issue, but the employer tells them bluntly that no further notice will be given and that they should get back to work. The employee then instructs their lawyer to file a Statement of Claim, which is then served while they are still working.
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October 08, 2025
PM wraps Washington visit focused on trade, Arctic security
Prime Minister Mark Carney concluded a working visit to Washington, D.C. on Oct. 8 that included a White House meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump focused on “key priorities in trade and defence.”
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October 08, 2025
Fraser calls provinces’ demand to scrap Ottawa’s SCC arguments on notwithstanding clause ‘untenable’
Attorney General of Canada Sean Fraser has pushed back against the demands of five premiers that Ottawa should drop its novel arguments at the Supreme Court that there are substantive constraints on governments’ powers to invoke the Charter’s s. 33 “notwithstanding” clause — arguments that those five provinces contend “represent a complete disavowal of the constitutional bargain that brought the Charter into being” in 1982.
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October 08, 2025
The Strong Borders Act and the road ahead: Charting Canada’s AML future
In part one of this series (see below for link), we traced the broad ambitions of Bill C-2, the so-called Strong Borders Act. We examined how Canada, under mounting domestic and international pressure, sought to overhaul its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) framework, repositioning itself against increasingly sophisticated networks of financial crime (Government of Canada, 2025; FATF, 2022). That first instalment highlighted the bill’s sweeping recalibration of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA), its elevation of FINTRAC into a far more muscular regulator, and its attempt to harden Canada’s borders against precursor chemicals, illicit funds and contraband.