Civil Litigation
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November 12, 2025
The Keeping Children Safe Act: Uprooting victim blaming from family law
Imagine that Canada’s family law system contains an invasive and pervasive concept that undermines the rights and best interests of children and silences survivors of family violence.
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November 11, 2025
Court awards over $2M in winery sale dispute over inventory, wrongful dismissal
The British Columbia Supreme Court has awarded a plaintiff more than $2 million in a dispute over the sale of a B.C. winery, addressing claims of unpaid inventory, wrongful dismissal, and counterclaims of fraud and misrepresentation.
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November 11, 2025
Quebec announces three appointments to Superior Court
Louis-François Asselin, Benoit Lussier and Véronique Boucher have been appointed to the Superior Court of Quebec, the Department of Justice has announced.
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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
CIVIL PROCEDURE - Appeals - Grounds for review - Reasonable apprehension of bias
Appeal by British Columbia Environmental Appeal Board from judicial review of its decision. The District Director for Metro Vancouver issued a detailed environmental permit with a number of restrictions and requirements following an application by GFL to operate a large composting facility in Delta. GFL and several residents of Delta filed appeals with the Board.
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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
Ontario appoints two new judges to Superior Court
Donna K. Kellway and Jennifer L. Swan have been appointed to the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario, the Department of Justice has announced.
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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
Prompt engineering for lawyers
Almost 30 years ago, my middle school language teacher shared a story that I still remember. A person on a bus asked her, “Is X stop coming soon?” She replied, “It is not.” The commuter kept asking variations of the question until the teacher, thinking how witty she was by not answering the commuter’s imprecise question and making him angry, got off the bus.